Help is at hand!

Wedding stationery is a key part of your wedding planning and wedding day. It’ll help introduce your guests to the style or theme of your wedding day. Choosing a style of stationery can seem a bit of a minefield as there is so much choice with a huge range of styles, colours and finishes. Follow these top tips to help you find your perfect wedding invitations.

What’s your style?

This is one of the first major decisions in your wedding planning. You’ll want to consider the impression you want to make with your wedding invitation & how it will reflect on your wedding as a whole. The style you choose will help determine other important decisions along the way so make sure you choose something that reflects both yours and your fiancés style. Do you want a traditional and fairly classic day or something a little bit different from the norm?

The stationery list

When you’ve decided on your style of wedding stationery you then have to think about all the various elements you’ll need – wedding invitations, RSVP cards, place cards, menu’s etc. Other items can include order of service, table plan, table numbers or names. If your budget is tight stick to the essential items such as your wedding invites, rsvps & find coordinating alternatives for anything else. Tricky items to put together yourself are table plans and order of service. Sometimes getting professional help with these is a good idea.

Placing your order

You’ll need a good idea of numbers. As a rule you should add on about 10% more for any last minute guests you want to invite. It is better to order too many and have some spare than too few. Remember that you don’t need a wedding invite per guest; one per couple or family is standard.

When it comes to order of service you can usually have one between two depending on how formal the style of wedding you’re having.

Wording tips

Pick a font that is legible and don’t make it too small - you want everyone to be able to read it

Things you MUST include within your wedding invitations:

Names of the bride's parents or other hosts

First name of the bride

First name and surname of the groom

Where the ceremony is taking place

Date, month and year of the wedding ceremony

Time of the ceremony

Location of the wedding reception

Address to which guests must reply. Add in a date that your guests have to RSVP by. This makes it easier after the date, to give your friends a call/email to find out if they’re coming or not.

Time to post

We’d recommend sending out your wedding invites about 8-12 weeks before the wedding day, however if you’re getting married in the traditional, summer wedding months you may want to post them earlier to ensure people don’t book their summer holidays! Consider any overseas guests you may want to invite; you will need to account for the delivery time, so it is a good idea to post theirs before anyone else’s to ensure it arrives in good time.

We hope this bit of advice is helpful. We’re always happy to answer any questions you have and share our 10 years of industry expertise! So just drop us and email or give us a call!

Email – enquiries@mandalaybride.co.uk

Tel – 0208 691 6100 

Amazing May promotion!

Don’t we just spoil you! We’re running yet another fantastic offer. This time it’s a whopping 25% OFF any order placed.


So whether your ordering invites, menus or placecards you’ll be getting an amazing deal. This is across all of our fabulous designs and services too. Click HERE to start browsing designs!

This offer starts today 11th May and runs until 31st May 2012.


Simply add the discount code MAY25OFFER at checkout to receive this offer.
Or if you’d prefer to order over the phone our order manager Jo will be happy to help.


We’re available from 9am to 5pm every weekday


Email – orders@mandalaybride.co.uk
Tel – 0208 691 6100

Rainbow weddings

We have noticed from the wedding stationery orders we are receiving this year that many more couples are embracing a mix of bright colours as a theme for their wedding day. It’s so good to see an injection of colour to a wedding day, it brings fun to what can sometimes look very coordinated. Splashes of bright colours within your wedding invitations can then run through to the bridal parties attire and reception detailing. With such a palette you are bound to put smiles on all of your guests’ faces. This explosion of colour is not for the shy and retiring bride, a light-hearted approach is required! This scheme works best in one of two types of venue, a blank canvas (like a marquee or gallery space) or a flower-filled garden, in a more ornate venue the addition of so many colours may just be too much.

The rainbow theme is all about using a lot of colour and mixing it up. Whether it’s bridesmaids in different colours or a mixed flower bouquet. The fantastic thing with this theme is that you don’t have to spend hours matching. Gone is the stress of matching your bridesmaids’ dress fabric to your chair covers, you can relax and embrace the multiple colour vibe. The key is to pick a palette of colours and break them up with a neutral, white or navy can work well. This way you’ll maintain a sophisticated yet playful style, not a ‘playschool’ look!

A great way of incorporating this fantastic theme into your wedding stationery would be to choose a simple silver or gold design and bring the colour in through the ribbon and wording details. Our Stardust wedding invite in silver would look fabulous with different coloured ribbons for each of your guests. Alternatively, go with a wedding invite such as “Lovesong” which already has a mixture of colours. Try adding a couple of different ribbons to your wedding menus and around your bouquet. Enjoy yourself and have a look at these pictures for inspiration.

Lets talk tables!

If you’re having a sit-down meal at your wedding reception, you’ll probably want table centrepieces on each table.

Don’t go for anything that is too big, as remember, your guests will need to see over it!

Avoid tall and wide centrepieces, such as large flower decorations, large vases or candelabras, as your guests will spend most of the evening bending sideways to see the guest opposite!

Plus, there will be lots of other things on the table as well. You’ll have place cards, table cards, wedding menus, wine coolers, water, glasses, salt and pepper and table decorations. So beware of creating too much clutter with a big table centrepiece!

Sometimes less is more. Consider using single stems in multiple glasses, jars or vases for a simple but effective look.

We’ve got a great selection of lovely menus, table cards and place cards in huge variety of colours and patterns to suit any wedding stationery theme. Menus start at just £2.39, Place cards are only 39p each and table cards are £5 each, which includes proofing and printing. Click HERE to start browsing our lovely wedding stationery and wedding table setting item designs

Don’t forget, you can always use your table centrepieces as gifts for the bridal party afterwards, which will help with the penny counting!

Shown here: Chorus menu, Eden menu, Manhattan table card, Pandora table card, Sweetheart place card and a Stardust tag.

Time to shine!

We all love a bit of sparkle, especially on such a special day as our wedding day. That's why bringing an element of sparkle to your wedding invites as a great intro to your day. We’ve enhanced a range of our wedding invitation designs with gorgeous Swarovski crystals giving them a real glamorous, fairytale feel.

Our Narini, Titania, Paradise and Mia designs are all come with shimmering crystals as well as your choice of pretty ribbon to match. Go with our personalised wedding stationery and receive your crystals on your invitations or if you prefer to get stuck in yourself, our DIY option is just so easy to do with our easy self-adhesive crystal sheet. Just watch this little video to see how simple it really is to do!

If you’d like crystals for any other design we offer that’s no problem these come in sheets of 100 for just £9.99.

If fairytale wedding is your theme, then consider a stunning, sparkling white message tree. It is the perfect way to involving your guests as they write their message to you and then display it hang from the brunches of this lovely tree. It makes a wonderful focal point and gets your guests talking. Cute sparkling butterfly clips are so versatile, and add that Cinderella touch. Just clip them to table decorations or even your flower-girl's hair! Both of these products are available in our gift shop, just click HERE to have a look! Enjoy planning your romance filled day x

A Seaside Wedding

It’s the question every bride to be asks herself, where do you begin when planning your wedding? Most would say, start with the venue, once that’s booked, the rest will follow. Victoria began with something far more personal. The necklace her fiancé had bought her when they first met became the inspiration for her whole wedding day. The coloured pearls were to be the pallet for her bouquet, bridesmaids and the wonderful tower of cupcakes she had, instead of a traditional wedding cake. She compiled swatches, which she took to each supplier she met, matching details with them and discussing the options. The result was a wedding that had fun and style.

Victoria and Wayne met and live in Brighton, so they were keen to have the seaside as part of their day. With sticks of rock as favors and mini fish and chips, served in cones for the evening guests, the theme matched perfectly with the flexible colour scheme they had devised. Guests were treated to canapés on the restaurant terrace, which over looked the beach and the autumn sun shone all day long.

The stationery Wayne and Victoria picked was our Chorus design. “I loved the design, so different from anything else we had seen and so much like the waves of the sea. We had to have it!” says Victoria. Victoria sent out save the date cards as soon as she new their wedding date. “I was so excited to let everyone know!” she smiles.

In her bouquet, Victoria had considered deep red Calla lilies, but opted for a mixture of roses in the end. She brought the lilies in at the reception; the tables had lilies curled into fishbowl vases, which were beautifully effective. Victoria’s mum made a wonderful bunting banner with the happy couples names for all to see, which flapped in the breeze while everyone sipped champagne and congratulated the happy couple. Congratulations, Wayne and Victoria.

Flowers were by Fuchsia Flowers.

Stationery by Mandalay

Photography by George Rutter

Wedding Ideas Awards 2012

It might have been a couple of weeks ago but we’ve only just recovered. We had the most fabulous evening (as always!) Dressed up and ready to rumble! It seems to be getting bigger and better every year. This year they had a giraffe ice sculpture, oh yes that’s right! Which later on, the bar staff were pouring shots of vodka through, to many a willing guest. The magicians as always were amazing. Our favorite was Marco, he really did blow our minds and even more so when a few more glasses of wine had been consumed. Another toy that we got really carried away with was the Photo booth. Wear the silliest props you can find from the fancy dress box and strike a pose. You get three snaps on each print and get to take it away with you. It really got everyone giggling, especially when you find it in your bag the next day! We’d definitely recommend getting one of these at any future event.

This year we were up for the Best Wedding Stationery category. It’s the 6^th year we’ve been nominated and we’re still so proud and thankful to all our amazing brides who vote for us. Unfortunately the lovely Lucy Ledger pipped us at the post  for pole position so we’ve been highly commended this year.

We were lucky to be put on a fantastic table right by the stage so we got a great view of the whole room.  The ever so lovely Sandra from WI magazine hosted the table. Emma from Emma Case Photography and her hubbie also joined us. Emma deservedly won Best Wedding Photographer category! There was a lot of whooping from our table when she collected her award! Oliver Launders and his wife Sangeeta who run Olivier Launders Designs were also on our table. If your looking for gorgeous bridal accessories they are a one stop shop!

All in all we had a brilliant time and it’s always great to catch up with the industries cream of the crop. Congratulations to all the winners, you all deserve it! Hope to see you all next year. x