You don’t entirely know what you’re getting into when you plan a wedding. That’s why my favorite posts here are when wedding professionals offer advice on working with vendors. So I’m excited to have Ruff House Art on the blog today advising us on wedding stationery below — check out above some of the options they offer.

To start, Jill Morrison, owner and creative director of Ruff House Art, has compiled a list of what to ask about when meeting with a stationer:

• Do you have a minimum order? Don’t assume every vendor will fill your order of 10 invitations. Most vendors have a minimum of 25 and sometimes 50 invitations.
• Inquire about a vendor’s design and production turnaround times to be sure you have plenty of time to address your invitations and mail them out.
• Ask the cost per invite rate, as well as if they offer discounts for bulk orders.
• Ask if they have upgrade charges or additional fees, such as for changes, so you aren’t surprised when the invoice comes to you.
• If there is time between approval and when the invitations need to be shipped, always request the hard proof. It cuts out any chance that the invitations won’t be as you imagined them. Also, it’s a great opportunity to take that copy to the post office to determine postage, etc.

As for Ruff House itself, it specializes in letterpress printing, which is when the print is literally pressed into the paper. The company tries to incorporate a couple’s story into their wedding stationery. Here’s some information Jill passed along about Ruff House:

• The invitations are customizable with no additional costs. If you see an option that you like, but the colors or font aren’t quite right, they can be adjusted.
• Lucky for you, they have a large library of paper colors, lots of font options and “any color of ink you can come up with,” Jill tells us.
• They offer the first hard proof, once the digital proof is approved, free of charge.
• Ruff House Art has taken a modern spin on a vintage printing technique, trying new textures, colors, graphics, papers, etc.

You can use Ruff House no matter your location, but if you’re looking for someone local, you can check out stationery options in your city here.

Photos courtesy Ruff House Art