Trend Watch in Wedding Invitations 2010/2011
By: Megan Battistella owner of Adair Custom Designs: Specializing in Wedding Invitations and Stationery.
POP QUIZ: This one is for all the engaged couples out there!
What is themost important thingthat a wedding invitation set should do for
an engaged couple?
A. Set the tone for the wedding
B. Elicit a response
C. Save money!
D. Wedding invitations?Shoot!I forgot about those…
For engaged couples, the excitement of planning a wedding can overwhelm the most basic principal of what an invitation is intended to do, and that is: get a response! My experience in creating corporate identity has taught me that thoughtful design is essential to creating personality with an impact.
For the budget-conscious couples looking to balance affordability and personal style consider the following: will your invitation be considered a “keepsake”?People know the difference between art and ordinary.The highest compliment is for your guests to keep your wedding invitations. Through exciting the senses with something different, you will find that an immediate response from your guests is not uncommon. People crave a fresh approach as opposed to a tired format!
Next year springs forth a fresh decade of fantastic trends and new ideas! Familiar and entirely new, retro and modern combined; it is indeed the beginning of a new era of contemporary design. These trends are recession busters and have been recycled from decades and even centuries past as tried and true.
THEMES THAT WILL TREND in 2010/2011—Some of these themes draw from the past and will continue to show resiliency in the future, overlapping will be prevalent among all of these categories
“Art Deco” Wedding Packages
This will be one of the most prevalent trends seen in the wedding industry for next year. It is on the verge of exploding. This trend can go in numerous different avenues for wedding invitation sets, but the following will be the most common.
Art Deco: 1920’s and 30’s inspired. Wedding invitations will present strong, contrasting geometric patterning, borrowing from classic architectural elements of the roaring twenties. Vertical paper layouts will prove to be more consistent with the “style” of art deco. Perfect for those watching their budgets, because pieces that print with only one color designs, (black) on white or colored paper are more economical. For added elegance, consider metallic or pearl papers.
Art Deco: Floral Seventies and modernized Boho-chic: These will still have an overwhelming sense of “pattern.” Flat color, graphic, non-dimensional floral patterns will be prevalent in tomorrow’s wedding invitation designs.
“Folksy/culturally inspired” Wedding Invitation Sets
Falling back on different cultures, the “folksy pilgrim” is borrowing from all types of traditions and cross-pollinating with today’s society. There is also a strong theme of hand-made, hand-painted and custom detailed wood work which can lead into decorative Victorian style.
Wedding invitation trends in this category will consider specialty shapes in papers, die-cuts, decorative embellishments that are unique to the bride and groom’s heritage and/or ethnic background. Bright impressions of the Latin culture, the simplicity and softness of the Midwestern States and a vivid graphic African influence will be seen in this category.
Wedding invitations will be hand-drawn or possibly painted in watercolors and then over-laid with illustration work, generally in floral patterns. Hand-calligraphy (Examples provided by Jennifer Gillespie of “Calligraphy by Jennifer”) and highly decorative lettering will flourish in fonts. On the opposite spectrum, large, bold, sans-serif fonts will also do incredibly well.
“Eco-Chic” Wedding Invitations
“Going Green” has become a mainstream concept, but new technology and advances in protecting the environment are continuously being supplied to the masses for more economical rates. Consciously looking for alternative papers for invites will continue to be important. Recycled papers come in 30% post-consumer waste and 100% post-consumer waste and more printers are supplying soy-based inks.
“Futuristic” & Digital Wedding Package Sets
Going against the grain and all traditions, these wedding invitation sets will offer new thoughts and design directions for the future. Fluorescent accents in paper, metallic cut-outs, reflective materials and holographic papers will portray an almost surrealist nature. Three dimensionally textured bellybands and uniquely shaped invitation enclosures will grab the spotlight. Peacock feathers used in design motifs or as embellishments will gather interest this upcoming year. Adding layers to invitation sets through the use of frosted, translucent, and transparent papers will add visual interest while maintaining budgets.
In this socially connected world, some couples may consider opting out of paper invitations and go digital. Digital invitations are posted videos on the internet and the response is electronic. (See example,work not created by Megan Battistella of Adair Design- )
This will eliminate the response cards all together and will help to save on postage cost, return address printing and envelopes. Other options are to spend an extra amount of money on a more decorative invitation and then combining a response and directions card which will direct guests to RSVP electronically.
There areplenty of budget consciousand completely out-of-the box ideas that can portray your wedding in a brand-new light.
Adair Design specializes in wedding invitations and stationery. For a free custom wedding invitation consultation, please refer to the author's bio.
