Starting a Wedding Stationery Business

Starting a Handmade Wedding Stationery Business

Posted on 15th January 2013 by Papermilldirect
Filed under Wedding Stationary Business Advice, Projects And Cards By Type, Wedding Stationery

White Felt Embossed Wedding Stationery 1 610 490

Are you thinking of setting up a wedding stationery business? Read all of our tips and advice in this useful series of articles.

Setting up a Wedding Stationery Business

Creating a professional portfolio - you need a great portfolio to share your designs with publishers and potential clients

Wedding industry networking online - a great list of wedding industry influencers on Twitter, get networking!

Wedding Fairs - top tips for making them work for your handmade stationery business!

Pricing wedding stationery packages - perhaps the hardest part of selling your stationery is getting the prices right, some great tips here

Surviving the first year of a wedding stationery business - tips from successful stationer Lisa Forde

Where to begin starting a wedding stationery business - more great tips from Lisa Forde

Should I turn my hobby into a business? - can you really turn a fun hobby into a full time job?

Should I Turn My Hobby Into A Business

Handmade Wedding Stationery

Having your wedding stationery designed especially for you is a real luxury for a bride and groom and it can be a fun challenge for the designer to get the stationery just right From Save the Dates, invitations and through to the place cards, seating plans and thank you notes all need to match or complement the theme of the big day.

Last year we wrote a series of articles about selling handmade cards. The next progression for someone selling cards online may be to move into setting up a wedding stationery business where they can earn more money for each commission because of the volume of work involved in creating a wedding stationery package. This year we would like to look at various aspects of setting up a wedding stationery business, we've listed a few of our blog posts on the subject above. There is a lot to know other than simply how to make an invitation look great!

Papermill Direct 1000

One of our best sellers at papermilldirect.co.uk is our range of white card, especially our embossed linen and hammered textured white card. We supply boxfuls on a regular basis to many talented wedding stationers. Since we've been active on social media, Facebook and Twitter, it's been great to hear from the many wedding stationers out there, get their feedback and of course get a glimpse of their beautiful wedding stationery designs and anniversary cards.

Papermilldirect Wedding Stamps Flat Lay Purple 1

At Papermilldirect we have all the high quality card and paper supplies you need for setting up your handmade wedding stationery business. We also have trade account options where you can save up to 40% on our card and paper.

Are you a Wedding Stationer?

We'd love to speak to you if you are a wedding stationery designer and have some tips you would like to share. Please leave a comment below if you would be happy to answer a few questions to help us build up this useful reference - we will of course link back to your site and be happy to share images of your work by way of a thank you if we use any of the tips! We also hope to build up a directory of handmade wedding stationers that we can share on this blog and help more people find your designs.

Would you like to be a wedding stationery designer?

Also we'd love to hear from you if becoming a wedding stationer part or full time is a dream for you - we're keen to hear about the issues that are holding you back and hopefully be able to answer some of your questions about setting up a successful handmade wedding stationery business.

Everything You Need To Know To Start Your Own Wedding Stationery Business

Tagged: wedding stationery business tips, wedding stationery, wedding stationery ideas

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20 thoughts on “Starting a Handmade Wedding Stationery Business”

Hilary

15th April 2013 at 11:24 a.m.

We've just added a new post on wedding fairs - would love to hear your feedback! http://papermilldirect.co.uk/community/wedding-fair-tips-for-stationers

Hilary

15th April 2013 at 11:23 a.m.

Great to hear the hammerred card is popular - best of luck with your new business

Hilary

15th April 2013 at 11:22 a.m.

Sounds like a great start - we love butterfly inspired stationery and handmade cards too! Have a whole pinterest board dedicated to them :)

Hilary

15th April 2013 at 11:21 a.m.

Great advice - we've just added a new post with wedding fair tips!

Hilary

15th April 2013 at 11:21 a.m.

Hi Laura, yes you need to register with hmrc to start up your business - just give them a call and they will help you

Laura

26th March 2013 at 3:31 p.m.

Hello, I have a degree in graphic design and have been designing wedding stationary for friends and family for a few years now. I am interested in setting up a website to sell wedding stationary or selling through facebook to friends and friends of friends. Does anyone know if I would need to set up a business or do anything legal before I can start selling? Any help would be great, thank you!

Amanda Kilbey

26th March 2013 at 10:20 a.m.

I have recently started selling my cards which I have been making for a hobby for years. Since planning my own wedding and getting loads of great feedback from our own invitations I would love to branch into the wedding stationery world so any advice you can give me would be so gratefully received!! x

Leena Mistry

17th March 2013 at 2:16 p.m.

Papermill Direct... I love your products! I set up my business just under a year ago .. I love making cards & decided to build it up as a business after making my own wedding stationery . I still work full time and its not easy juggling both .. But it's totally worth it! I always try to use the suppliers with a good quality ... I love your pearlised card & it's a favourite with my customers!

Steph

13th March 2013 at 9:46 p.m.

I've been making hand made cards for a long time as a hobby, but about a year ago set up a website to try and sell some of my products (my husband said I to sell some before I made any more!). I'm currently making the stationery for my daughter's wedding.

Hilary

27th February 2013 at 9:31 a.m.

You would need to register with hmrc and if you are doing any shows you will need insurance unless the show covers this. There is a very useful post by UKHandmade here on craft insurance - http://ukhandmade.co.uk/content/business-choosing-right-craft-insurance

Vicky

13th February 2013 at 6:01 p.m.

After designing and making the invitations for my own wedding I would really like to start doing this as a 'hobby' business but don't know where to start! Do I need insurance and to register as a business?! I would welcome any advice anyone can give. Thanks, Vicky

Sally Graham

31st January 2013 at 1:53 p.m.

I have been making cards etc for 7 years and would really love to start my own business in selling cards and wedding stationery, I just don't know where to start and would love advice. I am expecting my first baby in May 2013.

Tilly Mather

29th January 2013 at 11:03 p.m.

I started my wedding stationery business after being made redundant, I had always mad wedding stationery for friends and always wanted to set up my own business so at last I had the opportunity to do it! After finding paper mill direct I always use your linen card as my base for invitations and your luxury envelopes are beautiful! I love the fact that have quality but at great prices too! I pride myself on creating wedding stationery with a difference, I wanted to stand out from most stationers out there. I've only been going for 9 months and this month has been mega busy for me! I do work part time as well as running my business, but I just love making couples invitation dreams come true. I'm a true believer that a wedding invitation sets the tone for your wedding, letting all your guests know that you mean business! I work with couples to create bespoke designs, within their budget. The most creative the ideas, the better! Keep up the good work Papermill Direct! Tilly xx

Ally

16th January 2013 at 7:28 p.m.

Hi Papermill Direct. I would LOVE to make wedding stationery but just don't know where to start. Would really love some advice

Victoria Elia

15th January 2013 at 8:42 p.m.

Hi to everyone at Papermill Direct, I am a wife, a mum of 2 children who are under the age of 3 and work part time in London. For the last 3 years I have longed to start up a wedding stationery business after designing my own wedding stationery (using Papermill Direct's products of course!), followed by my children's christening stationery, but having such a hectic lifestyle I thought it was impossible to achieve. Then after some very positive comments from friends and family I decided to go for it! So over the last 6 months I have managed to set up a website - Scissors, Paper & Lace (which I won site of the week and month from my internet service provider), and had a few orders come in. Last Sunday was my first wedding fair and yet again some really fantastic feedback. I have to say that it's not easy juggling everything but I am very pleased to say I have no regrets. I hope this is the beginning of something wonderful for me and my family. If I could give one bit of advice to anyone else thinking of doing the same; it would be not to give up. It's a slow progress but there are fantastic rewards!

Holly Peters

15th January 2013 at 12:40 p.m.

Hello Papermill direct team, I started my handmade invitiation and stationery business just 5 months ago after offering to help my friend do her wedding invitations instead of paying £6 each for the ones she found online. I used your website to order all the cards and envelopes for them and made some 140 invitations just as my friend wanted. From there more and more people asked me for invitiations so I decided to set it up as a business. Work is coming in nicely and I have now found my 'neiche' which is helping a lot when there is lots of competition out there. Joining social network websites also seems to have done me a lot of business. I still work full time however I am hoping that this business will one day become my full time job - as I love it and I love making people happy!

Helen Cairns

15th January 2013 at 11:50 a.m.

I started The Glasgow Wedding Company a year and a half ago after being made redundant. I design and produce wedding stationery and also jewellery suitable for brides, mother of the bride, bridesmaids etc. I love doing wedding fayres, getting to meet brides face to face makes it so much easier to get an idea on what plans and ideas they want for their wedding day. My advice, keep it simple but add a wee bit of bling... everyone likes a wee bit of bling!

Michelle

15th January 2013 at 10:56 a.m.

I set up my hobby/business recently after being made reduntant from a part time job as well as being an at home mum and as they have now started pre-school I found I had time on my hands.I have created a couple of websites www.em-beedesigns.co.uk and www.em-beecards.weebly.com dealing in wedding stationery and occasion cards and also have sites on facebook: Em Bee Cards. My stock designs are simple but elegant with black printing on fabulous card with embellishments such as ribbons and gems to coordinate with wedding colours. So far the favourite card chosen by my brides has been Papermill's cream hammered card with the latest design of a wallet with four card inserts tied together with navy ribbon in a cream hammered envelope. It looked very elegant.

Meg Taylor

15th January 2013 at 10:33 a.m.

I set up my website in July 2012 when I moved house and found myself unemployed. I had done my best friend's wedding stationery as I have been making cards as a hobby for a few years. I'm also on facebook 'crafty fizz hand made stationery' I've had a few orders in, although mostly from friends. I advertise on facebook as and when I'm not busy job hunting or decorating my new home. For 2013 I'm hoping to have more time for it so that I can make a proper living out of a hobby I love. My designs are fairly simple but I hope, classy. My passion is butterflies and a lot of my designs feature them in some way. I have to thank my partner for being so understanding when I shut myself in the spare room where I have taken over with all my craft paraphernalia. I have also branched out into doing christening and baby shower/new baby cards so hopefully will be getting more orders in soon.

Rachel Ferguson

15th January 2013 at 10:18 a.m.

I started my stationery business just over 4 years ago. It started as a hobby business but now I am working full time doing this as I love it so much. I created Pink Sapphire Designs after designing my sister's wedding stationery and attended a wedding fayre nearby to see what feedback I would get from potential brides. I received 3 orders on the day and haven't looked back since. My advice, visit fayres and see what other stationers are offering and don't be afraid to take a few chances with your designs. You never know, your design may be one that a particular bride is looking for!