Planning a wedding is no cake walk. The emotional drama mixed with the number of decisions that have to be made is never ending. Don’t worry, though. You’re not alone. The Tamarind Tree introduces a series of articles just to help our couples in need. Just a list of things that might help you on your D-Day or help you get through the months leading up to it.
How many of us have saved invitations as a child because they were just so beautiful, and you had to save it for inspiration when your turn arrived? Well, in case you haven’t, don’t worry! We’ll take a walk down the creative lane and remind you of the ideas that have worked or the ones you may have forgotten, so you can find your ideal wedding invite.
A big box, a small letter or just an e-invite?
One of the first questions you should ask yourself before planning for the invite is the allocation of budget towards it. Though it is the first physical acceptance of your wedding actually happening and you want to make it spectacular, you have to keep in mind that many a times the invite lands up in someone’s attic unless it is something that can be reused. So, having a dazzling invite whilst making sure it stays in the memory and the home of your guests can be quite challenging.
A combination of the three types of invites would be the best alternative for someone who wants to go big, but on a budget. You can customize boxes with gifts for your closest family, get some cards designed for the elders and their invitees and keep it simple with an online invite for friends who you know will not revel in a physical invite.
A foolproof idea is of course to stick with dry fruits or sweets along with the invite. But more creativity can be put into the kind of box this is packed in. Apart from gifting objects made of silver, a wooden box with your initials carved in can be something grand and something that will definitely have a place in each home. If you’re sending out a bulk of such invites, it’s always good to keep the usage of plastic to a minimum. Why add the extra burden on mother earth, right? You also gain an advantage while using paper to pack it as you can print out your own designs and make the gift more personalized.
With the technological age that we live in now, there are innumerable ways to invite people online. It could be as simple as a picture or pdf of the details of the wedding, or a grand prewedding video about your love story. You could make it cute and quirky by making animated gifs or videos, and you could also take it to the next level by creating chatbot invites and involving your audience through social channels. The world wide web has a solution to problems of any size!
The most commonly used form of invitation in Indian weddings is of course the card. It is most convenient as it resonates with all the generations in the family and it’s easy to find something that everyone likes. Putting pictures of God has been a conventional practice but design the card such that the picture can be saved separately as your guests will be in a fix of whether to save the entire wedding card or discard it. Apart from making a simple e-invite, physical cards are the most economical form of wedding invitations. If the card used is sturdy, you can incorporate the concept of a photo frame that can be made out of the card as an ingrained gift. The kind of paper used to print can make a big difference now as there are multiple options of using seed paper which can be crushed and planted post the wedding. Imagine the idea of plants growing with your relationship. Isn’t that beautiful?
