Choosing your wedding invitation design… where do you start?! If there’s one thing my growing library of wedding magazines has engrained on me it’s that “apparently” the design is ‘oh-so-important’ because it not only sets the tone for the entire day but its also a chance for the couple to reflect their personalities in their chosen design. Reading similar phrases time after time, in any and every wedding magazine soon sent me into a blind panic and I could think about little else. Our day is going to be really varied and there’s no way we could illustrate that in one design… but what if it wasn’t the right design and our guests were somehow disappointed with either a) the invite itself or b) the actual wedding because the invite hadn’t set the “correct tone” and they were expecting something else? Would people be judging us (and the invites) that scrupulously? …And reflect our personalities? What? I didn’t have time for this. There is enough pressure and stress involved in planning a wedding without having my head bought closing to bursting point with this bloody nightmare.

There was only one way I was going to be able to handle this and that was to forget EVERYTHING I had read about wedding invitations and what they should or shouldn’t “reflect”. I knew that I didn’t want a shop bought design and that’s probably what put me off for so long. Design isn’t my strong point and although, for the evening invites at least, I knew what concept I wanted, the biggest fear factor for me was getting the background design right (on both the day and evening invites) as that was going to follow through onto everything from escort cards, to the cake design even to the thank you cards. Then one night, when Rob had gone to bed and I was down stairs with 2am repeats of ‘Bridezillas’ (channel 266!!) to keep me company, it suddenly hit me. I got out my wedding notebook (which cunningly has plain pages as well as lined. Make sure yours does!), grabbed a pencil and got to work. An hour or so later I had the main outline for the evening invites, including the background design, sorted. Phew! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not perfect but it was a draft at least.

That was the beginning of December. The day invites were a completely different story… I wanted them to be formal but different from all the ones I’d seen online and in mags (which to be honest had all started looking the same). They had to incorporate our colours but couldn’t be too fussy. They had to look stylish but I had to be mindful of the budget. Time ticked on; by this point it was mid January and the panic was starting to build. Apart from having a basic background pattern, taken from the evening invites, the day ones were no closer to getting resolved. Wedding TV to the rescue again! This time it was ‘Don’t Tell The Bride’ and the Bride-to-be (who had been due to get married the previous year but it had been postponed) was going through her box of original invites and it hit me. I didn’t want her card (God no, it was shocking) but the ‘fastening’ of the card was the thing really stumbling me and she had provided me with the flash of inspiration I needed. I rushed to the computer and almost instantly found her invite (obviously, as she’d been the stereotypical bride and bought everything from ‘confetti’). With a few more clicks and bit more googling I had the design. <queue fanfare!>

As I said, I’m no graphic designer but luckily Rob has an awesome one at Xcite called Charlotte and she has kindly offered to perfect the design for us. Not only that but we think we might have a printer too! So the only thing left to do is confirm the wording. “Only thing”. Pfff. Yet another minefield of do’s and don’ts! As it happens I have a legitimate excuse for not finalising the wording; although we have, eventually, signed off on Aynhoe Park, our 6 months “regular service” at the church isn’t quite up and we cant ‘go to print’ until we know where the wedding ceremony is actually taking place. Rather an important piece of information you’d agree.

A week or so later, I was looking over the designs and I suddenly got this warm feeling in the pit of my stomach, I let out a small laugh whilst stifling an overwhelming urge to cry. Emotions clearly run high with anything to do with the wedding and I think they were partly tears of relief as well as happiness. But the laugh, the laugh was because sat there, looking at the mock invites it dawned on me; not only do the invitations most definitely reflect the “tone” of the day/evening but sure enough, they also, in some bizarre way, reflect our personalities. So if you find yourself, like me, pulling your hair out over invitation etiquette, don’t look at the comments in magazines and so forth as advice, or instruction, but as, I don’t know, a premonition. Have faith in what you choose and know that you will, naturally, end up with everything those magazines said you would.