When designing your wedding, both the invitations and wedding favours are typically two areas where engaged couples can have a little fun with their wedding style!  The invitation set that you send out to your guests is their first introduction to the magical event that awaits them, and give cues to the formality of the wedding, the setting, and style (is yours a casual backyard BBQ affair or is it a formal gala at a ritzy ballroom?). Likewise, the wedding favours that guests take home are a final parting gift that provides guest with a memento of the day. 

Here are some tips and trends that will guide you when considering options for your wedding day stationery and favours.

Invest in Press

Letterpress is a decadent form of printing which has made a huge comeback in recent years, particularly in wedding stationery.  The hallmarks of letterpress are that a much thicker and softer paper is used.  This allows a letterpress printer to directly imprint your invitation design into the paper, leaving a soft indention which is very luxurious to the touch.  While letterpress printing has a much higher price point, there is nothing like the feeling a letterpress invitation package evokes when it arrives in the mail. Rather than tossing the invitation in the trash after the wedding, I find that many people will hold onto it as a souvenir for a much longer time frame.

Brand Your Wedding

One of the biggest trends is a shift toward designing a personal "brand" for your wedding.  The easiest way to do this is to work with a graphic designer to come up with a simple monogram or motif that can be carried through all the printed elements of your wedding - everything from your "save the date" cards, to the invitations, favours, signage and even menu cards.  Using a monogram or motif allows you to achieve a beautiful, customized look to your wedding and can hint at a theme (perhaps a beautiful grapevine motif for winery wedding, or a sailboat engraving for a nautical affair).



Go for a Splash of Colour

Don't be afraid to use colour in your wedding stationery.  Gone are the days where you had just three ink choices on ecru paper.  Be bold and use vibrant reds, oranges, blues or greens. Alternatively, go for a brightly coloured envelope so that your invitation stands out amongst the pile of bills that fill our mailboxes each day!