There are many ways to personalize your wedding style. You could choose whichever music performers suit you best. You could customize the floral design or even the sweet corner. But nothing personalizes your wedding like wedding invitations and stationery!
Wedding invitations are a great way to announce your wedding style and theme to your guests before your destination wedding in Istria. You could consider them as a sneak-peak to the wedding day. Wedding invitations reveal important information such as date, location, timeline, personalized website etc. You only get one chance to make the first impression. So make it count! Having this in mind, choosing your wedding invitations and stationery could become quite overwhelming. That’s why we are writing this article. In it we offer you a few suggestions which might help you with choosing your wedding stationery.
How to choose a wedding invitation that’s right for you
Wedding invitations, and stationery in general, must reflect your personalities. But wedding invitations should also reflect your chosen wedding venue. If you are hosting a formal black-tie destination wedding at royal hotel hall, then a rustic stationery will simply not cut it. You will require more traditional, modern and elegant invitations. Likewise, for a garden wedding with a casual attire, those fine art wedding invitations will not be a proper way to show the guests what they should expect. Also, there’s a lot more information that needs to be communicated with your guests if you are planning a destination wedding in Croatia. Invitations to such wedding should include information about guest accommodation, reception, website links, RSVP cards, etc.
What to include in your wedding invitations
Once you decided which stationery design suits you best, then it’s important to know what your wedding invitations must contain. Now is the time to consider how to properly inform your guests about the relevant details of your wedding day.
Space on the wedding invitation is limited, and no one likes to read an overcrowded wedding invitation. So here are the parts which should be prioritized:
- your and your partner’s names (and surnames if you want to include them; that’s up to you),
- request to join your celebration, aka call-to-action (e.g. “Please join us to celebrate our wedding”),
- wedding date and time,
- location of the ceremony and guest reception,
- wedding timeline (only the most important parts – ceremony time, dinner time etc.),
- dress code (if you have it),
- RSVP card / date – give your guests a due date until they need to inform you about their arrival, and if possible, define it as at least 45-60 days before the wedding date and
- link to your personalized wedding website (if you have it).
How to address wedding invitations
When it’s time to address the invitations, then many questions arise. Newlyweds usually stress out about titles of their invitees and plus ones. Our best advice is to avoid writing your guests’ names on wedding invitations. That way you can send each wedding invitation to anyone you decide. You won’t have to worry if you have mixed them up and sent the wrong invitation. This is the most relaxed approach.
Albeit, if you’d still like to personalize each wedding invitation to a single guest, you can go forward with it. There are various options and scenarios at your disposal, which can affect how to address your guests. For example, an invitation addressed to a family differs from an invitation addressed to a single person. To help you stay on top of everything, we have put together a list of a few addressing examples. These examples demonstrate how to properly address a wedding invitation. They will surely help you to avoid headache about this little but significant wedding task:
- Invitation addressed to a single person: if they are coming with a date, it is best to address both of them by their names, if possible:
- without the plus-one : Mr. Specter
- with a plus-one (known name): John and Ivy
- with a plus-one (unknown name): John and Guest
- Invitation addressed to a family: if they have children, you should address it to their parents’ names, and state children names aside. If you don’t include any children names (or not even a note), guests might assume that you are throwing an adults-only wedding, meaning that kids are not welcome.
- with children: Mr. and Mrs. Specter, with children (or add children names)
- without children: Mr. and Mrs. Specter
- Invitation to a married couple: depending whether they have the same surname, you can decide if you want to address them by their last name, or only by their first names:
- example 1: Mr. John and Mrs. Ivy Johansson
- example 2: Mr. and Mrs. Specter
- example 3: Ivy and John
- example 4: Mr. John Specter and Mrs. Ivy Johansson
- Invitation to an unmarried couple: both names should be included on the invitation. If they are your close friends and you want to keep it casual, address it with their first names. If, on the other hand, they are colleagues, business partners or distant family members, you can address them with the titles and surnames:
- with first names: Ivy and John
- with last names: Mr. John Specter and Mrs. Ivy Johansson
Wedding invitations and stationery design
It is easiest to go for predesigned wedding invitations. But it might be much more expressive to give your invitations a personalized touch. If you are eager to create custom wedding invitations, I suggest you to work with an invitation designer. Let them help you get to the final design, which describes you the best.
A local vendor Pi – Linia is a great wedding invitations designer. They are well known for their hand-made wedding invitations and envelops, illustrations and for their graphic design overall. Their portfolio is amazing, and they can bring to life any custom design you wish for.
Details that personalize the wedding invitation
There are many details which can be used to personalize your wedding invitation:
- wedding monograms,
- wedding logo,
- customized ribbons,
- dried and compressed flowers glued to the invitation or
- wax to seal the envelope.
A wedding monogram and a wedding logo could be very similar. When it comes to weddings, logos are most often created from newlyweds’ initials. Only distinction between a logo and a monogram is that in a monogram the letters interlace each other. In a logo the letters may be separated. Both a wedding monogram and a wedding logo bear a very personal meaning. They undoubtedly give your wedding invitation a unique touch. They look luxurious and modern on an invitation. And, once designed, they can be used on all printed materials for your wedding. A logo or a monogram will become your special mark. It will keep reminding you of your wedding forever.
With ribbons there are countless options. You can choose from various materials. Most popular are: chifon, silk, satin, jute, velvet etc. You can also choose various bow types. We strongly suggest simpler bows if you are going to tie each one yourself. A ribbon with a bow is a perfect way of closing a wedding invitation without waxing it.
Wax gives a traditional and timeless touch to your wedding invitation. It adds elegance to the overall design. But if you need to open the wedding invitation for any reason a tied ribbon can easily be returned later. Wax is, on the other hand, permanent until an invitee breaks the seal. That might not be practical. So couples often decide to simply stamp the wax on an invitation without closing it up. That way an invitee may read the invitation while keeping the seal fresh and beautiful. After all, it is a piece of work which your families will keep forever.
Wedding invitations to a micro wedding
Micro weddings became quite popular recently. Micro weddings are weddings with a very few guests, but still more than an elopement.
Newlyweds who decide to have a micro wedding intend to amplify the warmth and coziness by inviting less guests. At a micro wedding intimacy is far more important than formality. Thus, the key is to invite only the most important people to you.
Invitation for this type of a wedding must include newlyweds’ names and wedding date, time and location. Information should be clear and easy to read. It doesn’t need to contain many more details. You will be sharing it to the closest friends, to whom you probably talk every day, so you will be able to convey all other details in person. You can include additional details like the instructions for the wedding day, transportation options, accommodation, dress code, specific plans. But we suggest to keep the invitation very simple, unique and creative – to present your personalities.
Online wedding invitations
Could you imagine modern communication without internet? Also increasing number of people relocate to another country, so it is harder to invite them to your wedding. And finally newlyweds sometimes just don’t have enough time to personally give the invitations to each guest. The perfect alternative is an online invitation!
There are pros and cons to the online invitations. An online invitation is much less expensive. It is environmentally acceptable. The RSVP is offered through a single click and less time consuming for the invitee. However, online invitations are easier to ignore. Some people can take them less seriously. And they are definitely not the best form of inviting your grandparents and other elder family members.
Whatever you decide, you won’t be wrong. There is always an option of sending a few regular invitations, while sending online invitations to the rest of the guests. Local vendors My Wedd Web and Join Cards are making wonders with helping newlyweds to send online invitations. They will help you prepare the online wedding invitation design and send it out. They will also enable you to collect the RSVP responses in one place, easy to review.
Impact of wedding stationery
Invitations to the destination wedding are significant for many reasons. Before anything else, invitations give guests all the essential information so they can plan their holidays and travels on time. Consider your wedding invitations and stationery as your personal wedding ambassador. Stationery guides your guests in several forms:
- save the date cards,
- wedding invitations,
- seating plan,
- place cards,
- wedding programs,
- printed menus,
- thank you cards,
- table names or numbers and
- many more.
Each one of them communicates with your guests. So don’t consider it only as a piece of paper. Wedding invitations and stationery are your masterwork!
We are wedding planners at Flammeum. We wrote this blog as an answer to numerous questions from our dear newlyweds about wedding invitations and stationery. If we left any question unanswered, feel free to contact us. Or read our blog to help guide you about destination weddings in Croatia.