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Top 15 Trends in Today's Wedding Invitations

It’s a rare thing to see a traditional invitation that sticks to the old rules of "white or ecru only, with formal black lettering." Today’s wedding invitations are bright, bold, and textured, featuring beautiful graphics and unique, artistic fonts. Wedding invitation professionals charge thousands of dollars for personalized designs, but you can be your own artist (and save that money for the honeymoon!) by using today’s top trends in the creation of your own modern, gorgeous invitation style. Here are the top trends to consider:

1. Make it bold
   While you could base your invitation on a white or ecru card, the trend today is brights: red, azure blue, tropical orange, bright pinks, yellows, purples and corals. With darker colored fonts, or white text on a deeply hued card, wedding invitations have gone vivid and eye-catching. If you prefer a tone closer to traditional bridal colors, check out warmer mochas and blush pinks and lavenders. The color of your invitation doesn’t have to match your wedding color palette, but this is a good time to introduce your color scheme if you know what your colors will be. Know that your invitation often gets posted on your guests’ refrigerators, so make it a work of art with color.
   
   
2. Match the color to your location
   With destination weddings on the rise, convey your style and locale with the colors you choose. For an island or beach wedding, for instance, you might want a sand-colored invitation with seaglass green text. For your garden wedding, use a range of greens from dark moss to leafy sage. For a winter wedding, a deep blue with a frosted light blue vellum gives a glassy cover to your white print.
   
   
3. Test your type
   It’s a new world of artistry in the typestyles easily available to you, so take some time to find a font you love. Write your text and then try it out in a range of different fonts so that the lettering conveys your style and location as well. You’ll know it when you see it, so don’t limit yourselves to what’s expected. The amazing thing about Mountaincow’s Fonts & Graphics collections is that it reaches way beyond the repertoire of a professional calligrapher. That’s why one of the top invitation trends today is using computerized calligraphy over hand-written print, both for invitations and envelopes, at a fraction of the price.
   
   
4. Deal a different card
   Today’s invitations come in a range of card presentations, from single panel cards to dual-fold and tri-fold cards (the latter opening up like doors to reveal your invitation inside), and four-page invitation booklets that allow you room to list multiple sets of parents’ names as well as graphics, the location and date of your wedding, reception details, and a personal message from you on the last page. With an expanded format, you eliminate the space concerns of a single panel card.
   
   
5. Use unique card stock
   The trend today is using card stock that offers a design element all on its own. It might be a smooth imported paper from Nepal or Thailand, or a delicate Japanese rice paper. Check out www.envelopments.com for a range of gorgeous papers. Or visit a nearby art supply or museum store to select from imported or artistic papers.
   
   
6. Go graphic
   Today’s trends mix up different design elements on your card, such as bright polka dots, toile, stripes, patterns or even paisleys (just not all at once). The new trend is taking a graphic such as lime polka dots and using it as a theme throughout all of your print items. So your invitations, placecards, menu cards and wedding weekend itinerary would all have the same lime polka dots in different scales. Or you can add variation by adding a lime stripe to your menu card and a lime paisley pattern to your place cards, all the same scale and position. The point is to stick with one universal design element whether it be the color, the pattern or the position of the graphic.
   
   
7. Monogram it
   Entwine both of your first initials in a beautiful, artistic way as a design accent to your invitations, and carry that monogram to your envelopes, above your return address. Monograms are a top trend right now, with more couples looking to create a custom design to match their one-of-a-kind relationship. Mountaincow’s PrintingPress Platinum and PrintingPress Extreme invitation software include a monogram tool that can create a beautiful monogram with any font.
   
   
8. Feature your names
   One of the top design trends is ‘branding’ your names on the invitation in a special graphic, almost like a logo. Use this design on all your wedding stationery for a truly unique and personalized design.
   
   
9. Go natural
   The big trend in graphics is featuring an object from nature – leaves (either green or autumn-hued), flowers (going more unique, such as lotus or orchids rather than bridal roses), trees, landscapes, even apples and pineapples. Butterflies still reign as a top wedding invitation design, and couples are incorporating objects of nature that hold special meaning to them, such as a palm tree like the ones they saw on their first date.
   
   
10. Blot with flair
    The new trend in invitations has taken the tradition of layering tissue paper between the invitation cards (which used to be done to prevent ink smearing in older printing days), and replacing that plain tissue paper with something more design-worthy. You might slip in a colored sheet of vellum, unique imported rice paper or art paper featuring a colorful, bold design that matches a more delicate color accent on your invitation or the envelope liner. A translucent vellum pane placed on your invitation card acts like a window so that the text peeks through.
    
    
11. Use fabric
    Yes, fabric! Fashion has moved into invitations, with slips of colored satin used as envelope liners or bands around invitations. Items from trimming stores such as cording, rickrack, lace and ribbon have all found their way onto invitations.
    
    
12. Create pockets
    Today’s invitations are interactive. Create pockets made of card stock, glassine envelopes or fabric that hold your invitation or your response card. Imagine attaching a fabric pocket with hot glue to the back of a single panel invitation card on thick stock. Tuck the response card and envelope or response postcard in the pocket.
    
    
13. Use invitation liners
    Slip colorful liners into your invitation envelopes after you’ve printed them to add a finishing touch to the invitation packet - a colorful backdrop to the invitation you’ve created. See Mountaincow's envelope liner selection.
    
    
14. Tie it up
    Another big trend in today’s invitations is accessorizing the invitation packet with an eye-catching ‘belt.’ It might be a length of fabric cord or ribbon tied around the middle, sealed with a bow. Or in true fashion style, you might attach a fabric ‘belt’ with a gemstone-covered snap, button or buckle. Think of it as accessorizing your invitation packets, so consider other kinds of ‘belts,’ including grosgrain ribbons, silver chains with a charm on the end, a colorful beaded cord, a velvet ribbon with rhinestone accents for your late-night dessert and champagne wedding. For a beach wedding, you might accent your ocean-colored ribbon with some seashells glued to the tie.
    
    
15. Add something extra
    Boxed invitations are all the rage, with the invitation placed on top of a gift, a pre-wedding favor of sorts. It might be a music CD or a packet of flower seeds, a little something special to ‘plant’ the idea that your very special and personalized wedding is on the way!