The party CAMPUS CORNER

Invitations do more than just invite your guests. They lay the groundwork for your party’s style and theme, whether informal, traditional, seasonal, or reflecting a destination. In an interview with Alina, owner of MajesticInvites.com, the high-end NYC invitation boutique catering to VIP and celebrity clientele, she talks about the 2008 trends in invitations.

While discussing trends in invitations, Alina emphasized that they should reflect one’s personal style rather than the trend-of-the-moment. Moreover, throughout the entire process of planning your event, Alina reminds us that the event, and therefore the invitation, is about you and not what is hot or popular.

That said, you may choose trends that appeal to your style to create unique invitations that are timeless yet elegant, sophisticated and chic, and most of all, perfect for your event. During your decision making, keep in mind that your invitations should be worthy of framing and should always remind you of your perfect day.

The most recent development in party and corporate invitations involves high-concept customization that reflects the party’s theme as well as the personality of the party-giver or guest of honor. A related emerging trend is the use of less formal wording on invites, save-the-dates, and programs.

Along these lines, Alina discussed with us some of the latest trends for invitations:

USE BOLD COLORS:

Traditional invitations used to be white, ivory, ecru, or cream, with black or brown font colors. Since today’s generation loves to experiment with colors, bright colors that stand out have taken the invitations market by storm. Red, blue, tropical orange, hot pink, fuchsia, turquoise, yellow, and purple invitations with either dark or light fonts are the latest rage in cards. These colors make for vivid and eye-catching invitations. If you prefer a tone closer to traditional colors, warmer mochas, pale pinks, and lavenders are also popular. Remember that guests often post invitations on their refrigerators, so use color to turn your cards into a work of art.

The best-selling color for 2008 is purple. Also “in” for 2008 is the use of shimmering and metallic papers. Alina noted that silvers and gold are timeless colors, and work especially well with formal events. If you prefer a more subtle approach, try silver or gold ink, as this can still make your invitation stand out.

MATCH THEME COLORS:

When we asked Alina about theme colors, she said that the color of your invitation doesn’t have to match your color palette, but the invitation is a good time to introduce your color scheme if you know what it will be.

Alina noted that the trend for 2008 is to match the color of your invitation with the location of your event. With destination weddings becoming more popular, convey your style and locale with the colors you choose. For an island or beach wedding, for instance, you might want a sand-colored invitation with green text. For your garden wedding, use a range of greens from dark moss to leafy sage. For a winter wedding, select a deep blue with silver print.

Another 2008 trend for wedding invitations, sweet 16 invitations, or quinceanera invitations is to match the invitation color to the color of the honoree’s outfit. Alina’s clients give her swatches of their outfit fabric, to allow her to exactly match colors.

“BRAND” CARDS WITH GRAPHICS:

These days, themed parties are the rage. Alina suggests that themed parties should be represented by themed invitations. Clients flock to her with requests for symbols and artwork with which to customize their invitations. She pointed us to her website, MajesticInvites.com, with its huge gallery of artwork that clients can request to have printed on their invitations. Clients can also submit their own artwork. Alina said incorporating wedding themes into your invitation is easy, such as a beach theme, a Hawaiian theme, a fairy tale theme, a Jewish theme, a Christian theme, a garden theme, a tropical theme, a destination theme, a butterfly theme, a winter theme, a snowflake theme, a fall theme, an autumn theme, a lighthouse theme, a nautical theme, a yacht theme, an ocean theme, a seaside theme, a by-the-ocean theme, a seashell theme, and many more.

A new trend is taking a graphic and using it as a theme throughout all of your print items. Therefore, as Alina emphasized, your invitations, RSVPs, placecards, menu cards, and thank you cards would all have the same graphic in different scales. The point is to stick with one universal design element, whether that is the color, the pattern, or the position of the graphic.

Another top design trend is ‘branding’ your names on the invitation using a special invitation monogram — almost like a logo. When we asked Alina what this does for invitations, she said that if you use this idea on all of your wedding stationery, you’ll create a truly unique and personalized design that will represent the uniqueness of a couple’s union. She highlighted a couple of examples, such as an intercultural marriage depicted by a fusion of symbols, or a special design carried through on all of the invitation trousseau items. Entwine both of your first initials in a beautiful, artistic way as a design to accent to your invitations, and carry that monogram to your envelopes above your return address. MajesticInvites.com offers a service that creates a monogram for your names. Creative interracial monograms done by MajesticInvites.com include one for a Jewish-Hindu union, where Alina designed a symbol that subtly integrated a Jewish star with an Indian symbol, and one for a Sikh-Christian wedding, where she designed a graphic that combined ‘ekonkar’, a Sikh symbol, and a ‘cross’.

Custom-designed map artwork for the invitations is also creating trend in 2008. “We’re doing custom maps for the invitations,” Alina says. “Couples give us all the landmarks they want included, and we put together an artistic map that complements the invitation.”

CHOOSE UNIQUE STYLES:

When we asked Alina about card styles, she noted that the traditional single-panel card styles are rarely used. Instead, she said that today’s invitations come in a range of card presentations, from pocketfold cards and tri-fold cards (the latter opening up like doors to reveal your invitation inside), hard-cover padded book designs, scroll invitations, and designs embellished with embroidery, crystals, sequins, jewels, and tassels. The expanded formats eliminate space concerns while the embellishments create a one-of-a-kind sentiment.

Alina also mentioned that boxed invitations have taken over the market, with the invitation placed on top of a gift as a pre-wedding favor of sorts. This gift might be a music CD, flower petals or a packet of plant seeds, a little something special to show your very special event is coming up.

Her most popular invitations this year feature uniquely designed cards inserted in beautiful sheer organza drawstring bags. Pockets to organize the various inserts for invitees for pre-wedding and wedding day festivities, RSVP cards, gift registries, and directions are featured on many of her invitations. Scroll invitations, pocketfold invitations, stack form designs, and book designs are still bestsellers with her clients.

FIND DISTINCTIVE FONTS:

Alina finds that printed calligraphy over hand-written print is more frequently requested these days, for both invitations and mailer envelopes. Over the Internet, clients can find a million very artistic typestyles available either free or for a small fee. MajesticInvites.com allows its clients to submit their own fonts to use when printing their invitations.

Alina encourages her clients to take some time to find a font they love, to write the text out and then try it out using a range of different fonts, so that they can determine whether the lettering conveys their style and location, if desired. She says that you’ll know your favorite font when you see it, a
nd not to limit yourselves to what is expected.

CHOOSE UNIQUE PAPER STOCK:

We then asked Alina about paper stock. She said that the trend today is to use card stock that offers a design element all on its own. This might be smooth imported paper from Thailand, a delicate silk handmade paper from India, or, as offered by Alina, a variety of handmade papers, vellum papers, velvet cloths, wooly cloths, silks and many others that fill her range of gorgeous papers. Alina also mentioned another 2008 trend–the use of fabric. Fashion has moved into invitations, with slips of colored silk, satin, or velvet having found their way onto invitations.

GO NATURAL:

Another invitation trend that Alina discussed with us that’s been picking up speed in 2008 is the use of earth-friendly papers and conserving paper. Instead of an envelope, one couple chose an invitation card that could be folded and mailed without a seperate envelope and asked guests to RSVP online. More and more couples are doing their part to protect Mother Earth by using recycled paper or paper made from other materials, such as hemp or bamboo. Another popular trend is to feature an object from nature–leaves or flowers–on the invitations, or to use sandalwood or cinnamon sticks to decorate the card. Alina also noted that you can replace individual escort cards with an attractive poster displaying the seating arrangement at the reception facility’s entrance.

IN SUMMARY:

Today, the ‘East Meets West’ or the ‘Fusion’ look dominates invitation designs. Ultimately, the design you choose for your invitations should reflect the mood, style, or theme of your wedding. Your invitations excite your guests about your affair so choose carefully! Most importantly, as Alina emphasized, you should love your invitation!