Choosing Wedding Invitations

Choosing the perfect wedding invitation for our celebration has been more challenging than expected.

I’ve learned that I could look at graphic design and illustration and fonts all day.  I’ve also learned that I’m crazy about the texture of letterpress.   But thanks, in part, to your comments, we’ll skip the letterpress for the cheaper digital printing.   Then, after the wedding, I’ll order a custom letterpress poster for us to frame instead of the invite.  Or maybe I’ll do both.

Now for the design dilemmas:   We don’t want to get too hokey with a theme, and our bright Caribbean color palette of orange, lime green, and hibiscus pink must be used sparingly in order to remain  modern and classy.   We could use a palm tree or tropical flower theme – but I thought a clean, modern design without pictures would be more snazzy.  My instinct was confirmed when I looked through pages and pages of invites on Etsy and stationery sites.  All the tropical invites were either too old-fashioned formal, or went too far with the cheesiness.

I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I have “reality” TV to thank for this sudden understanding of understated good taste.  I’ve been loving My Fair Wedding with David Tutera ( instant play on Netflix).  The show focuses on ridiculously themed weddings, but David always manages to take their concept and make it elegant and wedding-appropriate.  It may sound crazy, but I’m really paying attention to how he does it, and learning a lot about incorporating elements of a  theme into modern design.

With this in mind, I pinned like a fool for weeks, then sat Ryan down last night to look through our Pinterest Wedding Stationery board.  We quickly eliminated any designs that he didn’t like, or ones where I said “what on earth was I thinking when I pinned that?”

I know I said no graphics or pictures, but I love the blocked style of this Time Flies invite from Minted.  I love the idea of vintage poster-style stationery, but so many of the designs go over the top with a slew of different fonts and colors and type sizes.  Way too many.  I get lost trying to read my way through them. Time Flies, however, offers a great balance of color and style.

Sadly, it’s once again not anything to do with our theme.  Wouldn’t it make a cute baby announcement, though?  Maybe we’ll order it next spring. 😉

Time Flies from Minted

The bright colors of this Summer Tones invite from Printable Press really caught my attention. Again, these graphics are done so artfully.  Ryan also likes it.  Our only concerns are:  the summer flowers have nothing to do with our wedding theme, and I don’t love the traditional fonts that it uses. On the other hand, you just buy the design and then print it yourself, so the cost savings are pretty excellent.

Summer Tones from Printable Press

I’m not one to jump on style or color bandwagons like Ikat or chevron or the like.   But despite my better judgement about following trends, I was drawn to this Ombre wedding invite by Minted.  Ryan also liked it, saying it was a top contender so far.  I think what I like about it is the straightforward, modern font overlaid on the murky, muddled color background.  The coloring evokes an abstract beach image in my mind, like a piece of art – maybe that’s why I like it so much.

Ombre Wedding Invites from Minted

We haven’t made a decision yet, but we will do so this weekend for sure.  If we go with the Ombre ones, the invites & envelopes will cost about $200, and that’s worth it to us.  The print-it-yourself option could be cheaper, but my concern is that a strong color invite may not come out as well if we DIY the printing.   However, I’ll DIY the RSVP cards and other invite inserts.

If you’re married, did you feel the pressure to get “just the right” invites?  I feel like it’s important for setting the tone and theme for the wedding, like it has to be *perfect*.  But maybe it’s not as big a deal as I think.

There’s one thing I have figured out during this invitation-choosing process:  Traditional invitations are most certainly not my style.    What about you?

PS:  I am loving the blog Oh So Beautiful Paper.  And in their sidebar they have advertising from a ton of fabulous letterpress and stationery companies.