How to Customize Your Wedding Invitations with Style

No matter how traditional or modern you get, personalized bridal invitations are a great way to express a couple's personality. They serve to set the style and tone of your wedding and as such, your wedding and invitations should complement one another.

Some couples believe a unique wedding invitation means personalizing it to an extreme-so much that ends up being tacky. We have outlined more appropriate elements to consider when creating a stylish, customized design that is a reflection of you as well as your wedding's theme and the season of your event.

Color

Creating customized bridal invitations starts with choosing the color that compliments your personality. Color is among the best ways to represent the season of your wedding. While shades of blue may serve to set the tone of a cool winter wedding, browns and yellows will complement autumn ceremonies. Couples find greens and pastels favorite shades of spring and bright oranges and deep reds sizzle with a hot summer ceremony.

Adding the right color to your lettering, card stock, borders, envelopes or ribbon enable you to customize your wedding invitations with style. Just as paper and fonts are the most basic ways to use your chosen colors, accent pieces such as borders and ribbons more effectively incorporate color.

A colored border, for example, offers a subtle way to draw the reader's eye directly to the text. A ribbon could also add a touch of appropriate color to your invitation, especially if the ribbon mirrored the stitching in the bridesmaids' dresses.

Embellishments

In addition to color, design embellishments can add your own personal touches to your invitation. Couples use wax seals, glitter, charms and more to customize their invitations. Some decide to press silk flowers or other d?cor under an overlay placed on the outside of the invitation. A fall leaf would be a perfect accent for fall while a flower pedal would work well for spring.

An image or piece of artwork that has a personal meaning would also add a special personal touch to your invitation. A drawing or photograph of the first place you met, for example, would work well, especially if it was at a nice outdoor garden or romantic city setting. Some couples commission a romantic drawing of themselves to use as an overlay for the invitations. Others choose an image of their wedding location. This is especially appropriate if the wedding is to be held somewhere with a beautiful mountain landscape, a sunny seaside setting or other memorable location.

Wording and Text

The words you choose should complement the design of your invitation. Poems are a wonderful way to reflect the love you share with your soon-to-be spouse. But remember, a Dr. Seuss-style limerick might be a bit tacky. A short romantic verse or quote might be a much simpler way to complement the style of your wedding. The important thing is that the words truly represent the love you and your partner share together.

To print these carefully chosen words into your invitation, you can use a variety of fonts. Calligraphy, Old English and Roman provide unique ways for you to personalize your invitation according to your tastes or your theme. For example, while Old English may set the style for a Renaissance-style wedding, Calligraphy offers an element of formality or tradition to the invitation.

Paper

The paper used to print your invitation is another way to create customized invitations that stand out. While many couples concentrate on the card stock and color, the paper's texture and shape can more adequately serve to symbolize your wedding's theme.

Paper with a grit-like texture, for example, may help to represent a beach-wedding theme. Invitations cut in the shape of a flower can effectively illustrate a spring or garden wedding theme. Keep in mind that the paper that you choose will significantly affect the price of your wedding invitations.

Combining the right colors, embellishments, words and fonts are all ways to customize your invitations. Using these elements appropriately will enable you to create invitations that stand out, and yet subtly set the tone for your entire wedding.