Your wedding invitation should always include the basic information, such as your (full) names and the date, time and location of your wedding. Dress code and reception details are often included on the invitation as well.

Generally, Save The Dates are sent anywhere between six and twelve months before the wedding and invitations traditionally go out six to eight weeks before the big day. However, these are guidelines only and many couples adjust this schedule to suit them. If you are having a destination wedding or many of your guests live out of town, you might want to send your Save The Dates and/or invitations earlier to allow plenty of time for them to plan their trip and book accommodation. Some couples even choose to skip Save The Dates all-together and just send their invitations early on. Of course, we would recommend you send both!

Save The Dates are more of an announcement and generally only contain your (first or full) names, the date and location. To keep your guests updated, you may include a link to your wedding website if you have one. Save The Dates are especially useful if you want to let your guests know about your wedding as soon as possible, but you haven’t quite decided on all the details yet, like the time of your ceremony or even the exact venue. They are a great idea if you are getting married on a public holiday, in the school holidays etc. and you want your guests to 'save the date' early on (hence the name!). Save The Dates are also helpful for any guests that live out of town, so they can take time off work if needed and keep an eye out for good deals on accommodation for their stay. Save The Dates do not replace invitations and guests are not expected to RSVP until they receive the actual wedding invitation.

Orders are usually completed and sent out to you within 2-3 weeks for digitally printed off-the-shelf designs. Please allow more time for custom/bespoke designs. Other printing methods may also add an extra week or two to the production time. The overall turnaround time of your order depends greatly upon how many changes you require and how long it takes you to approve your digital proof. After the final approval, your stationery will take approximately 1-2 weeks to be printed, packaged and sent. To avoid disappointment, we suggest you place your order early – at least 4 weeks before you plan to send them. For more information, please check out our Order Guide.

If our schedule allows, we are happy to rush your order, though this may incur an additional fee. If you need your order urgently, we recommend you stick to the standard options for printing (i.e. digital printing) and paper choices, as this will speed up the turnaround time. Please note that there are certain times during the year when we might be too busy to commit to rush orders, but please contact us to see if we can help.

Have you found something you like on our website or would you like us to create a bespoke design just for you and your big day? Great, we are excited to get started! The first step is to get in touch with us and fill in our non-obligation quote and order form. The more information you can give us at this point, the better. Have you thought about which items you need as part of your wedding stationery? There are Save The Dates, invites, reception cards, seating charts, Thank You notes – just to name a few – have a look at our Order Guide for more information on these. Please also let us know which aspects of your stationery you would like to customise (click for options). Once we have received your enquiry, we will send you a quote as soon as we can. If you are happy to go ahead with your order, we will send you an invoice and you are required to pay a deposit before we begin the design work. You will be sent a digital proof of your design and once you approve it, the balance will be due and your stationery will go to print. This process usually takes between two and four weeks depending on the complexity of your stationery. For more information on turnaround times, please check out our Order Guide.

For off-the-shelf designs, a 50% non-refundable deposit is required to confirm your order and for the design work to begin. For custom designs, a non-refundable deposit of $250 is charged instead. Payment of the balance is required before your order goes to print. Currently, we accept payments made via bank transfer only (Paypal/Credit Card payments will be available soon).

The number of invitations you will need to order is usually not the overall number of guests you're planning to invite but rather the number of households that will be receiving an invitation. For most weddings, that's about half to one third of your total guest count. If you can, set up a spread sheet of your guest list early on, with each row representing one household, this will make things much easier. Always order at least 5 - 10 more invitations than you think you need, as reprints at a later date can be very costly.

We sure do! Please head to our Bespoke Designs section for more information. You may also customise any of our Collection Designs with your choice of colours etc.

We work with specialised printers to offer you high quality digital printing, foiling, letterpress and even invitations printed on wood! Our Order Guide has lots more information and examples of all our printing methods.

In most cases, yes. Please note that there is an extra fee involved with this and that printing your guest names is not suitable for some printing methods (e.g. letterpress). However, another easy option is to add digitally printed tags with your guests’ names to your invites instead.

The date guests are asked to RSVP by usually varies between two to four weeks prior to the wedding date. It will depend on when you send out your invitations and by when your caterer needs the final head count. Check the latter first if you are unsure about this. Always try to give yourself (and your guests) a week’s grace period before you need to tell your venue or caterer. That way, you have time to follow up with anyone who has not responded, without having to stress about it. Once again, these are general guidelines only and many couples adjust this schedule to suit them. If you have a long engagement and send out your invitations long before the wedding (more than the usual six to eight weeks), you may also set your RSVP date a lot earlier.

We would love to meet with you to discuss your custom stationery project! Please note that while we are based in Albany, Auckland, we do not currently have a showroom for you to visit – but if you would like to catch up for coffee, please get in touch.

We sure do! Delivery charges vary but will be specified on your quote and invoice.

Acorn Design is a service-based business and all our wedding and event stationery products are personalised and made to order. Unfortunately, we therefore do not offer refunds if you change your mind or decide to cancel your order. Please choose carefully – if in doubt, we advise you to order one of our sample packs, so you can get a thorough understanding of the quality of our products before placing an order.