General Enquiries

Please could someone tell me their supplier for official condolence paper and envelopes AND if others save costs by this stationery being produced by in-house printers - what is the width measurement of the black line round the edge of an A4 sheet of paper and an envelope. What should the standard quality of paper be (grms)

Hi Clare

we have produced our own in house condolence paper. I can send you a copy if you like me to. Just send me an email to pseager@eppingforestdc.gov.uk and I will forward our template to you. Pat

I have been doing some research on this.

Barnard and Westwood do printing for a lot of organisations and they tell me that there is no set “rule” with regards to mourning stationery and to a certain extent it’s down to personal preference/each organisation’s preference.

It would seem that the norm is to use one’s normal stationery but with the black border. The border itself can be 3-5mm and for the envelopes, the border can go around the face and flap of the envelopes or along all the edges. I have photos - if you would like to see them do email me (jim.babbington@rbkc.gov.uk). White is the normal colour (although they have recently produced stationery for someone on Oyster (cream) coloured paper).

The stationery is usually used between the date of death and the date of the funeral, although it might be worth getting in a stock to cover one or more deaths. Any die stamping/printing would obviously need to be in black.

On the basis of what Barnard and Westwood have said, I am planning to have a hundred sheets printed, with envelopes. It will just be white paper and envelopes with the black border. We will then create a letter template in Word, with our coat of arms address, phone and email address which can be run through our printer for letters as and when needed.

I hope that helps?

Jim

Jim

I might be being controversial but is mourning paper really necessary these days. I am sure letters of sympathy are just as good on ordinary paper.

A very controversial contribution from Penny! We send, I'd guess, six condolence letters a year following the death of perhaps a past Mayor, a former Councillor, a serving officer of the Council or a prominent local resident. Once we have the paper I will probably use it for those letters, too. Until now we have used our ordinary everyday paper and that probably is just as good, but the black-edged stationery strikes me as stylish and proper and - who knows - we might even bring it back into fashion!