Wedding Invitations and Wedding Response cards
We're getting ready to print and ship our wedding invitations! It's the last major thing on the list. Flowers, DJ, food, photographer, and videographer have all been taken care of.
Where to get invitations? Chinatown, Stationery store, or Costco?
Costco, the purveyor of supreme value, sells wedding invitations, response cards, thank you notes, and other wedding-related stationery. This fact is not immediately apparent on the website but if you search for "wedding invitations" on Costco.com the search result will take you to Costco's wedding invitation website. (or bookmark http://pal.einvite.com/?Cobrand=PAL&Site=PAL&vk=1777211146) The site is pretty easy to use and they have a decent selection.
Since we live in the San Francisco Bay Area we thought we could get a printshop from Chinatown or around the area to get things printed out super cheap. Unfortunately we couldn't figure out where to start and we read some negative things about the service from places in Chinatown. Of course that is to be expected since nowhere in Chinatown will ever give you decent service
In the end, we decided to go with a small store called Lobella in Daly City. The proprietor of the Lobella, Nancy, has been very helpful and informative. We visited with her several times and she was always helpful without providing too much opinion which is important in making the wedding invitations your own.
Which paper company?
Since we were in Lobella, we had the choice of invitations from Birchcraft, Checkerboard, and maybe one other vendor. Birchcraft invitations tended to be more gawdy and ornate. Think tassels, embossed pictures of couples, frilly stuff, and heavy on the cute factor. For the most part Checkerboard invitations are subdued and conservative with darker colors and overall a more mature appearance. We chose Checkerboard because Birchcraft's selection was slightly too ornate and cutesy. However, we could be accused of choosing "boring" invitations. Unfortunately for our wallets Checkerboard invitations are slightly more expensive than Birchcraft.
What about prices?
Lobella Stationery prices are regular retail ordering for Checkerboard (www.checkernet.com), you see Checkerboard's full retail prices. I was hoping for a discount but Lobella couldn't do that for us because we didn't have enough volume. Interestingly enough, Checkerboard is a wedding invitation vendor on Costco.com. If you're considering a Checkerboard Invitation, check to see if Costco has the design you like (or similar) you could save big bucks. The price difference is approximately 25% (truth in advertising from the Costco website). Costco has some nice designs. At Lobella our Checkerboard invitations retail for $450 including envelopes (200 quantity), similar products at Costco were about $100 cheaper.
However the $100 difference is that it's all self service. No hand-holding or helpful input to make ordering easier or to make sure your spelling is correct or to tell you that it's rude to say certain things. You make your own design, order from Costco, cross your fingers for a good result, wait a few days, and - yikes - you have 200 invitations in your mailbox. With Lobella, Nancy made suggestions about wording, called the printers, and generally arranged the process to be as smooth as possible.
You could, however, save big bucks if Costco AND your stationery store both have the same design. Buy the invitations from the stationery store to get the hands-on help and then order the response cards and reception cards from Costco to save the 25% on the easy stuff
Lobella
508 Westlake Center
Daly City, CA 94015
650-757-1403
http://www.yelp.com/biz/lobella-daly-city