Printing your own wedding invitations will certainly add a great deal of personality and flair to your wedding. But when you’re first getting started you might be stuck thinking of ideas and the best way to approach getting started.
Afterall, it’s your wedding and coming up with the best ideas possible is priority number one.
Here are 5 ways to develop creative ideas for your printable wedding invitations:
1. Discover and find what people are doing for wedding invitations in other countries. It’s easiest to look on the Internet, but if you’re able to travel (or know someone in another country that is able to do some research for you) that’s a superior technique because you’ll get to hold the materials and have a better understanding of what’s possible.
When looking online, you can do searches in other languages. For example, “wedding invitation” is called “invito di cerimonia nuziale” in Italian, “huwelijks uitnodiging” in Dutch, “invitation de marriage” in French, “convite do casamento” in Portugese, “hochzeitseinladung” in German, “invitación de la boda” in Spanish and “brollopsinbjudan” in Swedish.
Also look in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, India, and other countries that have English as a primary language.
2. Find creative artist websites and investigate what they’re up to with modern art and design. Remember that everything doesn’t have to be wedding related in the research phase. Looking at photographs, graphic designs, paintings, and interior decorations like modern wallpapers and patterns can also be very helpful. Even blogs have good ideas every now and then.
3. Magazines. Need I say more? There’s a gazilliion of them it seems. Look at all types of style, design and visually-focused (not articles) magazines. You don’t have to stick to the wedding theme here either - you just want INSPIRATION! I like those like Martha Stewart Crafts and Creating Keepsakes. Also consider Real Simple and Domino. Notice the layouts, and the ads might also provide insights.
Get an understanding of what you like and don’t like. Think of how your preferences could be translated into invitations that fit the mood and theme of your wedding. There are no rules here, so don’t feel like what you create has to be like everybody else’s wedding invitations.
4. Get a group of your closest friends together and have a brainstorm. This is a bit obvious, but sometimes we rely too heavily on ourselves and forget the resources available around us.
Make a fun evening of it. Gather reference materials and sit with the gals to craft your perfect wedding invitation. Their feedback will surely be helpful, and the time spent together will be a lot of fun. Maybe have some wine, order a pizza, or just go with cheese and crackers. From there, let the ideas flow. Sometimes the best ideas come when you aren’t trying too hard to force them.
5. If you’re up to it, consider taking a creative class or art session with a mentor or teacher. They have these available at local places and adult education centers. Do anything that you think will be helpful, fun, and interesting.There are a ton of different classes that will cover all sorts of topics like embossing, rubber stamping, die-cutting, jewelry making, decoupage, scrapbooking, using different types of craft tools. Getting involved with these activities can easily set your imagination and creativity on fire.