Guide to Wedding Cards

Here come the profits! Wedding cards are a great add-on to your retail store

By Mary Beth Doyle

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From wedding greeting cards to wedding invitation cards, there are a variety of different niches you can explore, all at different price points. Before you enter the wedding card game, consider the following:

Determine which area you want to explore: wedding greeting cards, wedding information cards, wedding place cards . . . all of the above?
Examine the types of cards that currently sell at your store. Do high-end designer cards fly off the shelves, or are your customers more inclined to purchase lower priced, standard designs?
Consider offering printing services for customers who purchase wedding invitations and other wedding stationary.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Check out local designers of wedding cards

While you can certainly explore wedding card designs with one of the major greeting card manufacturers you already do business with, don't rule out local suppliers. You may find more unique wedding card designs with such high-end touches as embossing or engraving that many customers are willing to pay a little more for.

I recommend: Erikson Design offers custom wedding card designs in Chicago, for example. A Papier is based in Los Angeles. For wedding invitations on the East Coast, look at NY-based NYCityWeddings.

Offer printing services for wedding cards

Once you find a supplier that you like for wedding invitation cards, take it one step further by offering printing services for couples who purchase blank wedding invitations from your store. If you don't want to get that involved, see if a local printer will work with you to create customized invitations for patrons, with you getting a cut of the profits.

I recommend: PrintingPress Wedding software is available from several distributors, including Mountaincow. The software comes in three versions based on the level of detail you want to achieve on your custom wedding invitations.

Make your own designs

Once you get the hang of printing wedding card information on invitations, you may want to take a stab at creating your own wedding card designs. Most wedding invitation software can assist with this, or you can really get creative and start using textiles, dried flowers and more to create truly unique designs for your customers.

I recommend: Any local craft store will have plenty of materials for custom wedding card designs. Online, check out Of the Earth for various custom wedding invitation supplies, such as vellum, organdy ribbon and invitation wraps.

Go to popular wedding card website to see what they offer

Suppliers of wedding cards have a good web presence and most sellers of wedding cards will offer free samples, especially when you are considering a large order.

I recommend: Wedding Paper Divas sells every type of wedding card imaginable. Other sellers to look at include PartyPOP.com, which offers a nationwide directory of suppliers of wedding greeting cards, wedding information cards, wedding RSVP cards and more.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

Keep in mind that if you make and print your own wedding card designs, you'll need a significant amount of memory in the printer to create high-quality graphics.
High-volume color laser printers will cost around $1,000 to $2,000, however, a decent laser printer can be had for under $500. The $500 models are more practical if custom wedding invitations are not going to become a huge part of your business. Wedding invitation software starts as low as $30.
After receiving the wedding card information from a couple, be sure to have them review and sign off on the proof. There's nothing worse than a typo!

The official source of Wedding Cards is the Wedding Cards page at Business.com

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