Tweaking the Tradition Whimsical, modern designs are outweighing the formal, traditional look of wedding stationary

By Rebecca Rolwing

When it comes to wedding stationary these days, even the most strait-laced couples are venturing into new territories.

With a rainbow array of colors and endless modern designs and typography styles, wedding invitations are no longer confined to the world of black script fonts and ecru colored paper.

"The days of plain, rectangle shaped, formal invitations are long gone," said Beth Mungle, marketing director at MTI Printing in Cape Girardeau. Couples are now using everything from vibrant color schemes, unique fonts and whimsical designs, to even incorporating photographs to add their own personal touches to their invitations.

"There is a new freedom with wedding invitations that allows every couple to let their personality and style shine through," Mungle said.

This year, she said, MTI has seen a big trend with bright color schemes including yellow and gray, hot pink and navy, and tangerine and turquoise with bold uses of fun and whimsical typographies. A new, popular trend at MTI for invitations is the use of Quick Response (QR) codes.

"Couples are using the codes to send guests to RSVP websites and even as a way to automatically add the ceremony to guests' electronic calendar," she said.

Cheryl Sullivan, sales/customer service representative at Concord Printing in Cape Girardeau, said couples want their invitations to be unique and offer guests a sneak peak of what's to come.

"The invitation is your first glance of what to expect at the wedding," she said. "If it's beach theme, pool party or a country/cowboy theme, even the color of ink that is chosen -- it all tells the tone of the wedding."

Sullivan said a trending invitation at Concord is the Seal-N-Send, an invitation with the RSVP card attached by a perforation.

"The invited guests fills out the card, tears it off and sends it back," she said. "This means no envelope for returning the RSVP card as well as less postage because the card is postcard regulation size."

Pocket invitations, which include three staggered cards often used for directions, RSVP card and hotel reservation information along with the invitation, is another popular invitation choice at Concord.

Mungle said MTI recently worked with a couple to design a custom, oversized invitation that narrated the story of how the couple met, fell in love and got engaged in addition to the necessary wedding day information. It was "by far one of the most unique and memorable invitations we've produced," she said.

Along with invitations, Mungle said MTI has also seen a lot of new trends with save the dates. Interactive save the dates with lottery style scratch cards are among some of the most popular trends. Photograph and magnet save the dates are a popular choice and the use of QR codes that direct guests to a wedding website are also becoming very popular on save the dates.

Sullivan said having a running theme throughout the entire wedding stationary is something couples generally like to do.

"They correlate the save the date cards, the shower invitations, the wedding invitations as well as the thank-you cards," she said. "It seems the bride and groom pick a theme, color scheme, etc., and it follows through the entire adventure."