Photos on invites

ernursej · March 2016

Just wondering if anyone has put a photo on their invitations and if you used photo paper or regular card stock. Our stationer offers both options and I feel like the image on the photo paper looks crisper with more vivid colours but not sure if worth the additional cost. I'm likely overthinking this as most of these will end up in recycling after receiving and won't matter ...

CMGragain · March 2016

There is no rule that you can't put a photo on your wedding invitation, but it is not traditional. Vistaprint does these, but beware their wording examples.

MobKaz · March 2016

CMGragain said:

There is no rule that you can't put a photo on your wedding invitation, but it is not traditional. Vistaprint does these, but beware their wording examples.

I agree. I have seen photos incorporated with STD's, and the trend seems to extend now with "Thank You" cards. Incorporating them with wedding invitations lessens the formality of the event, in my opinion.

ernursej · March 2016

Thanks @MobKaz and @CMGragain. I brought formality up when we were discussing but this was something that my FI really wanted and he doesn't really have opinions on anything else. An item of compromise. We aren't having a very formal wedding, so this does go along with it. It isn't a picture of us, just a scenic image that goes along with our hobbies. We are using a custom stationer where we live so I have complete control over wording.

Any thoughts on photo paper or regular cardstock?

Edited: for one last comment regarding our stationer.

ILoveBeachMusic · March 2016

MobKaz said:

CMGragain said:

There is no rule that you can't put a photo on your wedding invitation, but it is not traditional. Vistaprint does these, but beware their wording examples.

I agree. I have seen photos incorporated with STD's, and the trend seems to extend now with "Thank You" cards. Incorporating them with wedding invitations lessens the formality of the event, in my opinion.

The thank you card drives me crazy, because it can delay sending thank you notes in a timely manner. I guess they are often included as part of a photographer package. At least one photographer DD considered did that. I told her fine, but she would still need to write other thank you to people who sent gifts before the photog's thank you arrive. I prefer a classic thank you notecard that can be used long after the wedding.

JoanE2012 · March 2016

ILoveBeachMusic said:

MobKaz said:

CMGragain said:

There is no rule that you can't put a photo on your wedding invitation, but it is not traditional. Vistaprint does these, but beware their wording examples.

I agree. I have seen photos incorporated with STD's, and the trend seems to extend now with "Thank You" cards. Incorporating them with wedding invitations lessens the formality of the event, in my opinion.

The thank you card drives me crazy, because it can delay sending thank you notes in a timely manner. I guess they are often included as part of a photographer package. At least one photographer DD considered did that. I told her fine, but she would still need to write other thank you to people who sent gifts before the photog's thank you arrive. I prefer a classic thank you notecard that can be used long after the wedding.

Our photographer sent us some sneak peaks within a week, so we used one of those photos and immediately ordered our thank you cards. If it would have taken weeks to get a photo, we wouldn't have waited.

ernursej · March 2016

Thank you cards will have a related image, but those are being done up at the same time as invites (appointment is this week) so will have thank you notes well in advance of needing them. I personally like to send thank you notes within 24 hours of receiving something so that don't get forgotten about.

Knottie1436436203 · March 2016

The creative ideas will never let the memories of your special day fade away from the minds of the guests. If you want to put photos on the invites then you must go ahead. Try to put picture with a message asking guest to attend the special day or add name of the guest with message would look innovative.

[Deleted User] · March 2016

Knottie1436436203 said:

The creative ideas will never let the memories of your special day fade away from the minds of the guests. If you want to put photos on the invites then you must go ahead. Try to put picture with a message asking guest to attend the special day or add name of the guest with message would look innovative.

An invitation is a message from the hosts to the guests telling them who, what, when, and where. No need to add an additional message asking a guest to attend the "special day" and there is certainly zero need to be innovative in this situation. It's an invitation not a science project.

CMGragain · March 2016

Knottie1436436203 said:

The creative ideas will never let the memories of your special day fade away from the minds of the guests. If you want to put photos on the invites then you must go ahead. Try to put picture with a message asking guest to attend the special day or add name of the guest with message would look innovative.

What?

[Deleted User] · March 2016

CMGragain said:

Knottie1436436203 said:

The creative ideas will never let the memories of your special day fade away from the minds of the guests. If you want to put photos on the invites then you must go ahead. Try to put picture with a message asking guest to attend the special day or add name of the guest with message would look innovative.

What?

I posted that response on her last post. I thought it would be inelegant to do it twice in a row. So thanks for taking care of it for me.

ernursej · March 2016

Damned quote button still not working for me ... but I feel like knottie# needs some coffee or something. Sounds like they are in a dream or one of my intoxicated patients!

Edited because I can't spell.

lembaslover · March 2016

ILoveBeachMusic said:

MobKaz said:

CMGragain said:

There is no rule that you can't put a photo on your wedding invitation, but it is not traditional. Vistaprint does these, but beware their wording examples.

I agree. I have seen photos incorporated with STD's, and the trend seems to extend now with "Thank You" cards. Incorporating them with wedding invitations lessens the formality of the event, in my opinion.

The thank you card drives me crazy, because it can delay sending thank you notes in a timely manner. I guess they are often included as part of a photographer package. At least one photographer DD considered did that. I told her fine, but she would still need to write other thank you to people who sent gifts before the photog's thank you arrive. I prefer a classic thank you notecard that can be used long after the wedding.

We were initially going to do photo thank you's but it was sooo much cheaper to just do classic ones that we decided to go that route and get them sent out right away and then use photos from our wedding on our Christmas cards. (We got married in October so it wasn't that far from Christmas anyways).

I've never seen photos on invites before and I agree it makes it look much less formal. If you are having a casual wedding I guess that is fine. I think my first thought getting an invite like that would be oh this is a save the date...

ernursej · April 2016

@marriedhamstermom, we are having a more casual wedding so I think it will fit in. We are also having a small wedding so the price isn't really a big deal. I budgeted 2x what I'm actually paying. Hooray for something less expensive!

The picture we are using is related to our hobbies so our guests won't be surprised that we went this route for our stationary.

lovesclimbing · April 2016

I haven't seen any wedding invitations with photos on them, so I don't know how you'd do it. I think anything but photo paper would print at a fairly low quality. Typically, I see a photo separately included with the invitation.

We ordered prints of one of our engagement photos from Shutterfly to include with the invitation. They had a deal going for first time customers (I think they always have it, actually) of 50 free 4x6 prints with your first order. So we got 130 4x6 prints for just $12 plus shipping. (The prints were 15 cents each.)

ernursej · April 2016

Thanks @lovesclimbing. Our stationer does all the printing for us. We've seen samples on both cardstock and photo paper and both look nice. The card stock did look less crisp but if you weren't holding it up to the same image on photo paper, it was hard to really tell that it wasn't as crisp.

We ended up going with cardstock and the image looks fine.

CMGragain · April 2016

adk19 said:

CMGragain said:

Knottie1436436203 said:

The creative ideas will never let the memories of your special day fade away from the minds of the guests. If you want to put photos on the invites then you must go ahead. Try to put picture with a message asking guest to attend the special day or add name of the guest with message would look innovative.

What?

I posted that response on her last post. I thought it would be inelegant to do it twice in a row. So thanks for taking care of it for me.

I believe that this Knottie is Asian, with very limited English skills. She is probably using some sort of translation software. Unfortunately, her posts are unintelligible.

CaitFins · April 2016

CMGragain Could I ask what we should beware of with wording in invitations, other than putting anything about registries on them? I'm not putting photos on our wedding invitations, but I'm not sure to what you are referring. I am considering Vistaprint invites, and I don't want to ruin the appropriate wording!

ernursej · April 2016

@CaitFins - there is a great sticky post at the top of Invites and Paper that @CMGragain wrote with the dos/don'ts of invite wording/inclusions. I'd check that out.

Vistaprint has lots of wording suggestions/invites that have a basic wording template and there are lots of issues with them not following traditional wording.

Edited because I came up with additional content.

CaitFins · April 2016

@ernursej I see, so this refers to the formal, traditional wording of the invitation? I am aware of that, and Vistaprint does have some rather... weird... wording. I just want to make sure there's nothing other than the traditional template of the invitation we should follow specific to Vistaprint styles. I'm not used to the designs such as "always and forever" and such that decorate the invites, so I just want to make sure there's nothing more obscure that would be too casual or offensive specific to Vistaprint.

ernursej · April 2016

@CaitFins - I've only browsed Vistaprint, never used them. I would suggest posting a new thread specific to your questions. You will get better responses to your questions.

CMGragain · April 2016

I have noticed that Vistaprint tends to capitalize the first word of every line. The invitation should read like one long sentence with only the first word and proper nouns capitalized.
Vistaprint also shows wording such as "celebration of love" which is too vague and sounds like a hippie love fest.
An invitation needs to give the information who, what, when and where. You don't need to use traditional wording, but your wording must do the job. Most non-traditional wordings are longer than the simple, to the point, traditional wording.
The bride and groom should not directly invite people to their own wedding, which is held in their own honor. "You are invited...", not "Bride and Groom invite you to...."

Why not just post your wording here, and we can check it for faux pas?

CaitFins · April 2016

@ernursej - Thank you! I'll post about wording when I get closer to deciding - I'm still considering other invitation places equally to Vistaprint.

@CMGragain Thanks for jogging my memory! Yes, I noticed those elements. I haven't hit the wording yet, but I honestly will likely follow the exact template that you (and etiquette books I have read that say the exact same thing) have made. I'm still looking at designs, and I plan to arrange my own wording rather than simply choosing the invitation and relying on the site to write the correct format. Especially Vistaprint - boy, do they go off course with some of it! I honestly haven't been paying too much attention to their choices there though; they do offer excellent text editing/construction options.

Thank you for clarifying my little things!

CMGragain · April 2016

My daughter used Vistaprint, and we were happy with the product and price. She actually got compliments on her invitations.
I disliked the quality of the envelopes. Very thin paper. I would have bought plain envelopes at an office supply store instead. Daughter wanted their custom designed envelopes (blue flowers in her design), so I shut up and ordered them. I addressed her envelopes myself at her request.

Photos on invites

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