Custom Wedding Invitations
Traditional weddings are becoming a thing of the past. Couples, both young and old, are taking charge of their special day and are designing their weddings in keeping with their personalities and preferences.
This break from the past often begins right out of the gate, with the custom wedding invitation. Some couples combine informality with style by handwriting a personal invitation to their prospective guests. These handwritten messages are then reproduced professionally on fine quality cards or stationary. Other invitations are customized in accordance with a particular wedding theme. Guests attending a "luau" wedding might be requested to wear informal beach attire or those invited to a "Roman" wedding might be instructed to sport a toga.
One rather unique custom wedding invitation instructed the guest list to come prepared to take a 2 hour airplane ride and to spend the night in a tent. The groom-to-be, an avid white water rafter, convinced his wife to raft down the Snake River and have their wedding ceremony on shore where they docked for the night. All of the wedding guests were flown in to a local airport and then transported to the wedding site by helicopter.
Including a snapshot of the soon to be newlyweds is becoming a favorite part of many custom wedding invitations. The vast majority of those opting for this feature take their own pictures rather than have them done by a professional photographer. However, couples who have already secured a wedding photographer will often have the professional handle the "pre-wedding" photography and picture reproduction.
Whether or not to bring young children to a wedding has always represented a dilemma for both the wedding couple and for their guests. Unless specified in a customized invitation, guests are free to follow their conscience. Unfortunately, conscience often gives way to personal convenience or necessity and as a result many ceremonies are disrupted by crying babies or bored children. To alleviate these problems, wedding hosts are making provisions for babysitting services at the church or wedding hall and noting these services on their customized wedding invitation. Likewise, if no babysitting services are being provided and children are not welcome, couples are stating this clearly.
There are any number of reasons and preferences that give rise to custom wedding invitations. In short, there is no reason whatsoever to be held to the traditional "who, where and when" announcement. Customized invitations are colorful, useful and contemporary.