Speciality Paper For Wedding Invitations

There are several types of speciality paper for wedding invitations that can add a superb finish to your invites. These papers are usually available as standard paper and card stock, so you can cut, rip or tear them as you wish to create your desired effect.

The main different speciality papers for wedding invitations are vellum, angel hair and handmade paper. They’re usually used in conjunction with basic card making papers as they’re too delicate in their own right to be invitations.

Vellum paper

Vellum paper is like tracing paper, only thicker. It come in a variety of different patterns and colours as well as textured sections of foam on the surface of the paper.

Plain vellum in gold, silver or platinum colour often has a lovely pearlescent effect. Some vellum papers are quite thick and so they’re good for backing papers and others are have beautiful illustrations on them.

Recently, I picked up some lovely ornate white vellum with a silver design on it. It’ll be perfect for a wedding invitation insert.

Papermania and American Crafts offer a really good range of styles and all can be used in an inkjet printer. The sheets are often a bit bigger than A4, usually 12”x12” as they’re often used in scrapbooking.

With vellum papers, it’s best to see them for real as it’s good to feel their texture and see how transparent they are. So go to your local art shop and start looking around. Vellum paper is one of my favourite types of paper for wedding invitations.

Angel hair

Angel hair is very fine paper that almost looks like flattened candy floss. It's really beautiful and can be used as layers on the front of cards, panels or simply to add texture. Unfortunately, you can't print on angel hair as it's so fine (usually only 25gsm).

It does however, come in a good variety of colours and sometimes consists of different patterns. I like the effect it gives, but as a paper for wedding invitations, I find it a bit tricky to work with.

Mulberry paper

Mulberry paper comes from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. When the fibres are compressed together they look really wispy and so create a lovely delicate paper for wedding invitations. This paper is great for backing, layering and adding pretty effects to your designs.

It’s not great for printing on though, so have a trial run and experiement with your printer, you may find it works for you.

Mulberry paper comes in a variety of different colours and often has bits added to the paper. It’s frequently seen with metallic fibres, stars, hearts, leaves and petals that have been added to the paper. These all create delicate, pretty paper for wedding invitations.

Handmade paper

You can buy handmade paper in sheets. It’s usually a bit thicker and so is best for backing paper on your wedding invitations. You can however get sparkly bits, petals and leaves in it – similar to mulberry paper but quite a bit thicker.

Gift wrapping paper

These days there are more and more stunning sheets of gift wrapping paper. I’ve classed these as a speciality paper for wedding invitations as you can get sheets of paper with specific wedding themes. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using these on your wedding invitations.

Paperchase do fantastic wrapping paper and patterned tissue paper – it’s worth having a look around. These papers are great for layering or the basis of your design.

Don’t forget, these are just the speciality papers available for your wedding invitations. There are hundreds of other different papers available and these are outlined in paper for card making.

Related articles:

Standard Paper For Card Making
Card Making Card Stock