A Guide to Paper & Ink Types for Wedding Stationery (And What Does it Mean)
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
Understanding Paper Weight — GSM
A quick word on paper weight. In the UK and Europe, paper weight is measured in GSM - grams per square metre. The higher the number, the heavier, thicker, and more substantial the paper feels.
As a rough guide for wedding stationery:
150–170gsm — lightweight paper. Good for inner pages of programmes or booklets, not for standalone pieces.
250–300gsm — the standard range for most wedding stationery. Invitations, details cards, place cards, menus, and thank you cards all work well here. It feels substantial without being rigid.
350–400gsm — premium, board-like card. Noticeably weighty in the hand. Used for high-end invitations, welcome signs, seating charts, and anything that needs to make a strong tactile impression.
450gsm+ — very thick, often used for luxury business cards and special occasion pieces. Overkill for most stationery items, but occasionally the right choice for a statement invitation.
Finish matters as much as weight. The same 300gsm card in matte, silk, and gloss will feel completely different. For hand-painted illustration work, matte or uncoated finishes almost always give the best result - they let the artwork breathe and give the print an organic, painterly quality. Silk is a middle ground. Gloss tends to flatten illustration work and should be used cautiously for artistic stationery.
Seed Paper — A Special Paper Category
What it is: Paper embedded with wildflower, herb, or meadow seeds that can be planted after the wedding. When wet and left in soil, the paper breaks down and the seeds germinate.
What to use it for: This is one of the most meaningful choices in on-the-day stationery. Seed paper works particularly well for ceremony programmes - given to guests at the start of the ceremony, held throughout, and something they leave with. Rather than discarding it, they take it home and plant it. Over the following weeks and months, a garden grows from your wedding day.
It's also beautiful for place cards and favour tags - each guest receives something living, not just decorative.
The idea of planting your garden together after the wedding is one of those small gestures that turns a practical object into a lasting memory. Couples who choose seed paper consistently tell me their guests talked about it for months afterwards - not the invitation, not the welcome sign, but the small card they planted on their windowsill.
Important practicalities: Seed paper has a slightly textured, organic surface - which actually suits hand-painted illustration work beautifully. However, it doesn't take foil or gloss finishes, and very fine text can be harder to read clearly. Designs need to be adapted slightly for seed paper printing - something I factor in during the layout phase.
One of our recommended printers offers seed paper as a specialist product. Always order a sample before committing to a full run - the texture varies by supplier, and it's worth feeling it in person before your design is adapted for it.
Foiling Is not Ink
What it is: A process where metallic or coloured foil is bonded to the paper surface using heat and pressure, creating a reflective, luminous finish. Gold, silver, rose gold, copper, and holographic foils are the most common choices. Some printers also offer coloured foils - deep greens, navy, burgundy - which catch the light differently from standard ink.
What to use it for: Foiling works beautifully as an accent - a foiled border, a foiled name, a foiled motif on an otherwise painted card. It adds a tactile, luxurious quality that cannot be replicated by standard digital printing. When you run your finger over a foiled element, you feel the slight raise of it. That physical quality is something guests notice.
What you need to know: Foiling requires a separate file from your standard artwork - a single-colour file that defines exactly which elements receive the foil. This is not simply a different layer in the same document; it's a technically distinct file prepared specifically for the foiling process. It takes more time to produce and more skill to get right.
Foiling will affect your design fee, as it adds a significant layer of file preparation and requires precise technical knowledge of how foil interacts with different paper stocks.
Foiling also requires a certain paper weight and surface - typically 300gsm+ with a smooth matte or uncoated finish. Heavily textured papers don't foil reliably. This is something to discuss before any design decisions are made.
Special and Specialist Inks
Beyond standard CMYK digital printing, there are several specialist ink techniques worth knowing about.
White ink: Printed onto coloured or dark card stock - deep green, midnight blue, burgundy - white ink creates an entirely different visual world. A white-ink illustration on dark card has a stark, beautiful quality unlike anything achievable with standard printing. It requires a printer that offers white ink as a specific service (not all do, but one of our recommended printers does), and - again - a separate prepared file.
Spot UV: A technique where a high-gloss varnish is applied to specific areas of the card - a motif, a border, a signature element - leaving the rest of the card in its standard finish. The contrast between gloss and matte creates a visual and tactile effect that catches the light selectively. Elegant when used with restraint.
Letterpress: An impression-printing technique where a plate is pressed into thick card, creating a slight indent in the surface. It's one of the oldest and most luxurious printing methods. It requires very thick card (400gsm+) and a specialist letterpress printer - not a standard digital service. The result is deeply tactile and unmistakably considered.
Thermography (raised printing): A process that creates raised, textured text using heat-applied powder. A traditional technique most associated with formal invitations and correspondence. Less common now, but still available through specialist printers. If you received one of my business cards, that's how the logo on the front was printed!
Effect on design pricing: Any specialist ink process - white ink, spot UV, letterpress - requires separate file preparation. Often the artwork for the special ink is a distinct file from the standard colour print. This is not just a printing cost; it's a design cost. When you ask for foiling, spot UV, or white ink, you are asking for additional technical design work that needs to be scoped and quoted accordingly. Always raise this at the very beginning of the design process - not after the artwork is complete.
When to Consider The Atelier Service
All of the printing options above assume you'll be taking your digital files to a printer and receiving flat, finished cards in return. For most couples, this is exactly the right approach - it's cost-effective, beautiful, and gives you full control.
But some designs call for something more. A suite that isn't just printed but assembled.
Invitation cards presented inside a bespoke box, each piece hand-layered with tissue, tied with ribbon, and sealed in wax. A programme that unfolds in three dimensions. A scroll that guests unroll to reveal your story. A suite where the physical experience of opening it is as considered as the illustration on the front.
This is what The Atelier Service is for.
The Atelier Service is Bruna Andrade: Studio's fully bespoke physical production offering - available for UK delivery addresses only.
Rather than delivering files for you to print and assemble, The Atelier Service handles everything in the London studio: specialist materials sourcing, hand-assembly, quality control, and insured delivery direct to your door (or to your venue). Studio time is charged at £85 per hour, with materials at cost plus a handling fee. Projects typically range from £900 to £3,000+, depending on complexity and quantity.
If you're drawn to a non-standard shape, a premium finish, a structural element, or a suite that arrives as a physical experience, The Atelier Service is worth discussing on your consultation call. The earlier we know, the better: elaborate physical production needs more lead time than standard printing, and the design itself needs to be conceived with assembly in mind from the very beginning.
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