It All Starts With the Invitation

By Melissa Donovan for Northeast Wedding

A wedding—and all that encompasses—is a statement about the couple. Many weddings reflect the bride and groom’s personalities. Common wedding themes may mirror the season in which the wedding occurs—a holiday it’s held on or near, or something as simple as the bride and groom’s favorite color.

Wedding themes continue to evolve from straightforward ideas that reflect common interests to the symbolization of how a couple met. Decorations, party favors, attendant apparel, music, location, and invitations support these themes.

Invitations are key to crafting a wedding theme. They set the tone for an event with a playful or formal design and communicate to guests the exact location, date, and time.

Lindsay Berk, founder, Lindsey Berk Invitations explains, "The invitation is the guests’ first impression of the wedding, and for those who don’t attend, it’s their only impression. It ignites excitement, and should reflect not only the wedding itself, but the bride and groom as well."

"The invitation sets the tone for the event. Will the guests be excited to attend, is it formal or casual?," concurs Deborah Webb, owner, Yours Truly, based out of Chelmsford, MA.

Preconceived Notions
Engaged couples may or may not have an idea of what they are looking for in an invitation the first time they stop by a shop or browse Web sites.

"Some brides and grooms offer ideas that are quite vague, they’ll know little more than a style or color scheme they want to use. Other couples have every detail dreamed up in advance. That isn’t to say that their ideas don’t change and grow over the design process. In fact, most of them do—creativity is contagious," explains Berk.

An Internet-based company, Lindsay Berk Invitations caters to local, regional, national, and international clients. Berk’s goal is to create invitations that are inspired by all the details of a wedding. She continues, "Working together with my clients we are able to craft personalized, unique invitations that present the ambiance of each wedding. My goal is to find creative ways to ‘impress with paper.’"

Webb finds that it is about 50/50 when it comes to clients knowing exactly what type of invitations they want. A full-service boutique, Yours Truly offers custom design services. No two invitations are ever the same. "We cater to the customer that wants it all, one stop shopping for all of their needs," explains Webb.

Rebecca Prasad and her husband knew right away that they wanted to their wedding to revolve around the Adriondacks. "We both grew up in the Albany, NY area," says Prasad, "and spent a lot of time in the Adriondacks. Our parents moved away from the area, but we were certain we wanted our wedding there. It was important to us that our guests enjoy the weekend in a beautiful setting."

Color Your Wedding
Color is a great thematic starting point for any bride and groom. According to Berk, the most common color trend is currently brown. She believes her clients have made brown the new black.

The latest color trends noticed by Yours Truly include metallic, pearlescent shimmer, mocha, and sage. Commonly, Webb encourages brides to bring color swatches of their bridesmaids’ dresses, ring pillow, or flower girl basket to match the ink, card stock, envelope liner, or ribbons in the invitations.

"I always suggest to clients that they incorporate their wedding colors into the invitations. As the designer, I like to see their bridesmaid dresses, flowers, or any other visual inspiration they can give me," says Berk.

For Every Season there is a Theme and a Location
Mandy Carroll chose to plan her wedding around the season Autumn. She first met her husband in the Fall and thought it would be perfect to hold their wedding around the same time. Between the two of them, choosing this theme was one of the easiest decisions out of the entire wedding process. Plus, says Carroll, "I didn’t want an overkill theme, for example, a random Disney movie."

Berk says seasonal themes are still very popular—quoting them as classic, timeless, and appropriate. "Today’s bride is finding new, creative ways to approach this theme. Brides embody the season and add their own personal flair," she explains.

The most popular season to hold a wedding, according to Webb, is Autumn. "September and October are two of our busiest bridal months here in New England and the brilliant foliage color and leaf scheme is quite popular for us."

Another popular idea is to base your wedding on its location. "The location kind of dictated our theme," explains Prasad. "If your wedding is outside on a lake, and your reception is in a lodge, it becomes easy to see what will work and what will not. It couldn’t be too fancy. Also, nature was all around us, it was impossible not to include it."

"Many of our themed selections seem to be somewhat specific to where they are planning their event. We’ve had customers hosting events aboard boats or near a beach that want a nautical theme, or even invitations that mirror a Las Vegas, NV-based ceremony," shares Webb.

Innovative Invitations
Berk stresses that every single one of her client’s invitations are unique. While common themes may be used, Berk and her clients work together for a unique presentation. For example, Berk says she once hand-sewed bamboo branches onto cardstock to relay an East Asian inspired wedding.

Webb discusses two of her most recent projects. "We produced a beautiful pocket invitation ensemble in shimmer gold with the Boston, MA skyline as the background for a harbor side event. Our customer was thrilled, and their guests excitedly anticipated the event. For another ensemble, we incorporated majestic photographs of Mt. Washington taken by the grandfather of a bride, which we carried through to the programs, menu cards, place cards, and favor tags.

The Trickle Down Effect
"Most brides like thematic weddings, and so they tend to carry that theme through every aspect of their big day. Themes act as a way for the bride to stay organized, focused, and most importantly, they ensure detailed coordination," explains Berk.

Invitations may be an important part of theme, but other components of the wedding can certainly bring the celebration to its fullest potential.

For Rebecca Prasad’s wedding, to tie in the theme of the Adriondacks, they used rocks as place cards and table name cards. Decorations included woods, pine cones, and greenery. Both the food and floral arrangements emulated items the area was known for.

Mandy Carroll lists decorations, place cards, menu cards, centerpieces, and floral arrangements as factors coordinating with her Autumn theme. In particular, her bridesmaids wore orange dresses from JCrew, which where a big hit, she says.

Full-service boutiques like Yours Truly offer wedding items beyond invitations. This allows couples to communicate their theme to one person, who can ensure them that all of their paper products will tie together seamlessly. Other services from Yours Truly in particular include save the date announcements, reception cards, response cards, directions, and thank you notes. Popular with Yours Truly customers is a customizable seating chart.

"Our seating charts are truly unique, each customer selects a layout, background, and any embellishments. They are always beautifully displayed and make a great presentation as guests arrive at the event," states Webb.

Although an Internet-based company, Berk’s services extend beyond invitations. Fun items include escort cards, welcome signs, hotel room welcome signs, and paper flowers. "If it can be made with paper, I provide it—though I have yet to construct a paper bridal gown, maybe that’s next," jokes Berk.

Looking to Next Year
Berk’s insight says brides will be even bolder in their color selections next season. Citing oranges, pinks, yellows, blues, lime greens, and yellows as prevalent. She witnessed the transition to this trend this past year with brides incorporating bright pinks into their schemes instead of the usual soft palette.

Themes such as polka dots and stripes will be huge, providing an opportunity to accent products with chic ribbons. "Brides will go tropical and Caribbean. There is a continuous explosion of peacock theme requests. With all of its fabulous colors, the peacock opens numerous doors for creativity. This trendy theme is brilliant," adds Berk.

Trends involving paper products will also grow larger in the coming months, shares Webb. "Going ‘green’ using recycled products seems to be growing. We have stationary lines and unique favors specifically geared toward environmental awareness, charitable causes, plantable seed products, and even products that address the dwindling and endangered bee population," she continues.

Whether or not you have envisioned your wedding since you were five years old, brides—and grooms—can be reassured that whatever the theme, designers are willing to bring it to life on paper. A willingness to explore all options and the freedom to be creative leads to unique, memorable wedding celebrations that guests—and more importantly, couples—will remember for a lifetime.

Dec2008, NortheastWedding.com