Brides & Grooms always tell me that they don’t want to spend much on their invitations. Though I am not a believer in ‘excess’ or too much ‘frou frou’, what we need to remember is that the invitation to your special day truly sets the tone of the wedding.
Invitations do not necessarily need to cost a fortune but what’s important is that time and attention is allocated to the process. To be honest, of all the elements to plan for a wedding, I hate the invitation process. The amount of hours it takes to make sure people’s lists are ok, rework them, write the text, proof the text with both families, fix the design, change the design, adjust this, adjust that, the mailing process….it just so tedious and there is so much that can go wrong. Trust me, because we have literally been through it all – paper doesn’t arrive in time, the printer breaks, something is misspelled, invites are too big for the envelope, etc etc. etc.
But on the other hand, when you receive a nice final product after all the hardship, it’s a real source of excitement leading up to your wedding day.
What I think is really important is to try to step out of the box just a little……let me tell you why I think Jason &my invitations had such an impact (I seriously got tons of positive feedback!)
1. We kept it simple (and cheap to mail – he he) . We used a 1-layer 4×9 format (standard envelope size). Not too big, not to small, and slightly uncommon as a size for an invite to a wedding.
2. We selected a beautiful card stock. It almost feels like velvet. The amount of people that told me they rubbed their face on it is shocking….lol.
3. We did an ‘Italian wedding faux-pas’ and chose BLACK card stock.
4. We were playful with the text & design:
- We used our gorgeous crest logo
- We acknowledged our families without necessarily having ‘our parents invite’
- we gave people a little sneak peek into what to expect – a food, wine & music soirée
- we imposed a dress code in non-standard language – be black, be white, be gold…be bold (my mom’s word selection….forgot to mention that my mom is the second best event planner in our family…you attend one of her affairs and you will never see dinner parties in the same way)
- On the rsvp card, we used like images for our food selection & asked guests for their song selection
5. We chose a gold envelope (I am obsessed with the colour gold). Funniest feedback we got was from our friend’s dad who didn’t want to give the invite to his son thinking it was an invitation for him to go back to the Bellagio in Vegas…haha.
6. Lastly, we used LETTERPRESS…..even the word gets me excited.
Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing using a printing press….it was developed in the mid-15th century and the result is truly stunning.
When I think of letterpress printing, I think of one company in this city THAT SKY BLUE. Litsa, who is now a good friend (this tends to happen when you spend so much time – and share frustration – on the invitation process), is amazing at her craft and her letterpress printer is such a magnificent piece of machinery. Whenever I go down to her shop, I feel I need to go stand in front of this machine, give it a little bit of affection and be grateful to it that is it still running. I mean, it’s centuries old (!!) and I don’t doubt that it also feels the pressure to produce and move quickly and satisfy clients but meanwhile it’s just an old fart and probably really wants to say ‘f—k off – shut me down’.
Ok, I’m rambling….that being said, letterpress was a great choice for us because it truly gave our invitations a little bit of an ‘old-world feel’ and ‘real presence’.
Other examples of beautiful letterpress invites (sorry for the photos that do NOT do them justice):
* Design by Cameleon Design Studio
*Design by Cameleon Design Studio
I may be in love with letter press but that’s not to say that I don’t love digital or offset invitations.
For Jason & I’s engagement party back in August, we hosted a beautiful small lunch bbq in my parents’ backyard. The Preiato sisters from Invite & Co. created a simple pretty invitation for us that truly suited our event.
I want to finish off this blog by saying have fun with every element of your event including the invitations. Take the time to think about the impression you want to give to guests, use a professional invite designer to help you and start early!
TANIA
THAT SKY BLUE: www.thatskyblue.com
INVITE & CO: www.in-vite.ca