The wedding invitation introduces your guests to your wedding and how the event is expected to be.  Upon receiving the invitation, guests would get an idea if your wedding is going to have a casual beach setting, a formal traditional motif, a romantic garden theme, or whatever your theme and style of wedding will be.  It is essential, therefore, to plan your stationery carefully so that it truly reflects the kind of event that you are going to have.

Gone are the days when invitations are almost restricted to being white and classic. In the recent years, wedding invitations have developed a lot more interesting appearances. The colours, materials, and fancy embellishments have gone a long way.  Now, you can have your invitations as stylish and creative as you want them to be, only limited by your imagination… or that of your stationery designer.

Colour
Weddings nowadays have become bolder when it comes to their colour schemes.  Long ago, the colour would often be composed of just one colour. Today, it is not surprising to witness weddings with myriad of colours for their schemes.  Metallic colours have become a natural sight, while brown has become the new black.  You can now get inspiration from an existing floral design that you admire with beige, teal, lavender and old rose colours… or from your carnival theme with a burst of pinks, oranges and yellows. Of course, the black and white scheme will remain a classic combination that never goes out of style.

Theme
Theme weddings have become more popular too.  While old invitations have mostly just words and lines in theme, probably with a small embossed monochromatic dove or wedding rings or hearts or flowers, today’s invitations have as much freedom of design as you want. They can reflect the theme of your wedding by having all these coloured flowers, if you’re having a garden wedding; sand, seashells, and frangipani designs, if you’re after a tropical beach theme; laces and glitters for the luxurious events, and so on.

Embellishment
Wedding invitations no longer arrive just in slim envelopes.  Sometimes, they come in boxes, too. This is usually because of the three dimensional embellishments added to the invitations. You can add satin ribbons, silk flowers, rhinestone buckles, seashells, crystal beads, feathers, pearls, lace appliques, or tassels.

Paper
The ultra creative designs of invitations today have called for the availability of specialty papers. A vast amount of beautiful paper is available in the market, making any design of invitation you want absolutely possible. There are recycled, linen, vellum, metallic, handmade, printed, or paper with glitters.

Creating the Invite
Basically, you will have three options. First, for the brave and creative artists, you can do it yourself. This can be tricky, so better keep your design simple enough for you to handle. The advantage of this would be having an absolutely unique invitation at a lower price. Second, just as many brides do, you can just order your invitations from stationery suppliers. Of course, the price would be higher, but you will have beautiful invitations made by professionals and all you have to do is to address the envelops. Lastly, there is also what we call half-and-half. In the market, there are DIY invitation kits available.  In these kits, invitations are partly done, and you can just assemble them yourself or with the help of your family, friends, or bridal party.

Finally, always remember that packaging your wedding invitation is important as well. Mailing your invitations means that they will possibly some rough handling. A few brides have been upset and dismayed at seeing their beautifully made invitations in a miserable appearance after being received by a family or friend through the mail. So it’s either you take extra care in packaging your invites, or hand deliver them personally.

When you are planning a wedding, you certainly know how important your wedding invitations will be. They not only invite your family and friends to one of the most important days of your life but also provide them with all the celebration details.

Depending on your wedding scenario, there may be many more details to include for guests beyond the date and time of the ceremony and reception. That is where additional wedding invitation inserts may be required. Quite often your invitation design will have these extra cards available to match.

The enclosures needed will vary by wedding depending on the circumstances but here are some of the available insert options:

• Accommodation Cards – Out-of-town guests needing overnight arrangements will greatly appreciate receiving these cards since they list contact information for the hotel(s) where a block of rooms has been reserved.
• Direction or Map Cards – Any time guests may not know how to reach your ceremony and reception location, it is a good idea to include these cards as an added convenience providing detailed directions.
• Reception Cards – If your wedding invitation doesn’t have room for your reception information, this separate card can be included listing all the details.
• Response Cards – Including these cards for guests to let you know if they will be attending will assist you in accurately making your seating and food arrangements. For quick and easy return by your guests, a mailing envelope with postage already attached needs to be included unless they are a postcard design.

Remember to keep in mind that the addition of wedding invitation inserts could increase your mailing postage since it is based on weight so it’s imperative to take one of your ready-to-mail invitations to the Post Office to be weighed for determining the proper postage amount. Then again, it is totally worth any extra costs if the addition of these insert cards will provide your guests with all the information they need to be part of your special day.