All About Wax Seals For Wedding Invitations

As you scroll through your favorite social media platform for wedding inspiration, you may have noticed small, round wax details embossed with various designs. Those are wax seals, and they’re a gorgeous way to elevate your wedding day stationery. Wax seal stickers add a three-dimensional element in what may otherwise be a flat design, and add a beautiful vintage feel to any invitation suite. If you’re considering including wax seals in your wedding invitations, there are some things you should know about these lovely additions. 

What are Wax Seals?

Wax seals are decorative embellishments created by a metal stamp with a design pressed into melted wax. Historically, these were used to seal letters before envelopes had glue and proved that mail had not been tampered with. The stamp would include the sender’s family crest or initials. Now wax seals act only as decoration, and serve as a beautiful embellishment on wedding stationery. 

Poured vs. Premade Wax Seals

When you search for wax seals online, you are likely to come across two types: premade or self-poured. For self-poured wax seals, you will be responsible for creating the seal yourself, using sealing wax. The process is simple, but takes quite a bit of practice to create the perfect stamp – you will have to melt the wax, pour it in place, and stamp it with your predesigned stamp. While this can be a fun skill to learn, if you’re looking for picture-perfect seals, you may want to opt for premade. 

Premade wax seal sticks are poured by a professional and contain self-adhesive backings so you can use them just like a sticker. These are more consistent in appearance than self-poured seals and are incredibly easy to use. They are a great addition to elevate your wedding stationery. Keep in mind, if you love the look of a wax seal over ribbon, it is best to pour and stamp them yourself so that the seal adheres properly to the paper.

Including Wax Seals in your Wedding Invitations

Since wax seals are no longer relied on for actually sealing the mail, there is a variety of places we commonly see them used. If you are including a vellum wrap or bellyband in your invitation, you can use a wax seal to hold it closed.

Alternatively, if you’re just looking to add a decorative and textural element, you can place the wax seal at the top of the invitation card. While you can use them on the back flap of your wedding invitation envelope, we recommend opting for an additional outer envelope to encase the entire invitation suite. This prevents scuffing or tearing as they travel through the mail.

When including a wax seal in your wedding invitation, it’s important to consider the implications it will have on mailing the invitations. First, your invitations will need to be hand-sorted since they aren’t flat and cannot be processed by the machinery at the post office. This will incur an additional fee as well as potentially taking longer than the standard processing time.

The added weight of the wax seal may also require additional postage. We highly recommend taking your completed invitation to the post office to get a postage quote and information on how long they expect the process to take. 

If you love the look of wax seals but aren’t interested in the extra hassle they can cause when attached to your wedding invitations, there are plenty of other ways you can use them on your wedding day! We love seeing couples add wax seals to their escort cards (you can even choose a custom stamp design for each meal option!) or use them to attach name cards to a seating chart. 

Lily & Roe Co. Premade Wax Seals

At Lily & Roe Co. we offer premade wax seals in a variety of colors and designs so you can choose the option that best fits your wedding aesthetic. Our wax seals are self-adhesive and easy to use, so you can instantly upgrade your wedding stationery. If you’re looking for a simple and chic solution, shop our wax seals at Lily & Roe Co.