How to Choose the Right Color for your Wedding Invitations | The Wedding Stationery Guide: Colors Part I

Choosing a color palette was likely one of the first wedding-related decisions you made. And with good reason! Since many elements of your wedding are dependent on color, establishing a cohesive color palette will ensure a seamless style throughout your celebration.

Your invitations set the stage for your entire wedding day, so it’s natural to incorporate your wedding colors into the stationery suite. Or not! Perhaps you’d like a classic, neutral color palette for your paper goods, or prefer to have a formal black and white invitation and save the splash of color for your wedding day decor.

I’ve carefully selected fifty signature ink colors for flat printing and letterpress. These tried and true ink colors are available in a range of hues, from rich black to pale peach and everything in between.

Looking for a colored envelope or paper? They’re available in any of these signature shades as well! If you have your heart set on a shade that isn’t represented here, custom color matching is also available.

Additionally, metallic gold, silver, and copper inks are offered for letterpress and screen printing. Gold, champagne, rose gold, silver, and copper foil are available for foil stamping.

With so many choices, picking the right shade for your invitations can be a daunting task. It’s hard to tell how something will look in person, or if a color will be too light to easily see. That’s why a printed color chart is included in every invitation sample order! You can see each color in person, so there is no guessing whether the color you see on your phone or your fiance’s laptop is closer to the real thing. Spoiler alert: neither one is going to match!

Here’s the thing: all screens are not calibrated to display colors the same. You’ve probably noticed that if you look at a photo on your phone, then later on a computer. Maybe the blue in your shirt is a little more green on one screen, and your pants look much brighter on your tablet, or one has a more yellow cast to it.

The bottom line is: you cannot trust the way colors look on a screen.

Besides the device you’re viewing the colors on, there are a few other factors that can affect the way a color looks.

Printing Method

Different printers and printing methods require different types of ink. Letterpress inks are mixed by hand, so there may be a slight variation between printed pieces.
Think of it this way: printing something on your home inkjet printer won’t yield the same colors that your office laser printer does.

Inks

All letterpress and flat print inks will have a matte (not shiny) appearance when printed on matte cardstock. Metallic letterpress inks have a much more subtle shimmer printed on cotton paper.

Flat print and letterpress inks on cotton paper will have a matte appearance (even the metallic shades). Shown below: gold flat print ink on white paper (left) and metallic gold letterpress ink on pink paper (right).

If you want shiny or shimmery metallic colors, you’ll need to go with foil stamping or screen printing.

Paper

The inks used in flat printing, screen printing, and letterpress are not completely opaque. That means the paper an ink color is printed on also affects the final look. Printing on a soft white paper will give the ink colors a softer, warmer appearance than if you print on a bright white paper.
The shimmer of a metallic screen print ink will be much more apparent printed on dark papers than on light papers. Shown below: metallic gold screen printing on soft white paper (left) and on black paper (right).

With so many variables to consider, how can you choose your colors confidently? Order a sample pack to see them in person! Still can’t decide? I’m happy to offer advice on your color choices!

In the next installment of The Wedding Stationery Guide, I’ll be sharing information on some “color” choices that aren’t really colors at all: white ink and blind letterpress!