Flowers on Custom Wedding Invitations
Customized wedding invitations are an emerging trend. Adding a floral touch to your wedding celebration – and the invitations too – will impress your guests, to say the least. Give them something they have never seen before, and you are guaranteed to have a wedding they will never forget. This article will discuss which flowers you are supposed to print on your wedding invitations, as well as offer you some tips and do’s and don’ts.
Use your preferred flowers
It’s your wedding, so everything is allowed. Using roses on a wedding invitation is such an old cliché. Do you like tulips? Then by all means, go for it, print a bunch of tulips on your invitation! Custom wedding invitations don’t have to follow any pattern, so let your imagination run wild. Put a bit of yourself in it – your guests will love it.
How to place flowers on the wedding invitation
You can try many ways and see which you like best. Here are some ideas to get your inspiration running:
- Place a picture of a beautiful garden on the background – make sure, however, that the colors are dimmed enough so that the text is clearly legible.
- Use a drawing of your favorite flower, or whichever flowers you are going to use as your wedding theme. Have a border of roses around the card.
- If your bride bouquet will be made of synthetic flowers, you can order it well in advance and place a real photo of it on the invitation – you can bet that some of your guests will notice it when they arrive at the ceremony.
Calla lilies are trendy
Calla lilies are increasingly popular on modern wedding invitations. They boost a simple elegance and their white natural color symbolizes purity and magnificent beauty. In Christian iconography, the flower stands for chastity, while ancient Romans took it for a sign of the holy union within a couple. If you are going to get married in spring or summer and want to use calla lilies in the bridal bouquet, a stylized flower on your wedding invitation is quite a must.
Beware of roses!
A lot of custom wedding invitation designs include pictures of roses. Although you are highly encouraged to explore your creative side and come with non-conventional ways of expressing yourself, don’t use yellow, peach or black roses. Yellow is the sign of jealousy, peach symbolizes sympathy and black stands for death. While symbolism may not matter to you, keep in mind that you will be inviting all kinds of people, and some of them may be a bit old-fashioned. A guest that becomes judgmental from the very moment he lays eyes on your wedding invitation is likely to turn you down. It’s okay to get creative, but stay within some generally accepted norms.
Flowers, season and location
Using flowers which bloom in the same season will help you match the invitation against the whole theme of your wedding. If you use year-round flowers in your bouquet, don’t print any seasonal ones on your invitations, and vice versa. Similarly, don’t use tropical stationery if you are going to get married close to the Canadian border – it would look silly. Don’t use a garden theme if you are getting married in winter. And no, please don’t use a picture of a sunny beach if you don’t live close to the coast or a peaceful mountain view if you are in Bahamas.
Creating your custom floral invitations
Even though some sites recommend you should cut down on expenses and print the invitations yourself, I would strongly advise you to hire a professional to do it for you. They can suggest the best quality paper and know some ‘inside tricks’ that will make your invitations stand out. You can, however, download some floral stationery from one of the many sites out there and decide on a rough layout before heading to a print shop. Use Photoshop, Corel or your preferred program to place the elements across the page and only ask the print shop’s graphic designer to fine-tune it for you.
You constantly need to consider cost and physical space when planning your wedding. This is where reception cards are of vital importance and will affect the decision you make concerning your custom made wedding invitations. This is because it is possible to divide your guests into groups that will only attend certain aspects of your wedding. For instance, you may invite a certain portion of your guests to the reception only, which needs to be pointed out in your custom made wedding invitations. But make sure that all the guests on this restricted list are not in close contact with people who are invited to the actual wedding, as this may cause unnecessary jealousy and tension. Reception cards are useful because they are meant to target these various groups of guests, together with the different times they need to appear and the locations of the different events. This is especially important if you are inviting people who do not live locally, as they will have to deal with navigation and accommodation issues, and you need to minimize the stress on their part to ensure their attendance.
When arranging your wedding, make sure you think carefully about which roles to assign to the people you have invited, as displayed in your customized wedding invitations wording. What should be the happiest day of your life may very well be the cause of you losing dear friends, if you create tensions and jealousy, which will come through in your customized wedding invitations wording. Remember that there is no rule that says you need to have only one best man or only one lady in waiting. Similarly, don’t upset anyone by saying there aren’t enough brides maid, usher or ring bearer positions available. You have total control over your wedding and can assign as many people to as many positions as you like. You can even create titles and roles, to keep everyone satisfied. The latter can be an especially effective strategy, as people will be more excited about your wedding if they feel they have an active role to play and have a responsibility in ensuring a good outcome.
Traditionally the onus was on the bride to set the tone of the wedding, from the décor of the reception, through to the flowers at the altar and the wedding invitations, as shown in your customized wedding invitation samples. However, nowadays the groom is expected to provide some input concerning the aesthetics of the event, and in going through the customized wedding invitation samples. Although the idea of the wedding is to unite the two people in question, some couples will segregate their wedding cards to the specifications of husband and wife. This lends an interesting quality to your customized cards and allows for a more interesting and decorative layout. In order to keep things neat and comprehensive, you may want to send out a bundle of invitations for your wedding-related events, such as bridal showers and stag nights, together with your main event details. This will prevent people from losing one or more of your separate invitations and will allow them to make time for each of your occasions in one go. This bundled approach also allows you to add an additional creative dimension to your presentation. You could, for instance, include a calendar with pre-circled dates. You could also include maps with driving directions and timelines of events.
If you have decided to design your custom wedding invitations online, bear in mind that you will not be able to get a ‘feel’ for your cards as well as you could in a physical store. However, some websites have advanced customizable design features available, so that you can create your wedding invitations in minute detail and have a reasonably good idea of how the finished product is going to look. It is also worth noting that, if you are designing your custom wedding invitations online, there may not be a human being involved in any stage of production. The features you specified online may be sent directly to a printer. Therefore, it is very important to proofread any text and double and triple check the layout prior to purchase.