Category Archives: Invitations

Wedding Shopping Online: Invitations and Print Items

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Image: Wedding Paper Divas
Image: Wedding Paper Divas
Image: Wedding Paper Divas

As I’m looking at The Wedding Report’s super-new, fact-filled Online Wedding Market Report, it’s amazing to see what more wedding couples are buying online, and which items they prefer to shop for in-person.

With invitations, the ability to touch samples, and see those shimmering borders, flip open envelopes to reveal stylish liners, and check out the bling of buckle ties is very important to wedding couples, so while they’re likely doing research online — checking out tons of samples from upscale custom designers and from legendary online companies — they are often likely to want to touch, feel, turn, and buy invitations in-person. There’s just something so fun about sitting down with an invitation designer, or wedding coordinator, and having those huge invitation sample books placed in front of you. It’s a sensory explosion of colors, textures, ribbons, earthy recycled card stocks, glistening vellums…and I could go on and on.

That said, look at the examples above. It is a top trend to buy invitations online, along with coordinated print items from the top invitation sites’ collections. Invitation and response card-buying online is up 76.1%! After all, you can have a print proof sent to you, which allows you that same touch-factor test you’d get at an in-person meeting.

So that’s invitations. What about all the other print items for your wedding? While many wedding couples are buying their entire ‘invitation suites’ [all of their print items] at that one time, many are splitting the task up into in-person and online shopping sprees.

The Wedding Report’s online shopping survey shows us just which ones you might think about buying online. Get ready for some fascinating trends:

* Ceremony program purchases: up 68.5% over last year

* Guest books: up 68.5% over last year

* Reception Menus: up 105.4% over last year

* Table name and place cards: up 47.7%

* Thank-you cards: up 58.9%

Looking at these items, you might classify them as the print items that don’t need that Wow Factor that invitations deliver. They’re important. They’re pretty. But you’re not losing sleep over whether the font on your menu cards is perfect enough. For these items, you’re probably perfectly happy browsing online, customizing, clicking and buying. And given the many opportunities to buy these items online, on sale, your online shopping spree could be your smart budget strategy.

I’ve left Save the Date Cards for last. This is a special category, since it comes so early in your planning process, and is one of the first, most exciting tasks you’ll tackle. This is most likely going to be the first print item you design together, so there’s a big interest in how you’ll design it. Will you pick out an existing design online and just fill in your details? Or will you create a custom design, wrap it with rustic twine? Will you choose Save the Date magnets? Or have a professional design it from scratch for you?

The survey says that online buying for Save the Dates is up 45.9% over last year, which could mean that brides and grooms have been online buying for the past few years. And now, with so many new Save the Date card designs out there, so many Etsy designers and easy online customizing tools, plus dozens of new collections each season, couples are likely going online to enjoy this fun new world that’s expanded for Save the Dates.

They might do their Save the Dates online, and save the experience of in-person buying for their invitations. What do you think? Which print items did/would you design and buy online, and which did/will you save for the in-person touch-test? Can all of your print items be designed and bought online without feeling like you missed out? How are you shopping for your invitations and print items?

DIY Wedding Projects: What Do you Expect to Save?

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When considering DIY projects for your wedding, how much money do you think they’ll save you? As I mentioned in my prior post, our Trend Talk survey revealed that 88.8% of respondents said they’d DIY as a way to save, and now let’s look at just how much of a savings you might expect.

75% to 100%? No, that’s our last-ranking response, with just 5 votes. Unless they’re picking up pinecones from their backyard, putting them in vases and calling it a day. But we know you have more in mind than that…like gorgeous invitations and save the date cards (they cost money for great papers and printing,) table linen overlays (you’ll pay for pretty, shimmery fabrics,) favors and more.

I see our #1 response as completely realistic: 35% of survey-takers said they expect to save 25% to 49% on their DIY tasks. Brides want quality DIY projects, and they know that quality depends on good materials. We’re talking gorgeous organic roses, imported or recycled content cotton papers for invitations, shimmery charmeuse fabric for table overlays. Here’s the rule: anything that wedding guests will touch, feel, taste, or smell had better be top-quality. And you really do have to pay an amount of money for that.

Professional wedding vendors know this, and they stake their careers on acquiring top-tier materials for the projects they make you, and their expertise in making bridal bouquets is priceless. You don’t want your DIY bouquet falling apart as you’re walking down the aisle because Aunt Bertha used Scotch tape to hold the stems together. So here’s my top tip for the day: think really hard about whether or not you can master the art of bouquet-making for your wedding day before you plan to DIY it. A much safer bet is saving your DIYs for the engagement party florals and invitations, food, drinks, and desserts, or for the bridal shower, the morning-after breakfast…other events encircling your dream wedding day when you might not need or want a pro involved.

Those savings still count…and isn’t 49% off a $400 engagement party a welcome treat? Would you love for your bridesmaids to save that 49% on the bridal shower, or your in-laws who traveled across the country to spend 49% less on the rehearsal dinner?

DIY savings apply to all…so again, keep in mind that it’s most realistic to save that 25% to 49% on your well-planned DIY tasks. Pushing for 75% to 100% off could very well land you with disaster bouquets, itchy linens, horrible hems, and faded invitations. Or a huge waste of money when those nearly-free DIY project supplies show up and are completely unusable. Which means you have to go out and buy more. That’s the risk of a too-cheap-to-be-good DIY plan.

The WHY of DIY Wedding Projects

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Photo courtesy of www.InviteByDesign.net

If someone were to ask you, “Why are you planning to DIY a wedding project?” what would your answer be? To create completely personalized items for the big day? That’s actually the #3 most popular reason, according to our recent trend talk survey. I would have placed it at #2, right after ‘To Save Money,’ which — no surprise here — is the #1 response, getting 88.8% of the vote. You’d think that one-of-a-kind, personalized projects would be the only other option, but the #2 spot goes to “To include something very sentimental, personally-made by someone special.”

Brides today hold sentimentality and meaning close to their hearts. Who makes the project, and the love put into it, adds a tremendous amount of meaning to this hand-made wedding element…both on the wedding day and forever after when the item lives on in their keepsake collection, and is captured for eternity in the wedding photos and video. Grandma’s hand-made veil with the lace edging is priceless. Mom’s watercolor design for the wedding programs is not only breathtaking, but monumentally sentimental now and in the future.

And let’s not forget the groom…the projects he works on are ultra-special, because he’s giving you a gift by making something for your wedding day. Grooms want to be involved, in a much more hands-on way than picking designs off of a website…so they’re designing wedding invitations and programs, making their ceremony trellis or chuppah (and brides are right there constructing as well!) and even graphic-designing their monogram logos for the pattern-projecting gobo lights at the reception.

Every project he works on gives him a sense of pride and ownership, and here’s a smart tip: whatever your groom is working on, whatever you’re working on together, take tons of photos and video of your shared DIY project as a phenomenal keepsake. Grab up some leftover paint color samples and printouts of his designs to stow in your keepsake box as well.

Another top result in our Trend Talk survey, at 29.3% of the votes, is “It would give the mothers something enjoyable to do.” Moms want to contribute to the wedding plans. They imagined your wedding day since you were a baby, and since current trends have Moms pushed out of the planning since the grooms are full planning partners (unlike decades ago when it was the mom leading the planning, with the bride along for the ride,) it rescues her joy when you ask her to DIY a project or two.

Moms are working on decor items, accessories for the bride (such as making jewelry or wraps,) making edibles, and so many other projects, and it’s becoming a trend for the moms of the bride and groom to work together on a project as a fun way for them to bond. (They have to be the types to cooperate, though, since you don’t want power clashes!) And it’s also becoming a big trend for Moms to DIY items for the celebrations they’ll be hosting — such as engagement parties and rehearsal dinners – to save money, add their personal touch, and yes, Moms say they want to show off their skills at their own soirees. You want this time to be fabulous and fun for her as well, so you might find yourself at her kitchen table, gluing tiny Swarovski’s on her hand-made invitations to the morning-after breakfast, sharing quality time together.

We’d love to hear why you’re planning DIY elements, if your groom or moms are making anything, and what these hand-made-with-love elements will add to your wedding celebrations.

Hot and Fiery: PANTONE’s 2012 Wedding Colors Burn Brightly

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Recently, it was announced to huge applause that the PANTONE color of the year was Tangerine Tango, a fiery, vivid shade of orange that energizes with passion and drama.

Image courtesy of Pantone

Brides everywhere are going crazy for every incarnation of orange, from foodie persimmon to softer ranges of tangerine as coordinating blooms and fashion accenting. They’re outfitting their bridesmaids in this shade, and adding fiery Tangerine Tango flair to their florals, linens and invitation designs. And they’re not being subtle about it. Fiery oranges are not minimal accents to invitations or dresses…they’re the primary color. The trend this year, then, is unabashed vibrancy and heat.

This spicy shade isn’t the only one in PANTONE’s fire-inspired palette this season. Also in sunny bursts are Cabaret, a deep red that pops with a deep pink undertone, and the well-named vibrant yellow named Solar Power. Grouped together, this trio would comprise a hot and spicy bouquet or centerpiece florals, especially if paired with tangerine linens to wow guests with color. The partnership of these three shades would produce the colors of a sunset over the desert, or the golden reds and oranges of autumn leaves in full color change, aflame with the best beauty of its year.

Chart courtesy of Pantone

In our Trend Talk discussions, fascinatingly, our respondents didn’t choose Tangerine Tango as the #1 Be-All-End-All color for weddings this year when asked for a favorite shade. That honor went to the red/rust/deep pink shade of Cabaret, which beat ‘TT’ by a little more than 13% — so it was close. Why the preference? Perhaps it’s the deeper rust edge of the Cabaret that makes it seem more workable…you could pull off wearing a Cabaret-shade lipstick far easier than a fire-bright orange, perhaps. Our Trend Talk crowd looks at how colors will work with one another and with available flowers, linen trends and more…so they found Cabaret to sneak past the showy Tangerine Tango. 

Still, no matter which shade wins the top prize, the expert team at PANTONE and our experts and respondents went fiery with their winning picks, showing that this is going to be one hot year for spicy shades in weddings. Vibrant colors, after all, equal the very qualities that many wedding couples desire for their big day: exciting, passionate, dramatic, sexy, high-energy, hot. There’s also a cultural elements to the fiery oranges, rust reds and yellows of the top color lists, calling to many different heritages’ embraced shades.

Speaking of celebrations, keep in mind that fiery reds, oranges, persimmons, tangerines, yellows and golds topping the trends list aren’t just for your wedding reception itself. You might choose this spicy palette for your rehearsal dinner, or your bridesmaids might make your color wish come true by going fiery for your bridal shower plans. You can add some fiery shades to any element of your wedding season, from start to finish.

Tell us…how would you use fiery shades in your wedding plans?

Photo courtesy of Monday Morning Flowers