Ceremony programs as folded card, stapled booklets or single flat cards, in DL 99 × 210 mm and A5 148 × 210 mm, on stocks from 150 gsm through to 350 gsm, printed at Ravenhall.
An order of service is a printed program handed to guests as they arrive, listing the sequence of a ceremony: readings, music, speakers and names, in the order they happen. It is produced as a single flat card, a folded card or a stapled booklet, most commonly at DL 99 × 210 mm or A5 148 × 210 mm, and the format is chosen by how much content there is.
Made by Melbourne Trade Signs, a large-format print and signage company on Unit 6/43 Orbis Drive, Ravenhall VIC 3023, in Melbourne’s west. Printed in-house and installed Australia-wide. Phone 0415 743 691.
These are short-run print jobs where the quality bar sits in an odd place. Nobody examines the paper stock. Everybody notices a misspelt name. That is why the proofing step carries more weight than any production decision, and why we ask the client to check names, dates and spellings rather than approving on our reading of them. Once a run is printed, a correction means printing again.
We print, fold, score, trim and staple at our Ravenhall workshop, so a job of forty booklets is handled the same way as a job of four hundred. There is no minimum. Because nothing is sent out to a trade printer, a short-notice job, and funerals are almost always short notice, is a matter of the queue we control rather than someone else’s.
Count the content first and the format falls out of it. A short ceremony fits on a flat card, a standard one fits a folded card, and anything with hymns, readings and photographs needs a stapled booklet.
| Format | Finished size | Printed pages | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat card | DL 99 × 210 mm | One or two sides | Short ceremonies, running order only |
| Flat card | A5 148 × 210 mm | One or two sides | Programs with a photograph or a reading |
| Folded card | DL from A4 folded | Four pages | Weddings, standard length ceremonies |
| Folded card | A5 from A4 folded | Four pages | The most common funeral format |
| Stapled booklet | A5, saddle stitched | Eight, twelve, sixteen | Full services with hymns and readings |
| Stapled booklet | DL, saddle stitched | Eight or twelve | Awards nights and conference programs |
Standard sizes cut from A4 and A3 sheets with the least waste, which is why they run cheapest. Custom trims are no trouble, though an odd size on a short run costs more per piece than the paper suggests.
Paper weight, finish and binding are the three choices to make. Below is what each option feels like in the hand and where it is the right call, including where a lighter stock is genuinely better.
The inside pages of a stapled booklet. Light enough that eight or twelve pages sit flat and staple cleanly, heavy enough that print does not show through from the reverse. Too flimsy for a single flat card, which will curl in a warm room.
The standard weight for a folded program or a flat card. It has enough stiffness to be held one-handed without flopping, takes a clean crease when scored, and is the weight most people mean when they say they want it to feel proper.
A heavy, substantial card for single flat programs and keepsake pieces. It must be scored before folding or the fibres crack along the crease and the ink splits. Worth it for a flat card, less so for a folded one where the extra weight fights the fold.
A natural, slightly textured surface that takes ink softly and is easy to write on. It suits typographic designs and understated programs, and it is the usual choice for funerals. Photographs print flatter on uncoated than on satin, with less contrast and less depth.
A smooth surface with a low sheen that holds photographic detail and keeps blacks deep. Satin is the right pick whenever a portrait or a colour image is the centre of the design. It shows fingerprints more than uncoated, and it cannot be written on with a pen.
Anything over about 170 gsm is scored before folding, which crushes the fibres along a controlled line so the fold is sharp and the ink does not crack. We score and fold in-house. A half fold makes a four-page program; a roll or concertina fold makes six pages from one sheet.
Two staples through the spine of a folded booklet. Page count must be a multiple of four, since each folded sheet makes four pages. Eight, twelve and sixteen pages are the practical range for a ceremony. Above about twenty-four pages a saddle-stitched A5 starts to splay at the fore edge.
Almost always A5 folded or an eight-page A5 booklet, on uncoated or satin stock, with a photograph on the cover. These come to us with a few days notice at most, sometimes less. We treat them as their own queue and proof them quickly rather than putting them in line behind commercial work.
Repeat work with short lead times and a fixed structure. Most have a house template that takes a photograph, a name, dates and the service order, so each job is a content change rather than a new design. We hold those templates. What we ask in return is that the family, not us, reads the proof, because we cannot know how a middle name is spelt.
Ceremony programs ordered alongside the rest of the day: welcome sign, seating chart, menus and table signage. Quantity planning is the recurring issue, since a program per guest is more than is needed when couples and families share one between them. We usually suggest one per two guests plus twenty per cent for spares, and print the whole suite in one run so paper and ink match across the pieces.
Carol services, graduations, assemblies, presentation evenings and memorials. These run to higher page counts than a wedding program because they carry hymn lyrics, full readings and long lists of names, which points at a stapled A5 booklet on 150 gsm text stock. Many of them repeat annually with only the year and the names changing, so the working file is genuinely worth keeping on record.
Session timetables, speaker biographies, award categories and sponsor acknowledgement pages. These are effectively booklets rather than programs, usually A5 saddle stitched at twelve or sixteen pages on satin stock so that headshots and sponsor logos reproduce properly. Where the same event also needs signage, backdrops and stands built around it, our sister company Event Signs handles that side of the job.
Booklet artwork is the one job where page order and bleed genuinely matter, because a mistake in imposition is not visible on screen and is very visible once the job is folded and stapled.
We will typeset the whole program from a plain document if that is easier, which for most families it is. Send the running order, the names and any photograph, and a proof comes back for checking before anything runs.
Short-run programs move quickly because the printing, scoring, folding and stapling all happen in the same building and nothing waits on a trade supplier. Funeral work is treated as urgent by default. Tell us the date of the service or the ceremony and we will be straight with you about what is possible. Pickup from Ravenhall, delivery across metro Melbourne and regional Victoria, freight interstate.
One per two guests plus about twenty per cent is the usual planning figure for weddings, and closer to one per guest for funerals and formal services.
Couples and families share a program, which is why a copy per head is normally more than needed at a wedding. Funerals are different: attendance is unpredictable, people often take one home as a keepsake, and running out is far worse than having spares. Short-run digital printing means the difference between 80 and 120 copies is small, so err upwards.
A folded card is one sheet creased down the middle, giving four pages. A stapled booklet is several folded sheets nested and saddle stitched, giving eight or more.
The decision is content. A running order, a couple of readings and a thank you fits four pages comfortably. Add hymn lyrics, multiple readings, photographs or a list of family names and it will not, and cramming it in produces a page of 7 point type that half the congregation cannot read. Booklet page counts must be a multiple of four.
250 to 300 gsm uncoated or satin card for a folded or flat program, and 150 to 170 gsm text stock for the inside pages of a booklet.
Uncoated has a natural texture, is easy to write on, and suits type-led designs. Satin holds photographic detail better and keeps blacks deep, which matters when a portrait is on the cover. Heavier is not automatically better: 350 gsm folded fights the crease, while the same weight as a flat card feels excellent.
The client is, and we ask for that in writing before printing. We proofread for typography and layout, but we have no way of knowing how a family spells a name.
Middle names, maiden names, Anglicised spellings and the difference between Catherine and Katherine are all invisible errors from our side. Our proof goes back as a PDF at final size, and we ask that someone close to the family or the couple reads every name aloud against the list. A misprinted name is the one mistake nobody forgets.
Yes, short-notice funeral work is a normal part of what we print, and we treat it as its own queue rather than putting it behind commercial jobs.
The bottleneck is almost never the printing. It is waiting on the photograph, the final wording and someone with the authority to approve the proof. If you send the content and a contact who can sign off quickly, we will tell you straight away what date we can meet. Ring us rather than emailing when the service is close.
Yes, and printing the pieces together in one run is the only way to get a genuine colour match.
Digital colour drifts slightly between runs and behaves differently on uncoated versus satin stock, so an order of service printed in March will not exactly match a menu card printed in May. When programs, menus, place cards and signage are produced as one job on related stocks, they read as a set. Send the whole list at the start rather than adding pieces later.
Short-run posters on satin, gloss and uncoated stock from A3 to A0, useful for the order of proceedings boards and memorial displays that sit alongside a program.
See the detail →The large-format version of the same guest list. A1 to 900 × 1200 mm on acrylic, ACM or foamboard, with column layouts sized to the number of names.
See the detail →The entrance panel that sets the styling the program follows. Acrylic, ACM, foamboard or timber-look, with easels matched to the panel size and the conditions.
See the detail →Browse the full list on our A–Z of everything we print, or see how this fits into signage in Melbourne.
Send the running order, the names and the date. We will typeset it, proof it and tell you honestly what is achievable.