One of the best ways to get your guests excited about your wedding plans is sending them a unique save the date and custom wedding invitations. While you’re so deep into the details of the actual day – the food, the flowers, the décor, and more – remember that the only real glimpse of the plans your guests get beforehand is the stationery you send them. So hire an experienced wedding invitations designer and make it count!
At Dodeline Design, we’ve been helping couples bring their wedding stationery dreams to life for well over a decade. We specialize in working with each client to find the right combination of paper, printing style, and embellishments to suit the wedding vision and budget.
Wedding Save the Date Ideas
The save the date is quite literally the first thing your guests receive, so let’s think about some interesting ideas to make it stand out from the crowd. Especially if you need destination save the dates – you’ll want to sell them on planning a super fun trip!
1. Photo Save the Dates
Engagement photos are a really fun part of the wedding planning process and they make a wonderful addition to your wedding website. Incorporating one of your images on the save the date is also a really great way to put those photos to use!
While we love traditional happy photos, you can consider doing something more unique as well. One of our favorite unique ideas was a couple who did a photo of only their dogs with the phrase “Our Humans are getting married!” for a fun twist on a photo save the date.
2. Ticket or Boarding Pass Save the Date
Destination wedding? Boarding pass save the dates are such a fun way to really reiterate the sense of adventure! You can embrace the style in several ways – it can have a vintage railroad vibe or a more modern aviation take. These can be designed in a variety of colors and fonts to set the tone for your wedding.
If you use it for a wedding invitation (as shown in the photos above), it can also be cool to do a perforated tear off RSVP card to make the boarding pass save the date that much more authentic.
3. Passport Save the Date
Continuing with the travel theme, a passport save the date is especially cute for international destination weddings. These can range in design from traditional and formal to embracing destination-specific elements like palm trees and sunsets.
The passport idea also makes for a great wedding invitation design if you choose to go that route (especially in combination with a boarding pass save the date). One of the big benefits is that they can have multiple pages where you can fill in tons of information about the travel, events, and accommodations for your guests.
4. Magnet Save the Date
Magnet save the dates are a good way to make sure yours doesn’t get lost in a pile of papers! Most of us put save the dates on the fridge or a pinboard anyway, so skipping a step and going right to a magnet is convenient for your guests.
Design wise, a photo is great but so are lots of the other motifs we’re sharing. Just keep in mind that everyone has to fit on one side for a magnet save the date – no double sided printing here!
One note: when mailing a magnet save the date, we have found it best to put a slip of paper behind the magnetic side because sometimes they can stick to each other when you put them in the mail.
5. Luggage Tag Save the Date
Yet another way to embrace the travel theme is to create more of a luggage tag save the date. This can range from paper done in a shape reminiscent of a luggage tag to actual luggage tags. Just remember that mailing anything lumpy or heavier will potentially affect your postage costs quite a bit.
6. Unique Shape Save the Dates
At Dodeline, we love a good die cut. Changing up the shape of your save the date can be a really fun way to stand out from the crowd. Ovals, scallops, flowers, trees….the possibilities are pretty much endless!
7. Wedding Location Save the Dates
You probably spent ages looking at wedding locations and venue options. So why not celebrate it and put it front and center? Whether you do that with a more formal venue sketch or a whimsical watercolor venue illustration, sharing the venue is a great way to kick off your wedding paper.
You can also focus more on the wedding city with the save the date, using design elements or landmarks more about the destination itself, and then “zoom in” with the wedding invitation to the specific venue.
8. Formal Save the Date
Are you going for a totally formal, traditional feel? Are you looking for the super cohesive flat lay photo of your wedding stationery? In that case, a formal save the date might be the way to go. Start out the wedding stationery with the typefaces, colors, and motifs that you know you will continue to use for the invitations and other paper. That way everything flows seamlessly from start to finish and your guests know to start dress shopping right away!
9. Watercolor Map Save the Date
Watercolor maps are a wonderful way to get guests excited about the wedding location. They are helpful in that they show the wedding location(s) but it’s also nice to include famous landmarks and points of interest.
That said, the map doesn’t have to just be of the wedding city. You could do a map save the date that celebrates significant places for your relationship like where you got engaged, first met, etc. or many variations thereof.
10. Folded Save the Date
Just because save the dates are typically a flat card doesn’t mean you can’t think outside of the box! In the example shown above, we did a gatefold for the save the date that lined up perfectly with the gate of the couple’s wedding venue – the William Aiken House. Once opened, a gorgeous photo of the couple was revealed with all the pertinent information. It made for an amazing first impression!
Wedding Invitation Design Ideas
1. Pocket Wedding Invitation
Pocket wedding invitations never go out of style. They offer the ability to corral all the cards you plan to send into one very neat, efficient “folio” of sorts. And while they are very functional, they also give you the option for lots of fun design elements. The pocket itself comes in many colors and can then be wrapped in ribbon, belly bands, wax seals, sticker seals, and more.
2. Laser Cut Wedding Invitation
Laser cut wedding invitations vary greatly in style and motif. At Dodeline our favorite way to use laser cutting is to create wrought iron gate elements inspired by the gates of Charleston, but we’ve also made Spanish moss draped oak trees with laser cutting.
Custom laser cutting is a really fun option to explore, but there are also some more readymade versions we can use that have a very ornate feel. Laser cut cards with lace like elements all around, belly bands that have the feel of a lace ribbon, and more.
3. Debossed Details
A “blind” press is to press a detail without any color. It makes for a gorgeous, subtle aesthetic. For a truly modern and interesting look, you can do all the text this way, but we do find most people like to use it for small details, like the monogram in the below photo.
4. Traditional Formal Wedding Invitation
When you look back on your invitation years from now, you certainly won’t regret going the formal or traditional route. It’s timeless for a reason! Hallmarks of a traditional design include engraved printing or letterpress printing and black, gold, or maybe navy ink colors. They are sometimes on a panel card like shown below (which means it has a “panel” that’s sort of an inset box on the paper). Typically truly traditional invitations are on Ecru stock.
5. Ribbon Wrapped Wedding Invitation
The possibilities with ribbon are nearly endless! Wrap your invitations in a big dramatic satin bow, a soft flowy frayed silk, a tight flat band finished with a wax seal, a clever knot, and more. Invitations tied up in twine almost like a present were also quite popular for a few years and it’s still a look we love!
6. Vellum Wrap Wedding Invitation
Vellum is a semi-translucent paper that can be printed or left plain. Wrap it around your invitation in something like a gatefold – shown below – for a really pretty way to unveil the invitation design.
7. Unusual Paper Colors
You don’t have to stick with white, ivory or ecru! Dark colors with foil printing are especially striking, like this black invitation with gold foil. Look closely as you’ll see it also features some debossed details.
White ink on navy is also another stunning choice – it’s beautiful for envelopes or for the actual invitation like in this Bermuda invitation!
8. Envelope Liners
Envelope liners are an excellent place to make a statement. Feature your venue or the city where you’re getting married, use your wedding color, or introduce a pattern that might be part of your wedding. We’ve even taken fabric for table runners and turned them into envelope liners!
9. Mad Libs / Funny RSVP Cards
Receiving your response cards makes for a fun few weeks of mail, but it’s especially amusing when you do a mad lib or ask funny questions on your RSVP cards.
10. Creative Wax Seals
Introduce a custom monogram or crest with a custom wax seal and then you can also use it in the wedding day paper / décor later. It also doesn’t have to be a monogram – here at Dodeline we have created wax seals out of lots of motifs, including venue illustrations, trees, pineapples, and more.
Wedding Day Paper Ideas
1. Program Fans
For summer weddings (or in some places, like Charleston even spring or early Fall ones!), making the program do double duty as a fan is an excellent decision. Guests will often use them for a fan anyway, so why not embrace it? Program fans can look lots of different ways, ranging from a simple double sided to pretty scalloped versions that literally “fan” out by way of a brad at the bottom.
2. A Fun Twist on Escort Cards
This is an option we LOVE for getting guests to their seats. A chilled glass of champagne with their name on it! We can do these in many different ways, but the two most common are the champagne “scrolls” as you see below or a diamond shaped card that has slits to sit on top of the glass. Displayed on a large wall, they make a charming seating chart display.
Another version is to hang the escort cards on a bud vase of flowers, which again makes a gorgeous display and doubles as a sweet smelling favor!
3. Get Your Pet Involved
When your pet is your baby, you want to include them in the big day! There are many ways to do that, but one of our favorites is to include an illustration on a coaster or a napkin. That can be done in full color or line art. Keep in mind that if you want foil printing line art will be the only way to do that.
Other options are to name your bar or signature cocktails after your pet. A cute sign can include a photo or illustration as well.
4. Creative Seating Assignments
Think outside the box! As mentioned above, champagne escort cards are one really fun way to do a seating chart, but obviously that does involve extra expense and rentals to accomplish. So there are many other options for seating charts of course, like doing a large sign printed with the names/assignments. At Dodeline we typically print those the week of the wedding and mount them on foam core so that you can prop them on a table or an easel.
We also do seating charts on individual 5×7 sheets and then attach them to a wall or mirror with wax seals. Each sheet lists the guests at that table.
Another option is to do small envelopes with the guest name printed on them and a card inside that tells them which table. The wonderful thing about this option is the flexibility – you have the option to rearrange up until the very last minute if you need to!
Other fun options are to attach a seating card to something that guests will pick up and take to their table, like macaroons or a favor or a floral sprig. You can get really creative with these installations and do things like putting names on the spine of books or attaching a tag to a key, etc. The possibilities really are endless!
5. Welcome Itineraries
One of the more useful things you can do for your guests is provide a welcome itinerary. This makes sure they know where to go and when to be there, especially if you have multiple events over the course of several days. A welcome bag can be decked out with a cute tag / sticker and lots of fun little surcees. We often do custom water bottle labels and more for the treats inside the welcome bag.
The itinerary, though, is a super useful piece. It can be as simple as a 5×7 sheet printed with the basic details, or it can be a really cool trifold / booklet with tons of information. This is a great place to use watercolor wedding maps too!
6. Door Hangers
This is a fun and less common addition to the welcome bag – door hangers! Customize them with your wedding information for guests to hang on their door when they’re sleeping off all the fun they had at your wedding.
7. Personalized Menus
When a guest sits down at the table and finds a menu customized with their name and menu selection, they are sure to be completely WOWED. At Dodeline, this is a service we offer for our custom wedding invitations clients. It does the job of a place card while also sharing the important info about what they get to eat! The names can be printed on the actual menu, or we can add tags or belly bands or other creative options to incorporate the guest name.
8. Acrylic Signage
Acrylic signage brings a really polished and unique look to the wedding day. Oftentimes you can even rent table numbers and other more standard signs as they are hardy enough to be used for multiple events. Acrylic signs have the option of using white ink and adding other interesting elements like florals, etc.
9. Welcome Sign / Timeline Sign
A welcome sign can be helpful to show guests where to go. You may want to check with your florist about adding greenery or floral to it as well, or consider purchasing a frame to fit it. If it’s designed well, it can even end up being something you keep and display in your home!
A timeline sign is another version of that and can be nice to share with your guests the “order of events,” if you will. The cake cutting, cocktail hour, dancing, etc.
10. Favors
If you’re providing favors, you may want to work with your wedding invitations designer to create stickers or tags or some type of enclosure to display it for your guests. You also should consider a sign to tell them to take one – while it may seem obvious, people do like to be told what to do in cases like this.
BONUS IDEA: Candy bar! We did this really fun candy-inspired signage several years ago but we still adore it. It’s such a fun and easy thing to do to bring a little whimsy and lightheartedness to your reception!
In Conclusion
Working with a wedding invitations designer from the very beginning will help you find your way through the clearly very complicated world of wedding stationery. A good stationery designer will help you with Identifying your vision, maximizing your budget, and bringing creative ideas to your big day.
Questions? Something we missed? Please say hello in the comments – we’re happy to help!
And one final note: at Dodeline Design, we work with couples getting married all over the world. If you’d like to chat more with us about how we can help you, please fill out the form.
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