Friday, March 25, 2011

Unique Wedding Invitations Guarantee A Memorable Occasion

Save the date cards and wedding invitations are part of a time honored tradition. Many engaged couples believe that a beautiful and well crafted wedding invitation is an essential part of the special occasion. While some couples follow the conventional invitation etiquette, others hope to represent their relationships through the invite. Couples can express themselves by adding surprise elements to their unique wedding invitations.

An exceptionally designed wedding invitation is something that guests will recall years after the special day ends. It is how a couple invites guests to celebrate and share their most memorable moment. Whether the invite is charming, quirky, fun or refined, it should reflect who the bride and groom are as individuals and what they mean to each other as a unit. By customizing a wedding invitation or save the date notice, a couple can give friends and family a glimpse into what makes their relationship special.

There are many different methods for making an invitation distinctive. One way to make an invite memorable is to create an invitation box. The invitation is placed in the bottom of a box, and small gifts that match the theme of the wedding are placed on top. Another way to make the invite stand out is by using a pouch invitation. This is a pocket-filled sack that holds the invitation and items like engagement photos, maps to the event and city guides.


A pouch or box invitation is a great way to get guests excited for the big event. Another way to entice them into excitement is to place customized puzzles in the invitation. These can be in the form of crosswords, word searches or math-related riddles. Use the puzzles to reveal when and where the special occasion will take place. A specially shaped invitation that reflects the theme of the wedding is also a good way to elevate interests. It can be used as a clue for what the guests can expect if they attend the wedding.

For a couple wanting to show their humorous side, a pop-up invitation is ideal. The pop-up aspect can feature a photo of the twosome, the wedding venue or anything representing the couple. Wrapping an invitation with silk ribbon or embellishing it with embroidery and other adornments adds a touch of sophistication. Whether the design is simple or ornate, a wedding invitation should reflect the union of two unique and special people.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The Great Printing Debate: Flat Printing or Letterpress?

You are finally getting married and are in the process of creating the amazing wedding you have always dreamed about. Yet now that you are actually in the middle of it all, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the options and decisions to make. This article will hopefully help eliminate one of those tough decisions by making it easy to pick a type style for your customized wedding invitations.

Letterpress

This beautiful printing style has long been popular for creating elegant wedding invitations. The printing process is slightly complicated, requiring the production of special plates for each piece of the invitation. Each plate can only be used for one color. Therefore, invitations using two colors require double the amount of plates, while those using three different colors call for three times as many plates. The plates are inked and pressed into high quality cotton paper, all done manually. This somewhat tedious process pays off, however. Letterpress invitations are truly works of art in themselves, beautiful and elegant.
Source: http://www.bellafigura.com/images/designs/deveril-letterpress-sample-1.jpg

There is one downside to letterpress printing and its effect is significant. Due to all of the labor of creating plates and manually printing the invitations, as well as the extra high quality paper that is used, the cost of letterpress can be substantial. Many brides feel that letterpress invitations simply don't fit in to their budget. Thankfully there is another beautiful option.

Flat Printing

This printing option is fairly self explanatory. Rather than creating plates and pressing the words on to the page, ink is applied to the page and soaks in to the paper. When you touch the words you cannot feel the letters as they are not raised off the paper. With the right colors and font styles, however, the invitation can looked engraved. Flat printing makes it easy to include colors on your invitation without upping labor and cost. No special plates are needed, eliminating another big cost of letterpress. The effects can be very elegant, especially when the colors and fonts are carefully chosen.

Letterpress, while beautiful, is costly. If you can afford to use it you should certainly consider letterpress. For those of you on a stricter budget or who prefer to use the money for another part of the wedding, flat printing is the way to go. No matter which printing style you choose, you can be sure it will result in beautiful invitations.