Your invitations should reflect the mood and tone of your wedding. If you plan a formal ceremony with multi-course dining at the reception, your invitations and related material should be formal. But if you dream of a casual garden wedding with wildflowers and a cloud-dappled sky, your stationery should reflect that vision. Your stationery is not the only way to convey the formality of your wedding. Your wedding invitations wording needs to also represent your desired tone.
Traditionally, wedding invitations wording is third-person tense with black or dark gray ink on white or ivory card stock. You can break that pattern if you choose. If informal wording feels more natural, let it speak for you. If colored ink better reflects your personality and the wedding’s tone, pencil it in. If there’s a quotation, poem or personal message you want included for sentimental reasons, go with your heart.
Whatever your intended mood, what’s essential for your wedding invitation wording is clarity, consistency and good taste. Your invitation often is the first signal that prospective guests get about your wedding plans. Properly shaping the message and its tone is important.
Your first priority is to provide information – the who, what, where, when and why; so beloved by journalists. Make sure these details are clear. All the fancy designs and color accents won’t make up for not communicating your message.
But your wedding invitation is more than a sentimental request for someone to share in your happiness. It’s also the result of engineering, design and technology. Here are some of the processes and technology that can be used to make your request an irresistible invitation.
- Calligraphy. Handwritten calligraphy is still the most elegant way to prepare your wedding invitations wording, but it’s usually very costly. Many stationery stores now provide calligraphy machines that can inscribe your invitations at lower cost. If you really want handwritten calligraphy, but can’t afford it for your entire invitation and related materials, hire a calligrapher to hand-address the envelopes only.
- Computer Printing. Best for informal invitations, computer printing costs the least. You can, however, select from a wide range of paper and typefaces, and use specialized software to create elegant borders and decorative accents.
- Engraving. The most formal process for wedding invitations wording is engraving. It is also the most expensive. The paper is pressed against a metal plate, which causes the letters to be raised on the paper. Once you create an engraving template, or “die,” it’s yours, and your stationer usually will keep it filed for your later use.
- Handwritten. If you have beautiful penmanship and time to burn, buy beautiful paper and enevelopes, then write your personal invitations by hand. You can set the tone for your celebration by choosing from among a plethora of stationery, pens and ink colors.
- Offset Printing. In offset printing, the ink lays atop the paper. It’s less expensive than engraving or thermography, and creates a less formal look that’s appropriate for an informal wedding.
- Thermography. The thermography process infuses ink and powder together on the paper to create raised lettering. Because the letters aren’t pushed from behind and no metal plate is used, thermography costs about half as much as engraving.