Choosing wedding invitations is one of the most fun parts of wedding planning for brides to be. Not only is it a cool way to express your personality and creativity, it is the first taste your guests will get of your upcoming big day. You will want to make a great first impression while sharing all the important details of the what, where and when of your wedding. This article shares some Wedding Invitation Ideas to make the process a little easier.
Budgeting and Style for Invitations
The very first thing to take into consideration is your budget. It is a good idea to establish up front how much you are willing to spend on your invites. As a general rule, the more customized you get, the more you are going to pay. Think about the many components you may still have left to cover financially--cake, linens, favors, honeymoon....where do invitations rank in importance to you and your fiancee?
Once you have that established, its time to think about style. You could keep it simple with an elegant single card or go trendy with pocketfolds. Will you have separate cards for response or directions? Will your font be modern or traditional? Block, script or a mix of both? Perhaps your style will be influenced by your ethnicity, the formality of your wedding or the location.
Personalizing invitations is very popular right now. Think monograms of the couple's initials, photos and lyrics or poetry which is special to the bride and groom. Are there any symbols or motifs you could add which would reflect your personalities?
Another trend involves the use of color or embellishments. If your wedding has a color theme, you will want to incorporate this somehow. It could be small touches such as a flower or heart or the use of rich, colored cardstock. Some of the hottest color combos right now include fuchsia and orange, light pink and kiwi, brown and teal and lilac and coral. Influences for color can be anything from the season you will be married in to personal favorite shades. Add embellishments like vellum, rhinestones, ribbon or beads and you will achieve a truly unique look.
Addressing and Wording your Invitations
Additional decisions include wording and addressing. Wording your invitations involves giving the basic details of the ceremony and reception, but also expressing who is throwing the celebration. Traditionally, a bride's parents were responsible for paying but those days are long gone. It is still the case sometimes, but what if both sets of parents are sharing the responsibility? Or how about if the bride and groom are paying for it themselves or partially contributing? It has become common to use such phrases as "together with their parents" or other alternatives and you can find many examples online to help you.
In terms of addressing, you may choose to have a calligrapher do this or do it yourself if you have nice handwriting. I have known brides who bought a beginner-level book on calligraphy and taught themselves fairly quickly. Calligraphy can be pricey and you may not feel up to learning a new skill during the chaos of wedding planning, so another option is using your printer to address the envelopes. If it prints in color you can even have the ink match the shade of the invitations inside. Labels are another idea but can be a bit controversial. Some see this as a faux pas so be sure to at least use clear ones if you go this route for a cleaner look.
Also, make sure you know how to correctly address married and unmarried couples, families, unmarried children living at home, doctors and the like. Again, there is much information out there on this type of etiquette. You will also need to decide whether you will add "and guest" to the invitations you send to your single friends and family members. This is purely a personal decision.
Some Final Tips
Finally, have one of your invitations weighed at the post office to be sure you have the correct postage before sending them all out. Embellishments and heavier cardstock can make them quite heavy. If you are including a response envelope that will need to have a stamp as well for your guests convenience.
Hopefully these tips and wedding invitation ideas will help make this aspect of your wedding preparations a little less stressful. Give yourself plenty of time to have the invitations ordered, assembled and sent out and you can check one more thing off your list which feels great! Happy planning!
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