Adding a personal touch
Wedding designs are as varied as the couple who are getting married. While ‘traditional’ weddings still predominate, many couples choose to personalise their wedding. This is especially true for second marriages; weddings where the partners are from different cultural backgrounds; and same sex ceremonies. Increasingly - as couples contribute more to the cost of their wedding - they want to make their day more individual.
Many weddings are planned around a colour, or a palette of colours, like last year’s most popular alternative theme, the ‘all pink’ wedding. For others couples, the season may provide inspiration, with winter themed outfits and reception, or a location may provide the inspiration – the perennial tartan wedding is still a strong favourite wherever a Mc or Mac gets hitched. Others opt for a theme: recent trends have included the nautical wedding with sailor suits, fish buffets and flotilla honeymoons much in evidence, and garden weddings are always popular, although the bride who carried a trug of carnations instead of a bouquet might have taken things a bit far!
If you’d like to personalise your special day, there are many ways to go about it.
Wedding Invitations
Invitations set the tone for your wedding as well as inform guests of the date, time, and place. There is a long and complicated history to the wedding invitation. Until the 1700s, only royalty and other members of high society received invitations to social events, everybody else (the peasants in other words) just heard gossip about a big bash when they were in the pub and pitched up when they thought the food would be ready. Some things don’t change much, do they? Usually the invitations were written by a butler or secretary. Even after the modern printing press was discovered, many aristocrats continued to have their invitations handwritten for this purpose. The handwriting itself was a work of art, with copperplate being the most elegant (and difficult) style. More than a third of wedding invitations sold in the UK still incorporate copperplate script.
This is when people will get a sense of the theme you’ve picked for your big day, so choosing the right invitations can be important. And do order at least a dozen more than you think you need; to allow for addressing errors and last minute guest additions.
Envelope Seals
The use of seals can be traced back to the Old Testament, where Jezebel used Ahab's seal to counterfeit important documents – perhaps that’s not the best omen for a wedding! In the Middle Ages, upper class betrothals were prearranged and lovers had little or no say in whom they married. As life expectancy was short, girls of twelve and boys of fifteen often found themselves husband and wife without much warning, especially if their fathers needed to form some kind of alliance or join up their land. As a result, lots of love letters from married people to other married people were written secretly, and the rolled or folded paper was secured by a wax seal, so both sender and receiver knew the message would stay secret. Perhaps that’s not the best omen for a wedding either!
Envelope seals are placed on the outer envelope flap to give your invitation a more attractive appearance. It’s the hint of something exciting inside, and a chance to – literally - stamp your personality on the process. Hearts are still the most popular envelope seal, but celtic knots are rising in popularity, and the initial embosser and personalised wax seal have begun to appear more frequently too. The wax seals in particular are a lovely idea because you can choose both the image and the colour in which to imprint it, or you can have one made with your initials. Stamps bearing the couple’s initials are a traditional way to seal an envelope, but you can also use hearts, celtic knots, or wedding bells.
Serviettes
There is such a range of colour and design available, that it can be bewildering. Think back to the key colour and style of your wedding stationery to harmonise the whole experience through from initial invitation to final toast.
Sweet Buffet
If you’ve chosen a strong colour, consider the attraction of a sweet buffet to pick up the hues of your napkins. This consists of a variety of sweets that pick up on your key colour choice: placed in glass containers and grouped on a side table at the reception. A wooden scoop or pretty silver spoon in each container allows guests to fill small boxes or bags as take-home favours. Jelly beans and almond dragees, chocolate beans, hundreds and thousands, parma violets, barley twists, winter warmers and chocolate limes: the choice is unlimited! If you have a childhood favourite sweet, whether pineapple chunks or milk bottles, this is the time to indulge yourself and your guests!
Personalised matchbooks and seedsticks
These are very popular and make a cost-effective memento for couples on a budget. You can now opt for more unusual personalised gifts too. In many cases, the favors do double-duty as place-card holders or centerpiece arrangements. Examples include seedsticks,personalised chocolates and even lottery ticket wallets!
Many weddings are planned around a colour, or a palette of colours, like last year’s most popular alternative theme, the ‘all pink’ wedding. For others couples, the season may provide inspiration, with winter themed outfits and reception, or a location may provide the inspiration – the perennial tartan wedding is still a strong favourite wherever a Mc or Mac gets hitched. Others opt for a theme: recent trends have included the nautical wedding with sailor suits, fish buffets and flotilla honeymoons much in evidence, and garden weddings are always popular, although the bride who carried a trug of carnations instead of a bouquet might have taken things a bit far!
If you’d like to personalise your special day, there are many ways to go about it.
Wedding Invitations
Invitations set the tone for your wedding as well as inform guests of the date, time, and place. There is a long and complicated history to the wedding invitation. Until the 1700s, only royalty and other members of high society received invitations to social events, everybody else (the peasants in other words) just heard gossip about a big bash when they were in the pub and pitched up when they thought the food would be ready. Some things don’t change much, do they? Usually the invitations were written by a butler or secretary. Even after the modern printing press was discovered, many aristocrats continued to have their invitations handwritten for this purpose. The handwriting itself was a work of art, with copperplate being the most elegant (and difficult) style. More than a third of wedding invitations sold in the UK still incorporate copperplate script. This is when people will get a sense of the theme you’ve picked for your big day, so choosing the right invitations can be important. And do order at least a dozen more than you think you need; to allow for addressing errors and last minute guest additions.
Envelope Seals
The use of seals can be traced back to the Old Testament, where Jezebel used Ahab's seal to counterfeit important documents – perhaps that’s not the best omen for a wedding! In the Middle Ages, upper class betrothals were prearranged and lovers had little or no say in whom they married. As life expectancy was short, girls of twelve and boys of fifteen often found themselves husband and wife without much warning, especially if their fathers needed to form some kind of alliance or join up their land. As a result, lots of love letters from married people to other married people were written secretly, and the rolled or folded paper was secured by a wax seal, so both sender and receiver knew the message would stay secret. Perhaps that’s not the best omen for a wedding either!
Envelope seals are placed on the outer envelope flap to give your invitation a more attractive appearance. It’s the hint of something exciting inside, and a chance to – literally - stamp your personality on the process. Hearts are still the most popular envelope seal, but celtic knots are rising in popularity, and the initial embosser and personalised wax seal have begun to appear more frequently too. The wax seals in particular are a lovely idea because you can choose both the image and the colour in which to imprint it, or you can have one made with your initials. Stamps bearing the couple’s initials are a traditional way to seal an envelope, but you can also use hearts, celtic knots, or wedding bells.
Serviettes
There is such a range of colour and design available, that it can be bewildering. Think back to the key colour and style of your wedding stationery to harmonise the whole experience through from initial invitation to final toast.
Sweet Buffet
If you’ve chosen a strong colour, consider the attraction of a sweet buffet to pick up the hues of your napkins. This consists of a variety of sweets that pick up on your key colour choice: placed in glass containers and grouped on a side table at the reception. A wooden scoop or pretty silver spoon in each container allows guests to fill small boxes or bags as take-home favours. Jelly beans and almond dragees, chocolate beans, hundreds and thousands, parma violets, barley twists, winter warmers and chocolate limes: the choice is unlimited! If you have a childhood favourite sweet, whether pineapple chunks or milk bottles, this is the time to indulge yourself and your guests!
Personalised matchbooks and seedsticks
These are very popular and make a cost-effective memento for couples on a budget. You can now opt for more unusual personalised gifts too. In many cases, the favors do double-duty as place-card holders or centerpiece arrangements. Examples include seedsticks,personalised chocolates and even lottery ticket wallets!
