How I Curate Ideas for Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitation design is so much more than just putting words down onto a page and finding a pretty font. Whether I’m working with a custom design client or working on a new invitation suite collection for my store, there is a process I follow every time to ensure success. In the beginning, the inspiration may be disorganized and jumbled, but piece by piece I take that mess and source the perfect graphics, find just the right fonts and paper colors to pull the collection together. Today I want to give you a look at how I curate ideas for wedding invitations in a way that is unique to each design in my store.

Step 1 - Broad Ideas in Wedding Design

Throughout the year I always have a finger on the pulse of wedding trends. I subscribe to various blogs and newsletters and jot down notes when I see trends that pop up often or some that catch my eye. I look through Pinterest and save colors, flowers and venues that are inspiring to me. All of these things give me ideas for wedding invitations.

One big trend I saw coming into the 2022 wedding season was this idea of a “Bridgerton Wedding”. A wedding that is dreamy and whimsical, but also regal and sophisticated. Loose, romantic wildflowers and elegant details. I also noticed in my own business a lot of requests for regal, traditional English style calligraphy - definitely not the loopy, whimsical hand lettering of years past.

I try to launch a new collection every month, so towards the end of the quarter I go back to this board of saved ideas and I plan out an outline for new designs for the next 3 months. I look ahead to the booking season too! So this month is August and I am booking November, December, January weddings and beyond, so I want to make sure that the designs I’m releasing NOW are relevant to those specific weddings. There won’t be anything super springy coming out right now, I’ll focus on classic, tradition, sophisticated, timeless designs that lean towards winter colors.

Step 2 - Design and Presentation

Each design starts with a cluster of ideas - fonts that grab my attention, a piece of artwork I’ve had my eye on, a color scheme. I try to start with the main focus of the design first - does this design have a monogram? Is there a floral element? Is the concept minimalist? If I have a particular floral graphic I’ve been eyeing up, I’ll lay that out first so I can see what space I have left to fill. 

If I don’t have an initial concept, I’ll search my favorite graphics websites for a piece of artwork that inspires me. Sometimes I have an idea that I want to work on a design with a crest, but I don’t already have one that fits the vision in my head, so I’ll research different ideas and find one that’s just right - not only a design that’s beautiful, but also one that is formatted correctly. Not all crests can be used for letterpress! There is a specific file type I need if I want to convert a design to a letterpress or foil print and I don’t want to run into issues when someone says “hey, I love that design but can I get it foil stamped?” 

Then I dive into fonts. I have a document where I save all of my favorite fonts, so I throw in some key words I might use in a script font and see what’s standing out.

BONUS - I do this with YOUR wedding invitations too! The 1st thing you’ll see from me when we work together is a document that has your names in my top fonts so you can get a preview of what your designs will actually look like. 

I’ll spend the better part of my design time working on the invitation - it’s the star of the show right? I’ll come back to it a few different days to see how I’m feeling about it, test out some changes such as all caps, or adding in italics, or swapping out fonts until it feels just right.

Once that piece is ready, the rest of the pieces usually flow from there - info cards, RSVP cards, table numbers, menus … they all get their place in this new collection.

Step 3 - Sourcing the little details

The design is just one piece of the puzzle. Once the design is set, I look through other accents - do I want this design to have a vellum wrap? Should I add in a wax seal? Would it really pop if I added in a blue envelope? Or should I keep it simple with an ivory envelope, but add in a pop of color with a bold, botanical envelope liner.

There are tons of ideas for wedding invitations out there, so I try to keep my designs as flexible as possible. Maybe you love a design, but want to change the color of the envelope - I want to give you the freedom to do that so you can create something that is uniquely you.

The overall message

Finding ideas for wedding invitations is a process, and not one that I take lightly. Your invitations are the first glimpse of your wedding and the right invitation sets the tone for the overall experience of your wedding celebration. Hop on over to my wedding collections page to see all of my current wedding collections and find your favorite! Or favoriteS - we can combine all your favorite design elements together to create something perfect for your wedding day.