Completely Custom Wedding Invitations Without The Price Tag

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a total paper product snob (it’s maybe the only thing I’m super ‘snobby’ about). I always have been. In second grade, I threw away the store-bought Valentine’s Day cards my mom had bought and demanded that we make fancier homemade ones. In middle school, I threw a little dinner party for friends and printed the menu on vellum, then tied it with a velvet ribbon that I begged my mom to drive across town for. Even now, in the age of the iPhone, I have a paper planner and three notebooks on my desk right now (plus an obscene number tucked away in drawers for the future). In all fairness, I come by this obsession naturally. My mom was a huge fan of handwritten letters, thank you cards, and was a scrapbooking queen in her day.

So, of course, when it came to my own wedding last year, I knew that I couldn’t go small when it came to the invitations. I’m the first one to tell past clients or friends that if paper products aren’t their thing, they should absolutely consider digital invitations or nice simple invites. I mean… we all know that folks are likely to just toss them if they’re not also scrapbooking queens 😉  (my mom saved everything). But, if you’re anything like me, you might have spent more time daydreaming about your wedding paper goods than you ever did about a dress or flowers.

When it comes to custom fancy stationery and paper goods, it’s far too easy to spend your entire wedding budget in one pass. As soon as you find yourself in the cyclone of custom design, letterpress, and metallic foil, the numbers start to add up… quickly. Since Trisha and I were aiming for a lower budget and a small wedding, overall, we knew we would have to be cautious with our choices. So, you can imagine her stress level when I told her that I just couldn’t imagine not having a complete matching and custom wedding paper suite.

TBH, I was so committed to this idea that I was willing to get really deep into the research and planning it would take to make it happen. Lucky for me… I didn’t have to. One of my first stops when I started researching for our own wedding, was Minted, and then… it was my last stop. Friends… I didn’t know this until last year, but Minted will work closely with you to make your wedding suite custom, matching, fancy, and absolutely perfect. So, that’s what we did, and I just can’t not let the whole world know about this (not-so-secret) secret.

How to make a custom wedding invitation suite with minted

First of all, you do not have to do anything above and beyond to get a top-of-the-line invitations suite when you shop with Minted. Their extensive team of designers have already done the heavy lifting for you by putting together really stunning collections and designs, and basically any invitation or save the date you find that you love will have matching items available. So, if simplicity and beauty are the names of the game, just hop over to Minted and choose the suite that fits your vibe best, personalize it with your names, dates, and details, and click order. That’s it… easy peasy.

Alternately, you have the option to dive into some really custom options… that’s what I did. I actually started my wedding design process by creating a color scheme using the coolors.co palette generator, and then designed our website with Squarespace (I talked all about that process, here). It was basically through the process of designing our website that I was able to narrow down the overall style and vision I developed for our wedding day… well, that and the fact that we knew we were getting married outdoors in Yosemite.

Step One: Spend some time on the Minted site

It’s easy to spend hours and hours perusing the seemingly endless options that Minted has to offer. So, grab yourself a cup of tea (or wine), and settle in for some fun window shopping. They make it super easy on you by letting you shop by color, theme, printing style (letterpress, foil, etc.), style (think: bohemian, minimalist, botanical, etc.), and more. I think when I was starting my search I went for minimalist, bohemian, and destination. Before I knew it, I had a ‘favorites’ section full of some really great options… maybe too many great options.

Step Two: Start to narrow down your favorites

This step isn’t necessary at all… but, I’m a super visual person. Since I knew that I didn’t want to use a pre-packaged invitation suite, I decided to start to plan out what my custom suite could look like. For this, I used Canva and a whole lot of screenshots. I went through my favorite pieces (invitations, details cards, RSVP cards, envelopes, liners, etc.), took screenshots of them, then pulled those into Canva. Once they were in Canva, it was way easier to play with the different combinations that were possible. For me, it became clear pretty quickly what I was liking the most, and which items weren’t going to be a fit for my dream mix-and-match wedding suite.

Pro-tip: I feel like the unsung hero of Minted for the year you’re getting married is Minted More. Minted More is a genius offering from Minted where you pay a low $38 fee, and they hook you up with endless bonuses. You get a gift box of fun stuff, 20% off every order you place, free shipping, plus 30% off holiday cards. All I know is that the 20% off will probably make up that $38 on just your save the date order! Don’t skip this step.

Step Three: Schedule a chat with a Minted Wedding Concierge

I’m going to (almost) guarantee that you don’t know about this little trick… because even after all these years of being a fan-girl for Minted, I had no idea. Y’all… Minted has a totally free service called “Wedding Concierge” where you can book a 30-minute chat that will connect you with a person who will quite literally blow your mind with their Minted knowledge.

When you make the appointment, you’ll be able to share a whole bunch of details. Don’t hold back. Tell them everything you’re interested in, thoughts about your themes, colors, venue… I even shared links to my color scheme that I had come up with, my wedding website, and the design boards I had made in Canva that showed the direction I was headed for my design. Share everything from your Pinterest board to wedding stationery you’ve seen on Instagram and loved. The more information you can share, the better. You want them to be able to come prepared to help guide you. And, trust me… they will.

I chatted with my wedding concierge (hey, Glenda!) for 30+ minutes and we had the best time. She walked me through features of Minted’s website that I didn’t know about before, she showed me 10-15 additional invitation styles that I hadn’t considered yet, and she talked me through all the ways I could make my mix-and-match dreams really come true (like… way more than I knew I could). After our call, Glenda emailed me links to all the designs we had looked at, and a ton of other resources that came in handy for my process.

Pro-tip: With Minted, you aren’t limited to the colors or fonts that you see on a design on their site. The flexibility is basically endless. This was perfect for my needs because it meant I could choose designs I loved, then use the colors I had already chosen, so that they would match my website and wedding design. I also was able to unify fonts across each item I ordered from Minted. It made all the difference.  

Step Four: Build your order

After your chat with your wedding concierge, I have no doubt you’ll be ready to get going on your order. So, it’s time to make those final decisions. Like I said before, I’m a super visual person and really like having lists, as well. When I sat down to place my wedding suite order, I had a list of each item I planned to order, how many I needed, as well as the fonts and colors (as hex # codes) that I wanted to use for each piece. Oh, and I had thought ahead about all the wording for my invitations and I had that prepped in a document to refer to, as well as my mailing address list for envelope addressing.

It was pretty plug-and-play from there. For each item, when I would choose the item I was ready to order, Minted made it easy to choose the quantity needed, the shape of the piece, the type of paper, and then hit ‘personalize’. This will open up the backend of your Minted designs where you can add your wording, and leave notes for your designer. All the words and phrasing are up to you to enter correctly, so double and triple-check all that information (seriously, get another set of eyes to check, as well). Then, give your designers all the details they’ll need to make your dreams come true.

Notes to my designers looked something like this: “Hi there. For the background/main color, I’d like to use dark grey. Hex code: #484846. For the text, I’d like to use white/cream. Hex code: #E7E8E8. For fonts: Script: Almondita Signature Script Other/Serif: Regoza THANK YOU”

Our final wedding paper suite looked like this. We went with the Lydra Foil-Pressed Wedding Invitations, Modern Mountain Directions Cards, a hundred years Reception Cards, Moxie RSVP Cards, a custom Envelope Liner (from the hundred years design), and Ordered Grace Directions Cards. For each item, the colors and fonts were customized to match and coordinate. We’re so grateful for the Minted design team that made these possible. I also, being who I am, wanted to have special stamps. So I searched Etsy for “Yosemite postage stamps” and ended up ordering from a few shops to make the envelopes extra special, too.

Step Five: Let Minted Work Their Magic

Seriously… just sit back and relax. The Minted design team will get to work on the backend putting together your order for you, making edits, and perfecting all the little details. They’ll review the notes you’ve placed on your order, update fonts and colors, and then send you a complete proof (digitally) to review and approve. It’s that simple. And if you get the proof and have more adjustments you need, they’ll be there to help. You can even reach out to your wedding concierge at any point in the process and they are happy to help you make sure you’re getting exactly what you want.

Step Six: Don’t Forget Day Of Details and Thank You Cards

You can add any extras you might need at the same time as your invitation suite order, or you can place it separately (that’s what I did). We added on a few small pieces of signage for our wedding day including tags for our gift bags, a guest book sign, a bar sign, and a welcome sign (all customized to match the same colors and fonts as our invitation suite). It feels like those small things are what brought the decor together and make it feel super complete. Since we had a small COVID-adjacent wedding, we also ordered some wedding announcements after our photos came back, and custom thank you cards that match the whole set. Now to just write and send those darn thank you cards (I’ll be following these templates).

Tell me, APW… did you know what Minted was capable of? Are you ready to order paper goods for your wedding? What sort of vibe do you want your invitations to convey? I have no doubt you can find the perfect match with Minted.

This post was created in partnership with Minted. Minted sources designs from independent artists all across the globe, meaning you can guarantee high quality and uniqueness while supporting artists to make a living doing what they love. Minted is easily one of our favorite destinations for wedding invites (clearly), day-of decor, and more. Click here to find everything from save the dates to invitations, decor, and more.