Trendy Wednesday: All in the Invite

Trendy Wednesday by Jenna Paniccia

The second your wedding invitations hit the mail, your wedding has officially begun! Wedding invitations set the mood for what your guests will be experiencing on your big day. It’s a way to show off the ambiance and excitement that your wedding will be filled with.

There is so much to consider when choosing wedding invitations. All the little details can make a huge impact on something so quaint.

When considering the style of your invitations I think it’s best to design around your wedding colors versus your wedding theme. Invitations are planned out early in the wedding process. Most brides find a color palette that they love and stick with it; but when it comes to design of the wedding, theme changes are endless. Also, keep your personalities in mind. Do you want your wedding to be traditional and classic, or is your wedding going to be eccentric? Your answer to this question says a lot about the look and feel of your wedding invitations.

Planning the invitations can be a little stressful, and the less stress the better! Looking through invitations and finding details from a few that you love and then applying those details to your own invitations helps make the process run more smoothly. When you have a visual of something you really like it’s easier to come up with an overall concept.

Make sure to shop around before choosing a vendor! Invitations can get a little pricey, so it’s easy to go over-board. Really think about if you want to send a save the date, if you need to include directions for the venue, whether you’ll have a seated dinner with entrée options or a buffet style event… all of these questions can change the price of the overall outcome. Make sure the stationer you pick really understands what you are looking for before sending your design to print! Requesting a sample is always best to make sure you love the invitation as much as you love your dress.

Keep in mind that your invitation is like the pictures from your wedding. Ten years from now, you’ll want to look back and have fond memories of the whole process. Make sure you love every aspect that goes into the design and be proud to drop them in the mail. Have fun with it, be creative, and keep the invitations true to you.

Photo credit: ruffhouseart.com, vponsale.com, onewed.com, weddinginvitationscards.com, ohsobeautifulpaper.com, mostweddingflowerideas.com

Stationary Insanity

Diary of a Bride to Be by Lauren Cooper

This week I started getting more in depth with finding invitations. And my head is spinning. I know I’ve written about some amazing stationers before (Twig & Fig, Ceci New York, Wedding Paper Divas) but I decided to branch out a bit and explore more options. Little did I know just how many MILLIONS of options there are. And some are just over the top expensive. Add that to the fact that every time I pick up a bridal magazine or check a blog for ideas there has to be that Debbie Downer that says, “Oh, but our guests are just going to through the invites out anyway”. Ugh. Knife. Through. Heart.

So, my amazing wedding planner recommended some stationers to me that I’m looking into and yesterday I ventured out to a local store and browsed through some books. And more books. Until they all started to look the same. Annnnd of course the ones that I literally went, “Ooooo” out loud to, cost pretty much my whole stationary budget. So back home I went with pictures on my phone and a DIY mission in my head. No, I’m not going to make my invites myself. I don’t want to drive myself insane. But there are some things I think I can make rather easily and save on the overall cost of the stationary. Like ceremony programs.

But how do I justify splurging on invites when most people throw it away? Really? Aren’t there some family members that save invites? I know my parents will. On the other hand, do I really care if they throw it away as long as it makes FH and I happy? Oh for pete’s sake its PAPER and I’m overanalyzing it. What am I gonna be like when we go dress shopping?!

This one I’ll have to sleep on for a while.

TODs Tip of the Day – SPARKle!

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Valerie from fabulous letterpress company Spark at a trunk show at Kate’s Paperie in SoHo. And it was gorgeous, girls! Going letterpress is a slightly more expensive, but worth the additional cost to create a luxurious feeling and texture to your invitation suite. The texture is divine, and I love how the Spark team embosses a single color on the same color paper for a subtle and beautiful look. Not to mention this brand is eco friendly and offers price breaks on these items such as RSVP postcards vs. envelopes. Here are some of my favorites!

TOD says: Make your invites SPARKle!