For planners operating at the high-touch level, the invitation suite is not just a formality. It is an essential piece of the overall guest experience and an opportunity to communicate quality, precision, and intentionality long before the guests arrive.
As a wedding planner, you already understand the value of design cohesion and early communication. What we’d like to offer is a stationer’s perspective on how you can elevate that further through collaboration, packaging, paper choices, and a few often overlooked service elements that can dramatically streamline execution on-site.
Lead Time Is Not Just About Design. It’s About Precision
As a planner, you’re no stranger to long timelines, but destination invitations benefit from even more margin, especially when production includes custom artwork, specialty printing methods, and bespoke packaging (as ours always does). In an ideal world, starting 14 to 16 months out gives room for rounds of ideation and proofing, custom die production, hand painting or sketching, assembly, and international delivery without rush fees or compromises. However, we recognize that in today’s day and age, these timelines aren’t always possible. We just ask to have a conversation to figure out a timeline that works for everybody.
When our Lucky Onion team is looped in early, we can also support you in forecasting needs beyond the suite itself: signage and day-of stationery, and any additional pieces for the event weekend. This kind of foresight pays dividends during the final push before the wedding. During our creation process, we aren’t only thinking about the couple. We are also thinking critically about the planner we are working with our fellow vendors in order to ensure seamless integration and ease.
Design Is a Strategy, Not a Style
Your clients are investing in more than a look when selecting their stationery. They’re investing in a sensibility, feeling, and mood that should be present from the Save the Date to the farewell brunch. The strongest events we support begin with a clear design directive from the planner, whether that’s rooted in the architecture of the venue, the couple’s story, or the color and texture of the landscape. Essentially, we’re creating a branded look and feel for the wedding from day one alongside your planning team and chosen vendors.
Our team of stationers can translate this vision across print and packaging in ways that amplify the rest of your team’s work. We’re very open and we share the floral palette, fabric swatches, and custom crest drafts with the rest of the wedding team. When we’re brought into that creative conversation early, the paper goods become foundational rather than an extra add-on.
Materials and Print Techniques Still Signal Luxury
Your clients may already associate letterpress or foil with elevated events, but there’s a growing appetite for tactile storytelling. We’re sure you’re seeing this too. Raw-edge handmade papers, vellum layering, silk folios, even etched wood or ceramic elements that speak to the destination, are making a huge comeback.
We’re also seeing increased demand for dynamic suites that unfold, reveal, and surprise, which is a contrast to the digital clutter guests encounter daily. For clients who want their invitation to stand apart, these physical cues matter. And they give you, the planner, another tool to build anticipation and emotional investment before the event even begins.
Destination Specificity Is More Impactful Than Themes
Rather than general destination tropes (tropical, European, coastal), consider how the invitation can express a deeper sense of place. That might mean hand-drawn architectural details of the venue or a detailed map, motifs borrowed from local tile work (Portugal, Italy, Morocco, & Mexico), or subtle nods to local flowers produced in the envelope liner.
Being based in Denver for over two decades, we specialize in mountain destination weddings throughout the Rocky Mountains and beyond. We love to create wedding stationery and invitation suites for some of the most stunning ceremonies in places like Telluride, Aspen, Vail, Park City, Big Sky, Jackson Hole, and more.
From coastal ceremonies in Costa Brava to traditional maximalist celebrations in the French Countryside, we bring deep experience in designing for diverse destinations, distinct atmospheres, and highly specific guest experiences.
On-Site Setup: A Quiet Advantage for Seamless Execution
When the wedding day arrives and it’s time for setup, last-minute styling of menus, escort displays, and signage is rarely the best use of your or your team’s time. Though it can cut costs for your bottom line, it’s not efficient and typically takes much more time than anticipated. For all of our in-state and destination clients, we offer on-site setup of all paper goods and printed materials. This includes menus, welcome signage, ceremony programs, dance floor wraps, and escort displays, so you don’t have to coordinate with local staff or explain layouts mid-install.
We’ve been so close to these pieces for several months to a year by the time the wedding day comes around, and we take pride in ensuring that each minor detail is correct for our couple on their big day.
We arrive with backups, tools, and contingency plans in hand, and we show up rain or shine (or snow!). This service is designed to protect the integrity of the design and relieve your team of yet another to-do in a packed timeline. It's quiet, but it makes a measurable difference in the finish. Our seamless execution removes layers of coordination from your workload.
Packaging Should Be Designed, Not Just Decorative
For the type of clients we work with, the presentation of the suite should evoke a similar experience of unboxing a custom garment or collector’s edition book. We routinely design structural elements, including wrapped folios, layered portfolios, and boxed mailers, that are built to withstand travel and impress upon arrival.
We can also manage international shipping strategies, including pre- and post-shipment testing, mailing from within the destination country where applicable, and tracking to ensure delivery standards meet the event's expectations. This encompasses our suites, signage, escort walls, and all of our day-of stationery.
Extend the Suite Across the Guest Journey
Planners know that consistency drives perceived value. We’re often brought back in to create coordinating printed elements like letterpress welcome notes, bespoke dinner menus, multi-day itineraries, even personalized luggage tags or passport holders that align with the suite.
This keeps the visual language cohesive and relieves the burden of sourcing last-minute pieces that feel disconnected from the initial experience guests received in the mail.
The Invitation Is the First Impression
For clients expecting a world-class event, which nearly all of your clients are, the invitation suite is their first tangible encounter with what you’ve built. It’s not just paper. It’s your brand, your standard, and a preview of the trust you’ve placed in your creative partners. It truly sets the stage for what’s to come.
When we’re aligned early and integrated fully, the result is not just beautiful. It’s entirely seamless from start to finish. This goes back to our mission to create a recognizable brand around your event. We are here to support you, not just as designers, but as an extension of your team on the ground and the guest list.
If you’re ready to collaborate on destination suites that truly match the scale and tone of your work, let’s chat.
