Invitations for Destination Weddings

The hottest trends in paper are poised to leave their mark on a booming trend in celebrations: the destination wedding. Whether your guests will be traveling half way across the world or just across town to reach your wedding, creating unique and informative destination wedding invitations is a must. They add to the spirit of your affair and inspire your guests to make the most of their weekend adventure.

Style Trends
Today’s trends in destination wedding paper artistry include using regional colors and motifs borrowed from your location’s culture (e.g. food, activities and nature) to set the right mood for your guests. Work with your custom invitation designer to research and create a motif that is unique to your destination wedding.

Hosting a wedding fiesta in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico? Use a fun pair of chocolate and orange maracas as the spicy theme on your paper products. For a clever save the date, send actual maracas hand-painted with, “Shake, rattle and roll with Amy and David for a wedding weekend in Mexico!”

Tying the knot on a cowboy ranch in Texas? Make your motif a pair of copper boots stitched with colorful yellow roses. Send a fun rehearsal dinner invitation in a small linen bag filled with scented yellow rose petals. Tie the bag with a note that reads, “Kick up your boots as we celebrate the upcoming wedding of Lynn and Steve!”

Raising your glass at a Napa vineyard? Take the colors found in the natural landscape, such as sage and plum, and apply them to a sensual vine pattern that can become your motif. Go one step further and create playful escort and table cards that look like wine labels. You can also name your tables after your favorite wines rather than using traditional numbers. If your table is called, “Alexander Valley Merlot” then your escort card would read, “Mr. and Mrs. Henry Stevens, Alexander Valley Merlot.”

Applying the same colors and motifs toward all of your paper products - save the date, invitation, program, escort, place and table card, menu, thank you notes - creates a cohesive look to your affair. Simple touches like using your motif to divide the courses on your menu card or letterpress printing it at the top of your stationery also create impressive results.

Consider taking your theme beyond the page to adorn your guests’ gifts. Personalize a shawl for each bridesmaid in your color scheme or include flip-flops in your guests’ welcome baskets embroidered with the same motif.

Logistics
A key to the success of any destination wedding is planning and sending your paper products well in advance. Providing a Save-the-Date card is one of the most helpful things you can do for your guests. Today’s couples are investing more time and money into creating them, and they are often regarded as more important than the invite itself. Here’s why:

Save the date cards give your guests time to ask their employer for time off, search the Internet for discounts on travel, and plan a vacation they may take before or after your wedding weekend. Destination save the date cards can include a number of details: the dates for the entire weekend, choices in accommodations with toll free numbers and/or websites, travel agent information if available, names of local airport(s), local temperatures and special phone/fax/Internet circumstances or services. They should also let guests know the cut-off date for booking their accommodations. Be sure to include a brief itinerary of planned activities for the weekend as well as suggestions for optional activities. Destination save the date cards should be mailed five months to one year in advance of your wedding.

The actual invitations can include more information about the activities, such as any shuttle services you are providing and the preferred attire. It is important to include details about attire so your guests can arrive dressed and prepared to stand in the sand during your ceremony or dine al fresco in the fall. Mail your destination wedding invitations two-to-four months in advance. Ask for your response cards to be returned at least one month before the wedding to give you ample time to order and create your programs, menus, place cards and gift baskets.

Welcome baskets filled with local delicacies and second itineraries are a considerate way to greet your travelers. Again, include detailed descriptions of activity locations and shuttle services, suggestions for local restaurant and tourist attractions, and phone numbers for the other accommodations so guests can reach each other if necessary.

No matter how you choose to make these ideas your own, incorporate your destination into the style and content of your paper goods. It will create an inspiring extension of your wedding that will leave your guests feeling prepared and appreciated from their first impression to your final thank you.