Ideas for Casual Wedding Invitations
Unless you are planning a very lavish or traditional wedding ceremony, your wedding invitations do not need to be formal or expensive. Casual invitations work just as well, provide a more personal touch and can also be less expensive. You can potentially save between $500 and $1,800 by designing and printing your own wedding invitations. If you are having a more informal and casual wedding, or it is being held in a relaxed setting, casual invitations are arguably more appropriate, anyway.
Designing your own wedding invitations is easier than you might think — in fact the quality is often so good that your guests won’t know they are hand made! There are many web sites that will help you create your own invitations; you can also purchase one of several different software packages, or simply purchase and use colored paper and other materials. You can find paper and other decorative materials at an office supply store, a copy shop or art supply shop and then create your own design, using Microsoft Word or one of several other software programs.
Perhaps you are getting married at the beach. If so, it’s a perfect opportunity to come up with a casual wedding invitation design that reflects the theme of the wedding. Yellow or blue paper, representing the sand and the sea are both obvious ideas. You can also embellish the invitations with drawings or photographs of palm trees, seashells, beach umbrellas, etc. It’s a theme that’s inexpensive and easy to create and it can also be carried over to the decorations at the reception and the wedding favors — beach umbrellas, beach balls and exotic travel posters.
If you are getting married outside, but not at the beach, there is also plenty of inspiration to create casual wedding invitations. The color used for the paper can represent the colors of the great outdoors — green, brown and blue — even decorated with pictures of trees, lakes or mountains.
The honeymoon is an important element of most weddings, and if you’re spending your honeymoon somewhere exotic, a travel theme works well. Invitations can be decorated with flags, postcards, etc. It’s also a theme that easily lends itself to both the reception and the wedding favors.
If you are sending out casual wedding invitations, you probably want to drop some of the formal wording and phrasing that invitations traditionally contain. It’s a good chance to be creative in your wording — touching, humorous or whatever theme works for you. Various books and web sites will give you some ideas on how you can word a casual wedding invitation, although there are no firm rules. You can even write it as though you were writing a note to a friend; some couples also like to make up rhymes.
However you word your casual wedding invitations, just make sure that they still contain the basics — the location, date and time of the ceremony, any directions and other specific information such as a menu choice or a dress code and whether or not you expect recipients to reply to the invitation. If you are enclosing a reply card and envelope, they can follow the same theme as the invitations.
Almost as important as the overall style, color and wording of your casual wedding invitations is the typeface you use. If you have Microsoft Word or a similar software package, you can choose from dozens of different typefaces – the typeface you choose can be reminiscent of old theater posters, science fiction or a child’s writing. You can also base a theme on your own interests or career. If one of you works for a newspaper, for example, use words cut from newspaper stories; if you work with children, ask one of them to design and write your invitations for you.
If you really want to save some money, help save the environment and send out some simple and casual invitations, consider online invitations, which are perhaps the ultimate in casual wedding invitations. More than just emails, online invitations have become more and more popular and acceptable, as couples try to save money wherever possible. Many sites now allow customers to design their own electronic invitations, complete with envelope, and send them to all their guests. And of course you need a reply; they will even notify you when they are received and replied to.
Wedding invitations don’t have to be formal and sophisticated. If you are the artistic type, it’s a good opportunity to use your creative skills. With a little imagination, you can come up with something that reflects your personality as well as saves you money and helps to make your special day even more memorable.