What a Chocolate Bar Can Tell You About Your Wedding Invitations
I recently opened a Raspberry Dark Chocolate bar of Chocolove. Aside from being fair trade, organic and just generally delicious, these bars also all come with a love poem tucked into the wrapper - a sentimental treat for you to discover upon opening. And as I sat there, savoring my chocolate bar and chewing on this poem, it had me thinking about its parallels with wedding stationery.
There is of course the surprise and delight factor - something I have practiced for years in customer service. The element of the unexpected woven into the packaging, something that catches your eye, slows you down, invites you to savor. It transforms something ordinary and every day, like opening a chocolate bar or a wedding invitation, into a magical experience for the senses. And who doesn’t want that?
But beyond the surprise and delight element, including a poem inside a chocolate bar (or inside your wedding invitation) taps into something deeper in us. It reaches beyond the taste and sensibility of a bar of chocolate - tasting good and coming from a just origin - and it touches our heartstrings. That human part inside of us that is hungry to connect, make meaning, and tell stories. I also believe that this is the part of us that makes memories, and is why I always reach for this brand every time I am hungry for rich chocolatey indulgence. Any bar of chocolate can taste good and have good ingredients, but does it include a special something that is going to stop me in the middle of my day and make me feel something? Only Chocolove can do that.
Similarly, any wedding invitation can be both beautiful and informative. But can it reach that third thing? Can it touch your guests’ heart strings? Can it communicate a personal detail, a shared memory, or a heartfelt sentiment? Can it make people feel something? That is the kind of wedding stationery I strive to create with my clients.
So, consider this your invitation, to reimagine what your wedding invitations - and your wedding itself! - can be. Reaching beyond beauty and information, let’s touch the heartstrings of your guests through personal illustrations and poetic wording. Let’s invite them to slow down, savor your love story, and feel something.
5 Reasons You Should Invest in Wedding Invitations (in the Age of Digital E-vites and Minted.com)
My therapist recently asked me, with nothing but good intentions, why I would be starting a business designing wedding invitations when so many people are opting to send digital invites. While it caught me off guard at first, upon further consideration, it is a valid question in this digital world, and I’m sure you’re considering this yourself. Why spend a decent chunk of your precious wedding budget on personalized paper invitations when you could just send them online, or design one yourself from a template? Well, here’s my two cents, as a wedding stationery designer, snail mail enthusiast and thank you note writer extraordinaire.
Wedding invitations, aside from being a timeless tradition in the history of people getting married, serve as a physical reminder to your guests. To RSVP. To get that flight booked. To check the wedding website. To book the hotel. And with so many emails these days filling up our inbox, a digitally sent invitation could simply get lost in the mix, or filed into the folder in our brains that says “I’ll deal with this later.” But a paper invitation sent straight to your door? That you can hold in your hands? And put on your fridge? That reminder simply has a whole different weight to it, that a digital invite simply can’t compete with.
Designing your invites with an artist/stationer helps you think about the design and vibe you want to create for your wedding day. Since invitations often get mailed out way before you start thinking about your floral design, what rental items you are going to order, or what color palette you want your bridesmaids to wear, a lot of the design work you do with your wedding stationer can feed into the rest of these elements. The moodboard, inspiration photos and color palette you create together can be sent to your other vendors, getting incorporated into the day’s design so that everything aligns.
Wedding invites give your guests a feel for the vibe of your wedding - and your love. They get your guests excited, help them envision what to wear and what to bring, and basically make them feel like an exclusive member of your “love club.” Hint - they are!
It’s an opportunity to add a personal, heartfelt touch - weaving in elements from your unique love story and personal history so that people can really feel who you are as a couple. This, in my opinion, is what weddings are all about!
Wedding invitations are an emblem of a time-honored tradition - the love letter. While traditional wedding stationery in your mind might evoke an image of boring calligraphy and black borders, I like to think of it as a love letter sent out to all of your favorite people, echoing of a time when we could only communicate via the mail, sending our love across oceans sealed in envelopes. There is something ancient about it, something analogue and tactile, that speaks to the romantic in us all. It’s a way, upon opening the envelope, to literally open the hearts of your guests, inviting them in to the look and feel of your unique love.