free worldwide shipping for all custom scarf orders
free worldwide shipping for all custom scarf orders
The week-by-week schedule for a silk favor run, counted back from the date
Your client wants a silk scarf or pocket square for every guest, and before the price you need a date. When does the artwork have to be final, when does the money have to move, and when do the boxes arrive, so that the whole thing can go into your production schedule and stop taking up room in your head. Here is the answer in two sentences. Once your order is confirmed and paid, we take about six weeks to make the scarves in Como and deliver them to your door, a sample before that adds about four weeks, and we pause production in August. Count back from the day you need the scarves in hand, and that is your schedule. The rest of this guide is that arithmetic, step by step, with what we need from you at each point. Everything else for the trade is on our page of custom silk scarves for your clients, and couples will find the same numbers on our page about silk scarf wedding favors.
About six weeks. That is the time from the day your order is confirmed and paid, with the print-ready file, to the day the scarves are at your door, delivery included. It covers the print, the hand-rolled edges, the packaging and the courier. If you want a sample first, one fully finished scarf in your design, add about four weeks before that. And every August we pause production for the month, so a late-summer wedding has its own rule, which comes below. Everything in this guide is built on those three facts.
Start from the day you need the scarves in hand and walk backwards. Six weeks before it, your order is confirmed and paid. If you want a sample first, add four weeks before that. That is the whole calendar.
Take a Saturday wedding on 22 May 2027. Friday 7 May, the scarves are with you or at the venue, two weeks before the day. That margin is our advice for a destination wedding, not a rule, and it means a late courier never becomes a phone call. Friday 26 March, the order is confirmed and the invoice is paid, print-ready file included, and production starts, six weeks before 7 May. Friday 26 February, the sample is ordered if you want one, four weeks before the order, so it is in your hands in time to say yes.
For an August or September wedding the pause changes the sums. Have the order confirmed and paid by 1 July, so the run is made before the pause.
Two sizes do most of the work at a wedding. The 33 by 33 centimeter pocket square (13 by 13 inches) sits at each place setting. The 55 by 55 centimeter neckerchief (22 by 22 inches) goes in the welcome bag and gets worn all weekend. In organic silk twill the pocket square is $35 and the neckerchief is $60, hand-rolled edges and worldwide shipping included.
Fifty is the minimum for both, and it is a real one. Every run is set up for one design: the colors are mixed for it, the presses are calibrated for it, and the silk is prepared and tested before the first piece prints. A run can carry more than one design in the same silk and size, at ten pieces per design. Order on the final count, with a few over for the couple, the parents and the guest who was added in the last week. Our planners page covers planning the quantities, every other size and silk is on the custom silk scarves page, and our cost guide walks through what a full order comes to.
We print your artwork, so the file is the thing that moves the date. Print-ready means a PDF, PSD or TIFF at the finished size of the scarf, 300 dpi, with the colors as Pantone codes and a 0.9 centimeter margin on every side. The margin is for the hem. Each edge is rolled by hand and takes one centimeter at each side, so keep the names and the date inside it, and keep the wording short. Most couples put their first names, the place and the date in the border, sometimes the RSVP date or the dress code, and a monogram in one corner.
Send the file and we check it before anything prints: resolution, color, and how the border sits against the hem. Small production adjustments are included. What we do not do is design from scratch. We bring existing artwork to life on silk, and for a fully custom design created from the ground up we recommend the team at Ceci New York. Our guide to preparing a print-ready file has the full spec. A low-resolution file delays the run, because it has to go back to the designer, so check the export before you send it.
A sample is one fully finished scarf in your design, printed on the same silk, hem rolled by hand, in its envelope. It takes about four weeks and costs $550, which is credited in full when the production order follows, and the couple keeps it. It is the one way to see the colors on silk before fifty pieces print. We do not do swatches or color strike-offs; the sample is the proof.
With ten weeks or more before you need the scarves in hand, there is time for one: about four weeks for the sample, then six for the run. With less, skip it and go straight to production on the checked file. That is the honest trade: certainty on color against certainty on the date.
Once the file is checked and, if there was a sample, the couple has approved it, we send the invoice. Production starts the day the artwork is approved and the payment is in, by card, PayPal or bank transfer. We do not hold a production slot on a promise, so if the date is tight, the money is part of the timeline.
From there the run is ours: print, hand-rolled edges, packaging, and DHL to your door with a tracking number. If a piece arrives with a production fault, send a photo within fourteen days and we replace it at our cost from the spares printed with the run. What we cannot do is reprint a run because the artwork had a typo in it, or take it back. Custom pieces are made for one wedding. That is why the file check and the sample exist.
Shipping is included on every custom order, worldwide, and customs and duties are covered for the EU and the United States. For Switzerland and other destinations we tell you what applies before you order. We ship to one address, which can be the venue or the planner, and to two addresses for $180, free when the order is double the minimum.
Each scarf arrives folded in a protective sleeve. If they are going straight onto the table or into the welcome bags, choose the packaging with the order: a scarf envelope is $6.00, an envelope with ribbon $7.50, and a handmade box with silk paper $11.45, in seventeen colors. All of it is on our gift packaging page.
A June wedding in Tuscany, planned by Bloom Wedding & Events: a pocket square for every guest, printed with a watercolor of the villa, boxed, one at each place. The guests had them tied on their bags before the night was over. The story is in our piece on wedding favors guests actually keep. The photograph is here because it shows the end of the schedule, which is the part worth planning for.
This is the version for your own production plan. Weeks are counted back from the day you need the scarves in hand.
| Weeks before | What happens | What we need from you |
|---|---|---|
| Earlier | First conversation: size, quantity, a quote. We check the print-ready file. | The date you need them, the guest count, where they go, and the file: PDF, PSD or TIFF at the finished size, 300 dpi, Pantone colors, a 0.9 cm margin all round. |
| 10 to 6 | The sample is made and approved, if you want one. About four weeks. | The couple’s yes on the sample. |
| 6 | Order confirmed, invoice paid, production starts. | The final file, the payment, and the packaging choice. |
| 6 to 0 | Print, hand-rolled edges, packaging, DHL. We send the tracking number. | Nothing. |
| 0 | The scarves are with you or at the venue. For a destination wedding we suggest two weeks before the day. | Nothing. Enjoy the day. |
August: we pause production for the month. For an August or September wedding, have the order confirmed and paid by 1 July, so the run is finished before the pause.
One more line for the schedule, which nobody plans and which happens: the re-run. A New York planner wrote to us afterwards, “The scarves were a massive hit at our wedding in Greece. So much so that the clients are interested in another run to send out with their marriage announcements.” A second run uses the same file, so it is about six weeks from the day you say go.
If you need the scarves in less than six weeks, send us the date before you rule silk out, and we will tell you within one business day what we can do. If a custom run cannot make it, our ready-to-wear collection ships within the contiguous United States in about two business days, each piece in gift packaging, so a planner in the US still has silk on the table. If the guest list is under fifty, the same applies, or the silk goes to the wedding party and the parents instead. Our wedding page has the options for a smaller wedding, and the collection is here.
Send us the wedding date, the guest count and where the scarves should arrive, and we come back within one business day with a quote and the dates for your schedule. Planners will find the project quote form on our planners page. Couples, everything is on the wedding page, or write to hello@bybiehle.com, or message us on Instagram.
What file do you need for a custom silk scarf? A PDF, PSD or TIFF at the finished size of the scarf, 300 dpi, colors as Pantone codes, and a 0.9 centimeter margin on every side for the hand-rolled hem. We check every file before it prints and make small adjustments. We do not create artwork from scratch.
Do we need a sample before the production run? No, it is optional. A sample is one finished scarf in your design, about four weeks, $550, credited in full on the production order. It is the only way to see the colors on silk before the run. With ten weeks or more before you need the scarves in hand, there is time for one. With less, go to production on the checked file.
When does production start? The day the order is confirmed and the invoice is paid, by card, PayPal or bank transfer. We do not hold a production slot without payment. From that day it is about six weeks to your door, delivery included.
Can we approve a digital proof instead of a sample? We check the file and come back with notes before anything prints, which catches resolution and layout. Color on silk is only proven by the sample itself. If color matters to the couple, order the sample. If the date is tight, go to production on the checked file.
What if our date is sooner than six weeks away? Send it to us before you rule silk out. About six weeks from the confirmed order is the time we plan with, delivery included, and we will tell you within one business day what we can do for your date. If a custom run cannot make it, our ready-to-wear collection ships within the contiguous United States in about two business days.
Our wedding is in September. When does the order have to be in? By 1 July. We pause production for all of August, so a September run is made in July, and the same date holds for an August wedding.
