The Dandelion Patch

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Your Wedding Invitation: Trend or Trash?

I am very pleased to republish this article that originally appeared on District Bride Guide. Enjoy!

You're engaged!

Now the fun begins. You know EXACTLY what kind of wedding you want (you've been planning it since kindergarten, right?). Then at the stationary store, you leaf through binder after binder until each sample is a swirl of color and a blur of words. The gravity of this first step overwhelms you.


The invitation sets the tone for your big day and dictates all that follows. It should represent your style and the type of wedding you'll be having. But with so many different invitations, how do you weed out the trendy from the just-plain trashy? Here are a few tips:

Model the runway. Rich colors like purple, chartreuse and magenta break traditionally white wedding stereotypes. Current menswear fashions are echoed in pinstripe shades of your wedding scheme. Whether horizontal or vertical, tonal stripes say "modern classic." As the chicest women know, accessories make an outfit. They're seen in trendy invitations and include Swarovski crystals, rhinestones and pearls. Just don't overdo it. Less is often more. Take a cue from red carpet stars and go with a neutral pallette of shimmery bronze, platinum, gold or silver.

Channel your inner Carrie Bradshaw. If you are like me and a huge fan of Carrie and her BFFs (Charlotte is my personal favorite), then invitations adorned with lifelike fabric flowers are a perfect touch. Vintage florals and textures like tweed and wood are making their way into invitations, creating new trends just like Carrie.

Wrap and send it with love. Like beautiful wrapping paper, the outside package says as much about the gift as the actual item inside. The robin's egg blue Tiffany box makes a recipients heart flutter just a little faster. Your invitation envelope can do the same. Slip yours into a luxurious orgenza pouch or integrate your color scheme into the envelope with a tied satin ribbon.

Monogram it. Admit it. When you were younger, you carved you and your beau's initials into a tree or in the sand at the beach. We've all done it. What says romance more than you and your love's initials intertwined? There's a reason why monograms remain a personal favorite on invitations.

Be green. As Kermit the frog said, "It's not easy being green." However, it is easy being green when it comes to invitations. Some of today's most elegant invitations are made with 100% tree-free materials. Want your happy occasion to extend beyond the reception? Invitations can now be embedded with seeds that guests can later plant!

The possibilities are endless.

Now that you know what's trendy, in my next blog post we'll talk about what's not!






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posted by The Dandelion Patch @ 10:48 AM   0 Comments

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

An Inviting Wedding


Although June used to be THE season for weddings, in Northern Virginia we see weddings year 'round. Times have changed, but one standard certainly hasn't - you must still invite your guests to the wedding! (Unless you truly meant it when you said, "We just want to have a small wedding.")

You may have chosen to send a save-the-date card earlier in your engagement. Even so, you should still send you invitations 8 weeks in advance. This not only gives your guests time to make travel and / or childcare arrangements, this will give you sufficient time to track down errant non-responders. Unfortunately, you will have to track down a good third of your guests! Nothing will turn you into a rabid RSVPer like throwing a wedding!

Your invitations should reflect the theme, colors, location and formality of your wedding. Remember that you are setting the stage for the main event and this will be your guests first glimpse into your "dream day." Make sure the invitation is also functional - have all the who, what, when, where information and don't be afraid to use additional cards for sharing more detail about your reception, accomodation arrangements and directions. Some couples even share common local attractions and weather data should guests want to make a mini-vacation out of your event. Do not, however, include registry information, unless you particularly relish being the topic of gossip around town! Even today, registry information is only correctly shared by word-of-mouth.

Invitations, like fashion, go through trends. This is why it is beneficial to befriend a professional who can navigate you through the process and educate you on the many options available. In our stores we are seeing a decline in certain colors such as brown and seeing an increase in others such as blues and greys. Belly bands, tags and layers are going away and instead beautiful letterpress, blind embossing, and engraving are making a strong comeback. There is an emphasis on quality paper, especially now that the use of more "white space" in design is prevalent. Simple, elegant motifs are making bold statements where graphic designs used to be.

And let's not forget there are many eco-friendly, "green" options, including bamboo paper, cotton paper, post-consumer waste paper along with soy-based inks and non-mass produced products that reduce the negative environmental footprint. The Dandelion Patch loves paper, but we love the Earth too! We are delighted to help brides find alternative ways to make a "white wedding" more GREEN!

Natually, when ordering your invitations, you will also want to order your thank you notes. Look for a future post about notes of gratitude. (You can thank us later!)


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posted by The Dandelion Patch @ 9:27 PM   0 Comments