Weddingbee Blog

I always knew I wanted to do postcards for our save the dates. After I had put together the design for them, it became a question of where should I get them printed. Vistaprint was always one of those places that came recommended from the ‘Bee. They are definitely one of the cheaper places to get stuff printed, and they do have lots of great designs to choose from for people who aren’t as design savvy. After I found a Groupon for $17 dollars $70 worth of paper products, it became the most obvious choice to get our save the dates done.

I wanted to get our save the dates out about a year out, mainly because after a year of being engaged, I was itching to get other people excited about this wedding as well. It didn’t really feel very real until then.

About half the stuff I got from this order

Because of this, I had been creating an STD design for months and playing around with the Vistaprint website. Ultimately, when I went to write this post, I realized I have very mixed feelings about Vistaprint. I really like the quality of the items that I received and I did get a really good deal on them. However, some of their practices rub me the wrong way. For example, they seem to really jack up their shipping costs to offset their cheap prices. They seem to jack up the shipping costs for Groupons versus without a Groupon. My cart had shipping costs of $12.50 when I was researching the various things to add to my order. The second I applied my Groupon number to the order, my shipping costs skyrocketed to $25. It just seems fishy to me.

For brides who are interested in using Vistaprint for their STDs, invitations, other stuff, these are things that I would recommend:

1.) Wait for a Groupon, maybe. Seventeen dollars for $70 worth of stuff definitely helps with purchases. The 30% off for Groupon members is really useful as well. However, they have a lot of discounts generally that you would not be able to use with a Groupon coupon. I would keep an eye out and just wait for that great deal. I thought it was worthwhile to spend a little more money on other paper products so I wouldn’t spend that money on shipping costs instead.

2.) Use the advanced editing features whenever possible. Sometimes it costs money to edit it, but if not, you really can make things exactly how you want them to be.

Screenshot via Vistaprint

I used this trick to take wedding place cards (which are just general business cards) to make our wedding website card as well as our guest photo upload card. You can kind of make out those pictures in the pictures above. (I’ll do another post on it, because this post is starting to get long.)

3.) Vistaprint templates often come in multiple colors. I might be an idiot, but I did not realize until near the very end of my time on their website that a lot of their templates come in multiple colors! There were so many templates I looked at and was like ooh this would be amazing if it was only the right color. Well, on the left of each design, you can double check to see if it comes in other colors.

4.) Use standard templates for unexpected projects. Don’t feel obligated to use their generated names for certain items in that way. Need a postcard-size item for your programs? Go for it. Want business cards to include as thank you cards? Go for it. Random note—Moo cards are just half size business cards, so why not make your own Moo cards by taking a business card and cutting it in half?

5.) Write down your color information somewhere. I know this is a minor thing, but if you do start changing things with the advanced editing features, write down the hex values you use for your colors, or you’ll regret it when you can’t figure out how to match the color exactly.

Screenshot via Vistaprint

6.) Double check everything before you click OK. Print, print, print everything before you click OK. Print it out at about the size you think it’ll be when you’ll see it for real. Get at least five people who have never seen your design before to check your work before you go for it. One thing that people tend to forget when they are staring at gigantic versions on their computer screen is that business cards are tiny! You want to make sure your font size is legible. This is also a great chance to make sure you get all of the details right. I didn’t get enough people to look at it, and I didn’t realize until I was holding the STDs in my hands that I had brilliantly messed up my own address. Sigh. Oh well, I’m not going to go back and reprint them (and no one, and I mean no one, even realized that our address was even on the postcard to begin with).

7.) Check out Vistaprint’s free section. Vistaprint has a section that lets you get some items for free, which is definitely a nice bonus to your order. I added a free pen (that broke the first time I went to use it), an address stamper, free business cards, and some free note cards to my order and that definitely made shopping at Vistaprint worth it.

8.) Add blank cards. Need some fillers but don’t know what you’ll need in the future? Make blank cards. Delete all of the words on the cards, and you’ll get these awesome blank ones that you can use later on for whatever random purpose you find. I plan on using the blank ones as my table escort cards, but if I change my mind, I can still use them for other things. Also useful for when you need just one sign for beverages and one sign for your card box that you want to all match but you don’t want to pay for tons of extras.

8.) Be aware of how much space you have to write. Have bubbly handwriting? Have family with the most insane names ever? You need more writing space than you think you do.

See those four lines? Yeah, not enough space. I apparently have bubblier handwriting than I thought.

Any other tricks that people used to get a good deal? Anyone have a mixed experience with Vistaprint?