Guide to Beautiful Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitations are an integral part of a wedding’s theme and the “mood” you want to set for your ceremony. After all, if the purpose were to solely inform the guests of the details of the event, then you could just send an email or postcard. However, the invitation also serves as a souvenir of a special occasion, and an announcement of a couple’s love. Like the wedding ceremony itself, it must be beautiful and personal.

Selecting the Wedding Invitation’s Design

There are thousands of ready-made wedding invitations to choose from; simply select a design, send the details, and the printer can have it ready within weeks. With such a wide selection, it may be difficult to pick which one is best. Here are the things to consider:

* Formal or casual. You want a wedding invitation to complement the overall theme and mood of the wedding. Is your wedding formal or casual? A Formal Wedding Invitations may need classic script fonts, formal wording, and the traditional double envelope. A more casual invitation may use more modern fonts and more natural wording (i.e., instead of “we cordially invite you”, say “please join us…”), but care must be taken to retain the solemnity of the occasion. Let’s say you want to enclose a photo of you and your fiancé—not typically done for traditional invitations. Wear appropriate clothes to the photo shoot: shorts and tank tops simply don’t work.

* Color. You should always choose a subdued color. If you are using a rather bright color for your motif, like turquoise, opt for a delicate ribbon trim or small accents at the sides or corners rather than applying it to the whole invitation. This makes the invitation look more classy, and again, is in keeping with the nature of the event. It’s a wedding, not a night dancing at a trendy club.

* Personal Touches. You can add a short poem, a photo of the couple, or a song lyric from the wedding ceremony.

Wedding Invitation Inserts

Most wedding invitation companies can provide a selection of templates where you just have to fill in the specific names, places and dates. However, many couples prefer to make their own, to make the invitation less stiff and more personalized. If so, here are a few guidelines:

* It is not necessary to put the entourage in the invitation. However, you can have a separate piece of paper listing the members that can be inserted in select invitations—specifically those that go to the entourage themselves, and to the more immediate family and friends. They would appreciate the souvenir; plus, it is a way of thanking them for their participation.

* You’d never forget to put the date and the venue, but many couples forget to put a map to the church and/.or reception area. A map would be very helpful, and would save many guests any inconvenience especially if the wedding is located in a place they are unfamiliar with.

* If you are trying to control the number of guests, insert a small card that says, “We have reserved __ seats for you.” This is a subtle and polite way of minimizing the headcount.

* If you are moving to a new home after the wedding, you can include another small insert announcing your new address.

Wedding Invitations - Tips for Picking Your Style

Picking out the wedding invitations will be one of the most exciting things that you do for your

wedding. You will want them to look great as they proclaim your big day to friends and family
all over the world. When you pick your wedding invitations you want them to have a sense of
style that is unique to you and that reflects your personality and the theme of your wedding as
well. The following are some tips to help you pick the style of wedding invitations that best suits
you and your wedding.

One of the first things that you should do when you are considering wedding invitations and
making your final choice is to think about whether you are having a formal wedding or a more
informal wedding. If you are having a formal black tie wedding, it will never do to send out
informal invitations. On the other hand, if you are having an informal wedding, formal
invitations may look overdone for what you are planning. Picking a formal style and formal paper
for your wedding invitations carries over the thought that you are having a formal wedding.
Lighter styles and papers will give your guests the informal feel that you are trying to have at
your wedding.

Considering your personal style and the style of your wedding is also important when you are
choosing wedding invitations. If you have certain colors in mind for your wedding you may want
to use those colors on your wedding invitations. Perhaps you are having a wedding in which
green and purple are your colors. Carrying the green and purple over to your invitations is a great
way to give your guests a tiny peek at what your wedding may be like. While you do not have to
match your invitations to your wedding colors, this does look classy. Otherwise you may just
want to pick wedding invitations in a favorite color or that has the look of your gown or some
other aspect of the wedding.

You should also keep your wedding theme in mind when you are choosing your wedding
invitations. Whether you are having a beach wedding, a country wedding, a garden wedding, or a
big church wedding, you should keep the theme in mind. Try to coordinate the theme and style of
your wedding invitations to the theme that you are having of your wedding. You can choose from
various paper types and designs that are available and no doubt you will be able to find
invitations that go with your chosen theme.

Wedding invitations are important because they are announcing the day of your marriage. You
want the invitations to look great and announce your wedding with style. Keeping in mind the
formality of the wedding, the colors and style, and the theme of your wedding can all help you
pick the perfect wedding invitations. Well designed invitations will impress your guests and be a
great way to invite them to one of the biggest events in your life.

Considerations When Choosing Wedding Invitations

If you are planning your wedding, you want everything about your wedding to reflect your personality and your sense of style. From your wedding dress to your wedding invitations, you want everything about your wedding to be perfect. Today, there are many different styles, colors and textures available for wedding invitations and finding your exact style may take some time. Following are several considerations that can help you find the invitations for your wedding that will reflect the beautiful and stylish person you are.

1. What is the Setting?
When you are choosing wedding invitations, it may help you to consider the setting of your wedding. Whether you are having a formal wedding or a more casual wedding, there are invitations that reflect that setting. If you are having a formal, black-tie wedding, you may want to consider invitations that are formal as well. If you are having a more casual outdoor wedding, an invitation that is casual may be just your style.
2. What are your Colors?
Another consideration that can help you find the wedding invitations that are perfect for you are the colors of your wedding. Invitations are available in almost every color you can think of, so matching your invitations to your wedding colors is possible and a great idea. You can also match colors to the theme of your wedding, choosing bright, sunny colors for a summer outdoor wedding or Christmas colors for a Christmas wedding.
3. What is Your Theme?
You may also want to consider the theme of your wedding when you are picking out your wedding invitations. If you are having a beach themed wedding, you can often find invitations that have pictures of the beach or follow that theme. If you are having a garden theme, you may want to have invitations that have flowers on them to go with the garden theme. Whatever theme you are having at your wedding, you can probably find invitations that complement that specific theme.
4. Do You Want Photos?
One option you have that will make your wedding invitations unique is having a photo of you and your groom-to-be on the front or inside your invitations. You can choose a simple invitation and have your photo added to make an invitation that your friends and family will treasure.
5. What is Your Budget?
When choosing your wedding invitations, you also should consider the budget you have. If you are spending more money on your dress, you may have to cut back on the money spent for invitations. Even if you are cutting back on the budget for invitations, there are many great choices that are budget friendly.

Your invitations are one way that you will let your friends and family know about your big day, so you want them to be perfect and a reflection of you and your love. Keeping these considerations in mind can help you find wedding invitations that will be beautiful, unique and a wonderful way to invite your cherished loved ones to share in your special day.

How Do You Choose Your Wedding Invitation

Compared to the price of wedding photos and gown, the cost for wedding invitation is a lot lower and some couples may overlook the production of it due to this reason. In fact, wedding invitation should be as important as your photos and gown. You cannot invite your guests to your wedding without a wedding invitation. How to choose the wedding invitation should be one of the essential issues a couple should take care of.

You need to choose a vendor before you really choose the wedding item. It is also true when you choose your invitation. You should firstly choose the wedding invitation provider. Reputation is always the most important point to consider. An irresponsible company will just ruin your wedding.

Besides, you should also observe if the company delivers products with good quality. You would like your wedding to be perfect and the wedding invitation should also be perfect. You should never choose a wedding card vendor which delivers cards with bad quality.

After you have decided which company you choose, you can start to think of the style you like. You may want the wedding invitation to match your wedding theme. In this case you can discuss with the designer what your wedding theme is so that they can make the design to match your theme.

Using your photos as the invitation becomes more and more popular these days. If you are planning to put your photos into the wedding invitation, you should always ask if the resolution of the photo you choose is high enough for printing. A photo with low resolution will just make the wedding invitation a mess.

Although the style of the invitation is very important, you should not miss the point that you have to put the details of your wedding into it. You need to put the address of the venue and date of your wedding. You may also need to include a small map into the wedding invitation so that your guests can find their way to the venue.

As a result you need to make sure that you will have enough space to incorporate all the information you need to put onto the wedding invitation. If it is not enough for a piece of card, you may need to make a few cards. For example, the details of your wedding are on one card and the map is on a separated card. If this is your choice, you may need to make a folder of some kind so that you can put all the cards, such as the main invitation, RSVP and map into it.

Furthermore, you should order your wedding card as soon as possible. Even the best company may make mistakes. If you do not order your invitation early, you will not have enough time to do it again if there is any mistake. It will only be a pity if you cannot have your perfect wedding cards just because you do not have enough time.

With all these in mind, you should be able to choose your dream wedding card.

How to Make Cheap Homemade Wedding Invitations

I know you are probably thinking that you have no idea of how to make cheap homemade wedding invitations. It isn’t difficult, saves you quite a bit of money and can be great fun. Besides we will lead you through it step by step.

First, you have to decide on the level of formality your wedding will have. This will have an effect on your design and wording choices.

Browse the web, looking for, do it yourself wedding invitation ideas. Many sites offer free templates with or without designs and wording samples. They allow you to download templates to use as is or to adapt to suit your needs. Some sites only allow you to download free templates if you purchase your wedding stationary from them.

Decide on your design, or graphic image and the wording that you will use.

Pick a font that goes with the theme and style of your invitations.

Buy your wedding invitation stationary, including cards for any enclosures, such as, RSVPs, Thank You cards .and programs that you may want to use your stationary blanks which are available in a wide variety of sizes and colors, purchase a few extra in case of a printing mishap, such as an ink smear or paper jam.

Purchase extra ink cartridges, so that you don’t run out in the middle of this important project.

Schedule an afternoon or evening to create your invitations and then print them. The whole thing shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours to complete.

Before telling the printer to begin making X number of copies, print one copy of each piece on plain paper cut to the sizes of your stationary ,to make sure that everything is lined up properly, and to check for typographical errors.

Make sure that the printer you plan on using adjusts to the different sizes of your stationary.

Enlist family and friends with nice handwriting to help you address your invitations.

Have fun while learning how to make cheap homemade wedding invitations.

Are you feeling overwhelmed, by trying to choose a design for your invitations? What is your theme? If you are having a destination wedding use clip art, photos or original art work that represent your destination, such as a beach scene, flip flops, palm trees, sunsets, or mountains.

Here, are some design ideas, that you may want to use on your invitations. For a western wedding a WANTED poster is at present very popular. Cowboy boots, and hats are often seen on western invitations. Couples often use fonts that look like logs or rope on this type of invitations.

Disney weddings are also extremely popular, and you can download free clip art of Cinderella and Prince Charming to use on your invitations, as well as other Disney icons like Lady and the Tramp.

Many couples are choosing to honor their religious or ethnic roots, for example , a Celtic Cross might be chosen by an Irish Catholic couple, and a Star of David or a rolled Torah scroll by a Jewish couple. A native American bride and groom might use a dream catcher on theirs. Consider honoring your heritage on this special day. Photos of landmarks from your ancestral homeland, also make great images for wedding invitations.

How To Make Your Own Unique Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitations can be quite expensive. By simply using your computer and following some basic instructions you can create your own quality bridal stationary and save a substantial amount of money in the process. Even those who do not consider themselves "crafty" can easily put together their own unique invitations using heavy stock paper and some embellishments.

Step 1: Choose a Background That Reflects Your Wedding Colors and Theme

Begin by choosing a heavy stock paper with a distinctive color, texture or print. This background paper should compliment the theme and colors of your wedding. Be sure the weight of the paper is at least 65 lb weight or more, depending on how sturdy you want the background paper to be. As this paper will not be printed on, you need not worry if it will feed through your printer. Cut the paper to the size you wish your invitation to be. By cutting an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet in half your invitation will be 4 1/2" x 5 1/2", which should be suitable for your purposes.

Step 2: Select a Lightweight, Sheer Paper For Printing

This is the paper where you will print the wording for your invitation. It will be secured on top of the background paper. Look for a translucent type of paper in a solid color. Some choices are: tracing paper, vellum, or rice paper.

Measure and cut the paper so that it is slightly smaller than the background. This will give your wedding invitation a nice solid border along the edges, creating a more professional look. Once you have your wording typed out and adjusted to fit properly (when printed), set your printer to "economy" or "draft" mode. This allows the least amount of ink to print on the paper making it harder to smudge - a good tip for those using an ink jet printer.

You may wish to add a small wedding graphic as well. You could place a graphic at the bottom center of the page or if you have a nice corner graphic, you could embellish the 4 corners of the paper. Remember to keep the graphic small so that it adds interest, but does not overwhelm the invitation.

Step 3: Attaching The Printed Invite To The Background

Here are a few methods which you can use to attach your printed paper to the background:

Glue the entire piece down. Using paper glue or small dollops of hot glue carefully dot the corners and edges of the translucent paper and center it over the background. For added embellishments you may wish to glue on a small ribbon bow, tiny silk flower, add a pretty sticker, or perhaps wrap a contrasting paper or silk ribbon band around the invitation.

Fasten the papers together at the top. Using a small hole punch, make two holes through both papers near the top. Tie the paper together using thin silk ribbons, raffia, small tassels or decorative metal fasteners.

Use a faux wax seal to secure your invitation. At the top, be sure to have your wax partly on the thin paper and partly on the background paper. Use a metal seal to press down into the wax. Once dry it will hold the two papers together. You may want to dab a bit of glue between the papers first for extra assurance. There are several faux wax seal kits that you can purchase in order to do this. If you want to save some money, you can also make your own "wax seal" by using colored hot glue gun wax, although I would suggest practicing first on scrap paper so you can get an idea of how much hot glue you need to make a proper "seal".

More Wedding Stationary Ideas That You Can Make

Don't stop at just wedding invitations. Use the above methods to create matching reply cards, wedding programs, and thank-you notes. Your guests will be impressed with the uniqueness of your invitations and you will be pleasantly surprised at how fun and easy creating your own wedding stationary can be.

Hot Trends in Wedding Invitations

Gone are the days where tried and true, conventional ivory or white invitations are the norm. We have seen a strong increase in unique invitations, styles, colors and design. Brides today want a fresh, modern look with embellishments and pizazz. Brides want to "wow" their guests with inspiring design, unique decorations, and stylish papers. Invitation companies are responding to these trends by providing a plethora of options, colors and modern designs. If you can not find what you are looking for in stores, there are a variety of stationary companies online which provide fresh invitation ideas. Or for signature work, sit down with a stationer about six months before your event for a completely custom design.

Here are 5 Hot Tips and Trends for Wedding Invitations for the last half of 2008 and 2009:

1) Unusual materials - Embellishments up the wow factor for your invites. Think unconventional materials to accent your invites such as bamboo, sinamay envelopes, raffia ties. It's all about the "au natural" feeling this year due to the increase in eco-chic weddings.

2) Fresh Font Styles - Forget the traditional fonts and the traditional font sizes. Switch things up with unusual font design, unexpected text placement (such as a vertical date), and eye-catching colors.

3) Ethnic Details - Celebrate your heritage! If you are of Indian decent, how about a sari inspired print design for your wedding invitations in modern colors such as hot pink and gold? Or if you are of Irish decent, why not have a custom die cast letterpress invitation with a Celtic-inspired monogram?

4) Combined Colors - gone are the days of white invitations with standard ink colors. Invitations now can be matted such as matting a picture in a frame, with several different colors and materials behind the actual invitation, giving your invite an almost 3-D touch. Cool color combinations such as pink and orange, blue and greens, ivory and black, turquoise and tan spice up the traditional color scheme.

5) New Shapes - for a stylish alternative to the traditional rectangle, try an oversized square or a round invitation. Be careful though, alternate Shape Wedding Invitations can cost more to mail.