A wedding order is a textbook mixed invoice. The zero-rated part is whatever is genuinely a booklet: the order of service, and any wedding booklet or programme bound or folded as one. Almost everything else is standard-rated, because invitations, menus, place cards, thank you cards and the table plan are cards and signs kept and used rather than reading matter handed round. It is worth knowing before the quote lands, because the VAT line will not match the one on the order of service alone.
Printing for a wedding
Some 0%, some 20%
Here's the usual print for a wedding. Tap any item to see why it's 0% or 20%.
Because one is a booklet and the other is a card. HMRC's leaflet paragraph says items printed on laminated paper are designed to be kept and so are not leaflets, then makes one express exception in the whole notice: orders of service are not normally designed to be kept and may be zero-rated. Invitation cards, menu cards and greetings cards are all listed as standard-rated by name. Anything else on the day that is genuinely a booklet or a leaflet is zero-rated in the ordinary way.
HMRC names orders of service as zero-rated. They're read on the day and not designed to be kept.
HMRC lists invitation cards as standard-rated.
HMRC lists menu cards as standard-rated. They're kept and used on the table, not read and thrown away.
It's designed to be kept and used, not read and thrown away, so it isn't a leaflet. Standard-rated.
Anything made to go on a wall or be displayed is standard-rated. The zero rate is for things you hold and read.
Made to be sent, kept and displayed, so none of the leaflet characteristics fit.
Blank books for writing in are stationery. Standard-rated.
Books and booklets are zero-rated. Pages of reading matter bound together, with or without a cover.
HMRC lists stickers, labels and tags as standard-rated.