Tips On Designing Your Wedding Invitations

We welcome Guest Blogger, Bryan Passanisi, with Shutterfly, today for some great tips on wedding invitation design! Shutterfly has some great budget-friendly resources for those of you on the hunt for wedding invitations! I first became familiar with Shutterfly from my sister who has been using this company for creating photo books of her children each year. I'm so jealous because I have yet to finish mine and Jagger is almost 4! I have a lot of catching up to do! Be sure to check them out! They have a lot of really awesome and creative ways to add details to your wedding OR make great gifts for your family.

Things to Think About When Designing Wedding Invitations

Invitations are one of the most important parts of preparing for a wedding. Not only do they notify your guests of the marriage and convey important information like time and place, they also set the tone for the rest of the wedding. It’s important to have a good first impression, but there are so many options out there for wedding invitation design that choosing the right style can be difficult. Here are a few tips that can help guide you as you create the perfect invitation.

Consider the Ceremony

First of all, make sure that the tone you pick for your invitation reflects the rest of the wedding. Are you hoping to have a fun, casual celebration? Or do you want a formal tuxedo and ballgown affair? More formal invitations look very different from more casual ones. The difference can extend from wording choices to the paper used—formal invitations tend to be on thicker, more expensive paper than informal ones.

Color Choices

Consider choices such as the colors and design of your invitation. Formal invitations are typically more limited in their palette; you may wish to stick with traditional neutrals such as cream, black, or gold. One color might be used as an accent or highlight. Less formal invitations, though, have a lot more latitude when it comes to the use of color—you can choose vibrant blues, bright yellows, or whatever combinations will match with your wedding theme. Try not to include too many shades, though, or else the invitation can come across as too loud; stick with a set of related hues or go for two or three contrasting shades.

Creative Shapes

If you really want to get creative, then experiment with the shape of your invites. Traditional invitations are rectangular, although elegant quatrefoils may be acceptable. If you’re having a less formal wedding, though, feel free to experiment with rounded corners, scalloped edge, or even circular or square invitations that reflect your personality.

Font Options

The font is important too. You’ll probably want some sort of script for a formal invitation, whereas nontraditional fun fonts such as Comic Sans or Informal Roman are a great choice for casual invites. If you’re having trouble choosing, a basic font like Times New Roman, Garamond, or Verdana can work well, although serif fonts usually have a bit more formality (and in some cases personality) than sans-serif ones do. You might even consider doing an invitation with mixed fonts, using script for the couple’s names and plainer fonts for the time and place, although it’s important not to make these two fonts drastically different or the invitation will look sloppy. Whatever font you choose, be absolutely certain that it’s legible at every size; some of the fancier and les traditional choices can be hard to read when they’re small and the last thing you want is an invitation that nobody understands.

Picture Perfect

Do you want to include a photo? Not all wedding invitations include pictures, but adding a picture of the happy couple gives you more opportunity to let your personality shine through. Black and white pictures tend to be more elegant and classic, while colorful photographs look more approachable and realistic. Make sure that you have a number of pictures of the two of you to choose from; this will help you find a picture where you both look your best. Try to find photographs that match the colors of the invitation so that the colors don’t clash.

Backgrounds

Also, determine how much the setting of the photograph matters to you; if all you’re looking for is a shot of the couple’s faces then the background won’t be very important. For other pictures, though, the background is an important component in the design of the invitation. You can choose a traditional setting like a garden, mountain, or beach, or you can go for modern city shots. If you really want to get creative, take your photos in unorthodox locations like art museums, graffiti-covered walls, or amusement parks. You can even choose to include night or evening photos rather than typical daytime ones.

Arrangement

Finally, determine how many photos you want to include and where you’d like to put them. If you have a lot of pictures that you like, you can choose to create a collage or have a single large photos with smaller insets. You can also pick a single classic photo and put it in a frame on your invitation. Another great idea is to take a single photo, blow it up to fill the whole page, and then use it as a background for the text.

Making it Great

Other considerations you should take into account while designing an invitation include the wedding theme (if you’re having a themed wedding), the wording of the invitation (formal or casual) and whether you want to include extras such as foil stamping, ribbons, or rhinestones. Whatever you end up choosing, make sure that the wedding invitation reflects the style of the ceremony, the personalities of the bride and groom, and—above all else—the love that you have for each other.

Bryan Passanisi is online marketer and writer living in Redwood City, CA. He graduated from The University of San Francisco with his Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. Bryan has managed a popular wedding blog and has created viral content. He currently is a blogger for Shutterfly.

All images provided by Bryan Passanisi, Shutterfly

DIY Wood Pallet Wedding Projects

DIY Wood Pallet Wedding Projects

A former thrifty DIY Bride myself and now a Vintage Rental business owner and wedding designer, DIY is something we do often! And ohhh the lessons we have learned! Today we're sharing some tips for working with wood pallets. Hopefully we'll help you from a "Pinterest Fail".

TONS OF GREAT IDEAS of how to utilize recycled wood pallets are all over Pinterest and leading wedding blogs. You can check out some of our favorites! In the meantime, let's talk the reality of working with these puppies!

1. Wood Pallets are hella heavy! Enlist the help of your friends or fiance when working with wood pallets. They are super heavy and large! Think about what your use for them is going to be. A large pallet backdrop looks awesome, but you are really going to have to think through how you will prevent it from toppling over, especially if you are adding floral or other weighted decor to it.
2. Decide new vs old pallets. Is the end product going to look best with rustic upcycled wood pallets or would new be a better option. For us, we wanted not quite as rustic of a vibe old would offer, so we purchased new pallets and sanded the top of the boards down some for a smoother surface.
3. Disassembling wood pallets takes some sweat! Get your crow bar out! But, BEWARE! Removing the boards can also cause them to split where the nail was in place. Take your time, but realize you may split them during the process. I personally liked working with brand new pallets from a local wood pallet supply company. Also if you want your project symmetrical, like our wood backdrop, make sure you pick the most similar pallets, otherwise, like us... you'll be forced to disassemble them and rebuild them to match.
4. Staining wood pallets is a *^%#@ after the first attempt of staining wood pallets, I was ready to throw the project out! I was irritated, covered in stains and I was so sore from the crazy positions I had to put my body into to get to all those hard to reach places. So, here you go!

Insider Tip!

Do not stain with a brush! GET A SPRAY GUN! You'll blow (literally) through more stain this way, than doing it by hand, BUT, it'll take you less than 5 minutes vs 2 hours per pallet! Also, you need to cover the ground with more coverage than you see I did below... I killed some of my grass...

We LOVED this model we purchased from Lowes! The Wagner Opti Stain Plus for only $49.99! Keep in mind, it is for STAIN only! They have a different model if you are wanting to use paint. We used the Minwax Special Walnut from Home Depot for this project, which matches our custom bar.

Ira + Lucy Custom Wood Pallet Backdrop

Yes Dear. Studios

Ira + Lucy Matching Bar

Laken Fulton Photography

Hope this helps you with your wood pallet DIY projects! If this all seems like more work than you want to handle, you can rent for a fraction of the price! Contact us to rent our wood pallet backdrop!

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