Choosing Your Wedding Invitations.

If you are thinking about your wedding invitations, you probably already had an appointment to find the gown of your dreams. It's a similar experience with similar questions you need to answer. Think about the time of day you are getting married. Formal or causal? Church or beach? Your invitations should tell the story of what guests will experience.

Color is an obvious detail. The invitations you used to get - white and black engraved formal script - are now colorful and personalized. Use your colors, a specific flower or a monogram to personalize your paper details.

Layers, ribbon and embellishment can set off your invitations in a big way. Consider your budget since these can also set off your budget in a big way. Beautiful stationary can be simple.

Some other things to consider when it comes to your invitation budget: postage and components of your invites. The more layers and embellishment you add, you could also be adding more postage. It's hard to get away with an invitation that costs less than $.61 to mail. Square invitations are very popular but usually need to be hand sorted and therefore are more of an investment to mail.

The components of your invitation can be very informative for your guests.  Obviously there is the invitation part. The next more important component is the response card. These can be pre-stamped postcards or cards slide into pre-stamped envelopes. Accommodation cards and directions are helpful if you are having a destination wedding or many guests traveling from out of town. Destination weddings are also starting to have welcome receptions for their guests instead of rehearsal dinners. It's important to include this information and find out who will be attending. Maps of the area or the resort are nice to have for your guests. This can be helpful for out-of-towner's to know where the closest grocery store or coffee shop is to make their stay more enjoyable.

Picking your invitations tells your guests a lot about your wedding and your personality. Hand made, layered and embellished invitations will make your guests excited to see you and your groom walk down the isle on the big day!