How to frame a wedding invitation

Most people send us the invitation by itself. Then the frame goes up on the wall, and a week later they email us about the envelope. The envelope is the piece with the hand calligraphy on it. It is usually the best looking thing in the whole box.

So before you order a frame, go find the box. Dump it out on a table. Look at what you actually have.

Lay the whole suite out first

A wedding invitation rarely travels alone. There is the invitation, the RSVP card, a details card, and the envelope. Some couples kept the save the date too.

People come to us wanting one piece framed. They leave wanting four. That is not us upselling. It is what happens when you see the pieces sitting next to each other.

Measure it yourself, then check for A5

The standard US wedding invitation is 5 x 7 inches. The RSVP card is usually 3.5 x 5. Those two numbers cover most of what comes through our shop.

Measure anyway. Take a ruler to the paper in your hand.

Here is why. If your invitation came from a printer in the UK or Australia, it is probably A5. A5 is 5.83 x 8.27 inches. That is over an inch taller than 5 x 7 and a bit wider.

So it will not fit a 5x7 frame. It will not fit a 5x7 mat opening either. People learn this after the frame shows up. Overseas printers do this to American couples constantly, and the listing still says invitation.

Do not trim the invitation

We get asked this about once a week. Someone has an 8.27 inch tall invitation and a 5x7 frame. Can they cut a little off the bottom?

No. Do not do it. You cannot untrim it later, and the paper stock is part of what you liked.

Order the mat opening to the invitation instead. We cut every mat to order, so an opening at 5.83 x 8.27 costs the same as a round number. Odd sizes are not a problem here. They are just numbers on the cutter.

Letterpress and deckle edges need room to breathe

Letterpress on cotton stock is thick. Real cotton rag runs about 0.03 inches per sheet. Doubled stock goes past 0.05.

The type is pressed down into the paper. That impression is the whole point of letterpress. Squeeze it under tight glass and you lose some of the bite. Cotton paper is soft and it will give.

So we leave a little room. A mat does most of that work by itself. A 4-ply mat is about 1/16 inch thick, and it lifts the acrylic off the paper. If your stock is heavy, we add a spacer.

Deckle edges are the soft torn looking edges on nicer stock. They are uneven, so the mat opening has to be cut a touch generous or the deckle vanishes underneath it. Vellum overlays, wax seals, ribbon, and belly bands stack more thickness on top. Once you have those, a flat frame starts to bow the acrylic. Then you want a shadow box or a spacer holding the acrylic off the surface.

The layout that works

Our most popular wedding layout is three openings in one mat. The invitation sits in the middle. A 4x6 photo goes on one side and the addressed envelope goes on the other. It reads left to right and it balances.

An 11x14 frame handles that with a 5x7 invitation. Go up to 16x20 if you want the RSVP and the details card in there too. That puts you at five openings and the mat is doing a lot of work.

Our invitation frames are built for this kind of layout. Send us your measurements and we cut the openings to match.

Never glue anything

No glue stick and no spray adhesive. No double stick tape, no glue dots, no rubber cement, no washi tape.

Adhesive yellows. It also soaks into cotton stock faster than into regular paper, because rag paper is soft and absorbent. Four or five years later you get a brown halo behind the print.

Use photo corners instead. Or let the mat hold it. We cut mat openings about 1/8 inch smaller than the piece on each side. The mat overlaps the edges and holds it flat, and nothing touches the front.

That 1/8 inch overlap matters if you have a deckle edge. Tell us about the deckle and we adjust the opening so the edge still shows.

UV acrylic is worth it here

Wedding invitations put colored ink on absorbent cotton stock. That combination fades faster than black ink on coated paper. Navy goes gray. Blush goes to almost nothing.

Gold foil is a different problem. Foil does not really fade. It dulls, and the shine is most of why you paid for foil.

Standard glass blocks almost no UV light. UV acrylic blocks about 98 percent of it. It is a small upcharge, and it is the one thing we push on every invitation order.

Hang it out of direct sun anyway. UV acrylic buys you years, not immunity.

The pressed flower changes the job

Plenty of couples save a stem or a few petals from the bouquet. The second you add that, this is a shadow box and not a frame.

A pressed flower is still 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Our shadow boxes are solid pine with about 1 inch of interior depth, built here in New Jersey. That is enough for a pressed rose and an invitation with room to spare.

Press the flower first and give it two weeks in a heavy book. A flower that is not fully dry will grow mold behind glass. We have seen it, and there is no fixing it after the fact.

Questions we hear a lot

My invitation is 5.83 x 8.27 inches. What frame do I need?

That is A5, so no stock 5x7 frame will take it. We cut the mat opening to your exact size and set it in an 11x14 frame. That gives you comfortable mat borders all the way around. Send us the number off your ruler and we handle the rest.

Can I frame the invitation and the envelope together?

Yes, and we think you should. A 5x7 invitation envelope is usually about 5.25 x 7.25 inches. So the two openings come out close in size and look tidy side by side. An 11x14 frame fits both with room for the mat.

Will framing flatten my letterpress?

Not if there is a mat in the frame. The mat sits on top of the paper. It holds the acrylic about 1/16 inch away, so nothing presses on the impression. If you want it framed without a mat, ask us to add spacers.