Your wedding invitations are the special letters you send out to all your prospective guests so that they know when and where to attend so they can celebrate your big day with you. However, making sure your letters stand out amongst all the nearly identical ones you’ve seen online can be difficult. With that said, going too far in trying to make them unique (like in the examples below) will run the risk of all your guests thinking you aren’t taking it seriously and it will probably be pretty embarrassing.
The following will look at 6 tasteless ideas you should avoid.
1. Cowboy theme
It doesn’t matter if you’re a farmer and the rural motif is going to be big at your ceremony, don’t go overly-cheesy with the cowboy theme. Cowboy culture is really more American as they have a longer history of outdoorsmen and cattle driving especially – our version is okay but not where we excel.
As said, there’s nothing wrong with using a rural aesthetic, just don’t lay it on THIS thick.
2. Mimicking a famous couple
Believe it or not, there have been plenty of letters that are designed to parody the kind send by famous celebrities who got hitched. Basing your special day off the relationships of a celebrity couple that’s probably separated by now isn’t a good idea on it’s own, let alone as a means of encouraging people to attend.
This kind of invite will cause your prospective guests to cringe and toss the letter in the trash can.
3. Cultural appropriation
One really tasteless thing some people have down is borrow motifs and imagery from other cultures, fictional or otherwise. Before you do your Star Trek Klingon ceremony, think about if this is really a sincere moment or just a joke.
This of course applies to your wedding invitations, where you shouldn’t just throw in stuff from cultures that aren’t your own or your future spouses. If you and your partner are both Irish, it wouldn’t make sense for you to use a Chinese motif on your wedding invitations.
4. Superhero
We all know that Disney’s Marvel Studios has made gritty, realistic superhero movies (heavily laden with humour) that appeal to pretty much everyone. We all have a Marvel movie we love, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to put the Avengers on your wedding invitations.
5. Prank letter
Another terrible idea you should avoid is booby trapping your wedding invitations with confetti or something else. If your prank doesn’t sit well with the right people they may not attend and this news could spread, meaning lots of people don’t end up attending your special day. Don’t get carried away, you don’t have anything to prove.
6. Email wedding invitations
Here’s a controversial topic – whether or not digital letter (emails) are a tasteful way to send out your wedding invitations. Generally speaking, people tend to prefer a real, physical letter they can stick to their fridge door so it’s easy to remember when the big day is taking place. Wedding invitations are great pieces of memorabilia that people like to keep, especially if you’ve spent a lot of time making them really special and interesting.
There you have it, 6 terrible ideas you should avoid when making your wedding invitations.