By Georgina Clatworthy

Throughout your wedding planning you will be told of how important it is to personalize your wedding to suit the taste and style of you both.  Little wonder then that unique wedding invitations are high on most bride’s shopping list.

Your wedding invitations are the first glimpse your guests will have of your wedding style and/or theme so you need to get them right.  Unique invitations go far beyond choosing something that is in your chosen wedding colors, it is more to do with the design, graphics and style of the invite that will make them unique.

Presentation is another factor that will make your invitations unique and distinguish them from others.

So when you begin looking for your invitations consider the following factors before making you final choice.

Price: This has to come first, you can find the most perfect invitations on the market, but if they are too expensive then you will have to think again.  You should have assigned a portion of your budget to your wedding stationery and if you had researched prices before hand then this should be a realistic figure.

Your invitations will cost the most out of your stationery budget, particularly if you have seperate enclosures, fancy embellishments and separate RSVP cards with envelopes.  You should also include the postage costs as well in your budget, which many brides fail to consider.

Wedding Style: Next you need to think about the style of your wedding.  Are you having a traditional formal wedding, a casual wedding or perhaps a themed wedding?

Traditional weddings which are big on formality and all the wedding traditions will require traditional invitations.  These are often flat cards, worded in the traditional manner and sent out with a simple RSVP card.

A casual wedding allows to choose from a range of different styles of invitations, such as bi-fold, tri-fold, pocket, scroll etc.  These can incorporate fancy graphics and a range of different colors, as well as being able to add in a range of enclosures to give your guests all the information they need.

Themed wedding invitations need to coordinate with your theme.  Usually this is achieved with the use of graphic elements such as background designs or motifs.  Colors, designs and perhaps even wording will be dictated by your chosen wedding theme.

Colors: Your invitations will need to match the color scheme you have chosen for your wedding, as will all your other wedding stationery.  Your invitations will probably be the first thing you buy in your wedding colors, but if they’re not then you will need to make sure you match up the colors and shades perfectly.

If you cannot find invitations and stationery to suit your wedding from a printers, then you may want to consider looking a businesses that specialize in handmade wedding invitations and whom can design stationery specifically for you.  Failing that there are a wide range of websites that offer print your own wedding invitations services and have a wide choice of designs and templates to choose from.  Printing your own at home will require some kind of graphics and desk top publishing software as well as a good quality color printer.