Your wedding is one of the most important days of your life, and you want everything to be perfect. From the dress to the food to the reception, every wedding detail matters. Even your wedding invitations are of chief importance. These small pieces of cardstock announce your union to friends and family, so it’s important that they express your personality in a meaningful way.
It’s increasingly common for couples to step outside the box when it comes to designing wedding invitations. Invitations don’t have to be traditional or stark white and black. You can liven up your invitations by having them custom made. Here are a few ideas for making your invitations just as special as your marriage.
Many invitation designers and printers offer unique customization options to help you express your style. The customization options range from varying the wording on invitations to using your own photos as a background.
You can also choose from a wide selection of paper colors for your invitations, ink colors for your wording, border colors and styles and envelope liners. You can add embellishments like ribbons and bows, or slip your invitation into a sleeve or gatefold wrapper. With all the options available to customize your invitations, you can easily create wedding invitations and stationery that are uniquely your own.
But with so many options to customize and personalize your wedding invitations, it’s easy to get confused or overwhelmed. Understanding the different types of customizations can help you narrow down your choices.
Wedding Invitation Paper Color
One of the most obvious ways to customize your invitations is to pick out colorful paper. While many invitation styles are only available in white or ivory, a growing number of printers and designers are offering wedding stationery in colors that range from pure white to bright jewel tones, and even to black and brown. You can match your wedding invitation color to your wedding party colors, or simply choose your favorite colors to express your personality.
Wedding Invitation Ink Color
Traditionally, wedding invitation ink color had to be black. But these days, you can choose from a veritable rainbow of ink. Keep in mind that the colors you choose need to be easy to read against the color of your background paper. Light and bright colors can be difficult to read against a white background. Bright colors usually look best on cream or ivory backgrounds. And light inks look best on dark or bright backgrounds. If you’re choosing unconventional ink and paper colors, be sure to either follow manufacturer suggestions or ask for a proof so that you can see how it will work.
Wedding Invitation Border Colors
In addition to the ink color used for your invitation print, you may have a choice of border or design colors. For instance, one invitation style that features brightly colored pansies against a white background could be available in light blue, deep violet, red, tangerine and bright red. Others can feature a printed border design and allow you to choose the color of the border. You may be able to choose border colors that compliment or contrast the color of ink you choose for your printing.
Wedding Invitation Fonts and Templates
You may also have the choice of several different fonts and layouts for your wedding invitation style. For example, one popular wedding website offers a simple border style invitation with dozens of options. You can choose from one or two ink colors in over 40 different single color and two-color combinations, and over 50 font choices. From there, you can add a monogram or choose one of thirty different wedding motifs that include champagne glasses, hummingbirds, butterflies or flowers to customize it further. Finally, you can choose whether to center your invitation text or align it to the right or the left. With all those options, it’s easy to come up with an invitation that is totally unique.
Wedding Invitation Embellishments
In addition to the standard elements, there are various embellishments that you can choose to customize your wedding invitations. The embellishments include items like ribbons and bows to wrap your invitations, vellum wraps to enclose them and envelope liners to add a bit of elegance to your invitation package. You can also choose invitation backers in a wedding theme color, and match it to your envelope liners, then finish off with a matching or contrasting ribbon to complete the look.
Keep in mind that your wedding stationery includes more than just your invitations. You can apply many of the same customizations to other wedding stationery like Thank You cards, RSVP cards and Save the Date cards. Ordering these all at the same time guarantees that all of your wedding stationery is not only unique, but coordinated too.
Jennifer Bailey is a freelance writer who writes about weddings, usually focusing on a specific aspect of a wedding like wedding invitations.