You're Invited
Maybe Emily Post isn’t your style.
And keep in mind, invitations to your wedding should reflect just that: Your style.
“A lot of brides are doing their own thing, and we’re helping them create their own custom invitations,” said Kim Jones, owner of the Ink Spot in downtown Petoskey. “I’m definitely seeing a lot more of that.”
Not only does that apply to color and style but also wording. While a number of brides and grooms do prefer the “pleasure of your company is requested,” others are taking the opportunity to express their commitment and wedding plans in a more personal tone.
Borrowing from the greats — like Robert Browning’s “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be …” — or creating a fun poem of their own makes invitations even more personalized and special. Sometimes, short and sweet says it best: “We’ve eloped!”
Adding further custom touches to the invitations and wedding paper products is another specialty of the Ink Spot. Jones recalled a recent instance where a bride brought in handwritten calligraphy, which was copied onto all the invitations. Another time, a bride brought her hand-drawn crooked tree which was put on everything from the invitations to the napkins, programs and more.
Brides are taking the initiative more and talking to print shops about designs and ideas they’ve located on the Internet, and also with putting their invitation packets together on their own to save money. One bride Jones recalled had scrapbooking paper, with thicker texture and bright colors that she had saved; the Ink Spot printed the vellum overlay with the text of the invitation, and the bride assembled the invites with bows.
Another approach to saving some money is requesting e-mail RSVPs on the invitation, rather than including a separate RSVP card and envelope with postage, Jones noted. From her daughter’s recent wedding, Jones herself also learned a tip to pass on to other couples: Check the postage at the post office for odd-shaped envelopes before ordering them. Her daughter’s square envelopes cost extra.
Whether custom-designed or ordered directly as-is from a book of options, Jones said options are endless.
“There is a lot you can do to make the invitations look nice and not spend a lot of money,” she said. “You can find something very nice and tasteful but that’s very reasonably priced. The bride should pick something that really suits her and do what she wants to do.”
Invite the top trends for 2009
Like most things wedding-related, invitations, too, follow trends and
evolve with the times. Cardgirl Invitations and ezine.com recently
summarized some favorite trends for ’09 nuptials …
— Color
combos: Butter & black, eggplant & ecru, teal & slate gray
— Design elements: the Damask; a wide stripe; pattern printing on the backside of invitation cards; block lettering complemented by hand-lettering; printing a design on envelopes.
— Cardstock: Crane’s 100 percent cotton extra heavy cardstock, “heavy as a coaster.”
— Continuation of save-the-date cards.
— Extending a theme of a wedding, such an outdoor or candlelight event, or a wedding on a beach.
— Adding a photograph to the invite has been made simple with technology.
— Adding a small favor, like a tote bag with information from the area chamber of commerce for a destination wedding. (This works best for small weddings where you expect most of your invitees to attend.)
— Personalized stationery, such as ribbons, pictures and trinkets, colored fonts, customized edgings and many other options to stock invitations.
— Colors as neutrals. While adding color as a bold statement has become increasingly popular, color as a neutral is becoming more common as well. This means that a traditional invitation may be pastel pink rather than ivory, or mint green rather than white.
Up North Bride Home » Spring 2009 Wedding Guide » You're Invited