COMPONENTS OF MODERN WEDDING INVITATIONS

A wedding is the first step a couple takes towards a new life. Wedding invitations form an important part of these occasions as they are used to invite the near and dear ones on this special occasion to share happiness. However, with the change in lifestyle of the people and relationships, their conceptualisation has gone a sea change. Today, most of the modern wedding invitations are a lot less formal than their traditional counterparts. Still, there are some features that have remained the same although the execution of these has gone a sea change. These components have been subsequently discussed below.

Invitation Wording

While deciding on the wording that has to be used in the invitation, one needs to remember and keep in mind the five W’s we were taught at the elementary school – who, what, why, where, and when? You may choose a formal or casual look for your wedding invitation, but until you mention the answers to all these questions on the card, your invitation is incomplete.

Lettering Styles

One needs to also keep in mind the font requirements for the different parts of the page. For example a couple’s name should be mentioned in bold italicized font for emphasis.

Ink Colors

Depending upon the contrast you want to provide, you can decide on an appropriate ink style for your modern wedding invitation. However, nowadays most of the modern wedding invitations are designed keeping the theme colors in mind that are also continued in the invitation.

Patterns

There are many different types of patterns that can be employed to create that effect for your card. For example, one can include paisleys and retro motifs to create a stylish effect for your invitation.

Self Mailing

Nowadays, many an invitations do not need any kind of envelopes to be mailed. They themselves fold into a self mailing article. Many modern wedding invitations come with proper envelopes, many a times colored ones that can be easily mailed to your near and dear ones. There are many “seal and send” types too available in the market that can be easily folded and sealed to form a complete mailing article.

Paper Colors

 Today, with the availability of a wide array of choice for a person, you can create wonderful and stunning wedding invitations by choosing different paper colors in bold and bright shades to produce a dazzling effect. It has become much easier today than the previous times to actually put your dreams on paper by making use of various inks, colors and designs. One can even get colored envelopes to complement the whole design.

Decorations

With an increase in the people looking for more and more creative ways of designing their wedding invitation, extra decorations too are coming into play. A ribbon tied around the card sure creates a special effect to the whole card while providing a new look to the complete design.

Shapes & Sizes

An important aspect of a wedding invitation is the size and shape of the card. With the advent of new technologies each day, different designs and shapes are adding to the choice of the client.

Thus, different people may have different contrasting views regarding the modern wedding invitations, but keeping the above mentioned components in mind is enough to spruce up your card to a large extent. They add an elegant yet attractive feel to the whole experience of the wedding.  After all, they are the ones to express the style of a wedding before it actually takes place, while also leaving a lasting impression on the guests to whom it is sent.  

Summary

Modern wedding invitations add an elegant yet attractive feel to the whole wedding experience while giving a couple to express its’ feelings before the marriage actually takes place.

BENEFITS OF UNIQUE WEDDING INVITATIONS

Preparing for a wedding is one of the strenuous parts of the complete process. After setting a proper date for your wedding, one of the first things every couple does is to scout for unique wedding invitations. This is considered to be an important step because it is the first impression a guest gets of your impending wedding. Choosing the right invitation sets the tone of the complete wedding.

There are many benefits of choosing a unique wedding invitation that can be detailed as follows.

Sets The Tone of the wedding

Choosing the right wedding invitation involves lot more than just telling your guests about the date of the marriage, time at which it is going to take place and the place where the guests  of the marriage. They reflect the inherent style of the complete wedding and set the tone of the entire occasion. For example, a formal wedding invitation in gold and cream color scheme informs the guests of the formality of the occasion. Contrary to this, if you select a wedding invitation in bold and bright colors, it will convey a casual environment to the guests. Additionally, you can use their unique wedding invitations to reflect your own personal style through some sort of unusual designs and combinations.

Shows Your Personality

Unique wedding invitations not only do the work of giving the guests information about the place and time of the marriage, but also reflect something about your personality. During a marriage, you invite many people you have not met since last few years, who are distant relatives, or may have moved out of the town but are still counted as friends. Having a uniquely styled wedding invitation acts as a kind of introduction to the guests you have not yet met or are meeting after a long time. A wedding invitation is, after all, the official confirmation of your future plans, and thus need to be done in style for a memorable start to your new life.

Forever Remembered

The wedding invitations act as a souvenir of your wedding for all the guests involved. If you want your wedding to be remembered always and talked for many years to come, wedding invitations are the best way to create that impression. Having a high quality invitation along with some creative supplements ensures that the wedding is remembered for a long time. They act as special reminders for the guests long after they have left, of the beautiful memories of the wedding and the happy couple.

Another Happy Memory

Wedding invitations act as a part of happy memories for both the guests and the couple. These invitations do the work of acting as a memento on which each can look back and savour the happy moments. After all, for the couple, this occasion is the sheer culmination of all their efforts used while planning their wedding.

Thus, it is important that appropriate time and effort is put into selecting the right unique wedding invitation ideas for your marriage. This can be easily done with the availability of these ideas through various sources such as internet, market, friends and many others. It is true that there are several important things that need to be tracked and finalized that are considered to be more important than the invitations. However, this is no reason to deny the importance of these invitations as they are first contact you have with your near and dear ones regarding the announcement of wedding. So, it is imperative that appropriate attention is paid to its selection and conceptualisation so that your marriage remains with the guests long after they go back to their respective homes.

Summary

To create unique wedding invitations, it is imperative that appropriate attention is paid to even the smallest detail so create a memorable and dazzling effect on the guests.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT WEDDING CAKE ACCESSORIES

No conventional or unconventional wedding is complete without the presence of a proper wedding cake. It acts as a centrepiece for the post wedding celebrations. But, no cake can be in its total splendour without the help of wedding cake accessories. Each accessory picked up for the wedding cake should be chosen carefully and with an eye to detail. They should also complement and complete the basic theme of the wedding. Some of the common cake accessories include toppers, flowers, charms, sweets, servers, and boxes.

Cake Topper

Considered to be one of the most important wedding cake accessories, selection of the cake topper has to be done with utmost care. You can include poetic phrases or even the couple’s initials as a part of it. Nowadays, more and more people are opting for monogrammed topper in case of formal events. Traditional cake toppers for bride and groom, albeit in different pose, could be also used to add a romantic touch to the whole setting. With the increase in the number of beach parties and fantasy weddings, more couples are going for unusual toppers such as funny figurines, fantasy characters, horror characters, and many more.

Cake Boxes

With the increase in the number of couples looking for unique ideas for their weddings, many are exploring the option of sharing the wedding cake with the guests in customized boxes. A small slice of the cake is cut for each guest and placed in a boxall wrapped up in your bridal colors or silk ribbons.

Cake Charms And Jewellery

You can make your wedding more memorable by leaving a special memento for all your bridesmaids along with wedding cake accessories charm. This they can keep and wear even after the marriage. Also, if your budget allows, you can leave some semi precious jewellery such as rhinestones, Swarovski crystals, or any others scattered all over the cake for your bridesmaids.

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Cake Sweets

Even though it is the day of the couple, do not forget to add something special in your wedding cake for the kids present. You can sink some candies and sweets in the icing before serving them their pieces. However, do remember to have them carefully assisted by an adult.

Cake servers

One of the most important yet least considered wedding cake accessories is the cake knife. Depending upon the type of cake and theme of the wedding, you can pick any knife made of silver, pewter, or steel along with stylized handles made of the same material as the blade. It can also be of glass, plastic, or some sort of stylish crystal to add to the beauty of the complete cake.

Cake Flowers

No cake is ever complete without the presence of beautiful flowers around the edge to add to its style. You can include edible flowers too in the same. However, before making the final flower choice, ensure that you get fresh flowers for the decoration. Also, coordinate with your florist regarding the bridal bouquet and its suitability with the cake flowers.

In the end, remember that picking the right wedding cake is very important as it reflects your personality, style and your personal choice. Apart from matching the wedding theme, you can also add some personalized touches to your wedding cake accessories, such as having heart shaped server blade, or a monogrammed cake topper, or even personalized charms for the bridesmaids. This would add a romantic and elegant effect to the complete experience. After all, with the wedding day already memorable, having the perfect wedding cake and accessories adds a sparkle to the whole affair.

Summary

To create that stunning effect with your wedding cake, it is important to choose the right wedding cake accessories to compete the whole experience.

SOME WEDDING CAKE DECORATION TIPS

A wedding cake is an important part of marriage celebrations. However, creating a cake for weddings and that too for a large party of people is quite a task. It requires careful planning including a complete step by step process. One of the first things one needs to do is to actually imagine what it will actually look like. Having a definite picture in your mind will be highly helpful to you while creating the cake. Also, find out the expectations of the couple and their involvement with the designing. After conceptualising the complete design, you may then start referring to different magazines with regards to some wedding cake decoration tips.

Steps For Creating Wedding Cakes

After choosing the recipe, colors, flavors, and decorations for the cake, you should follow the following steps closely to avoid any mistakes on your part. These include:

1.       Remember to prepare a trial cake so that you can test the recipe, concept, and the practice techniques.

2.       Plan the display of the cake.

3.       Go on a shopping spree for the items needed in the completion of the cake such as ingredients, accessories, servers, and various others.

4.       Baking and storing of the cakes

5.       Remember to decorate it appropriately with all the cake accessories purchased by you along with applying the icing to the cake.

6.       Drive to the venue before time so that you could easily setup the entire display well on time.

Tiered Or Stacked Cakes

Although, the appearance of a tiered cake deceives a person into thinking that it is a single cake, but it is not the case. It actually consists of several cakes stacked on top of each other with the help of columns or pillars. You need to purchase dowels and learn to work with dowelling to use them to provide structural support to the cake. You can learn dowelling from various sources such as World Wide Web, cake making books, cake decoration classes and many others. However, before actually dowelling for the purpose of wedding cake decorations, do remember to try it on some samples or in some ‘decoration classes’.

Ideas For Decorations

 One of the most important cake decoration tips has already been discussed and proved previously. It is consulting with the bride and groom. After all, it is their day to make their choices, and they have a right to know about the decorations to be employed in decorating their wedding cake. Some of the ideas that can be employed while doing the wedding cake decoration are:

·         Remember to keep in mind the season in which the marriage is taking place. For example, if you are having an outdoor wedding in summers, it is more appropriate to use fondant than butter cream. This is because fondant is more durable and can easily withstand even higher temperatures.

·         You are free to make use of ribbons, flowers, colors and embroidery along with any other things to create that dream cake for the couple. This can also be inspired by the wedding theme and the bridal colors proving to be just their extension.

·         You can even borrow some themes from the lives of the couple or their near and dear ones.

Thus, wedding cakes form an integral part of wedding celebrations. After all, cake cutting and sharing is considered to be the most awaited moments at the reception. You may not create a very unique cake, but it can be made unique by adding different creative wedding cake decoration items. After all, it is just your imagination that sets your cake apart from the others.

Summary

Wedding cake decoration is an important part of the whole marriage experience as it can create a huge difference between a normal and a dazzling cake.

FACTORS AFFECTING WEDDING CAKE PRICES

The wedding cake is one of the traditional focal points of a wedding. It forms a big part of a couple’s reception. They are an important tool to add class to the theme and the décor of the wedding. However, with the continually rising wedding cake prices most are unable to get their dream cake at a reasonable fee. This problem has been faced by many in these times of recession. In such a case, understanding of the pricing of the wedding proves to be quite helpful while planning out the budget and wedding cake expense. This will help them in making their marriage celebrations sweeter.

PRICING OF WEDDING CAKES

Though the wedding cake prices are determined using a variety of factors, the main overriding consideration while deciding them is the size of the cake. Most of the bakeries charge their clients “per slice” rather than using the “per cake” scale. According to standard charges, each serving measures only 2 cubic inches, which is a fairly small slice. This will help you in easily calculating the wedding cake expense, including all the expenses incurred on different cake accessories.

FACTORS AFFECTING WEDDING CAKE PRICES

There are many different factors that affect the pre serving price of your wedding cake. Some of the most important ones can be listed as follows:

·         Difficulty in Assembly: Most of the wedding cakes are 2 to 3 tiered. While this is the standard, there are many couples who go for more elaborate settings such as increase in the number of layers, decoration designs with fountains, multiple layer separations, or even expensive figurine placements. All these may escalate the costs way beyond the standard price.

·         Cake Type: Depending upon your budget, different types of cakes could be chosen. These range from sponge cake, which is the least expensive one, to cheesecakes which are most expensive. One can even choose a pound cake that are denser and need to be handled more carefully than others.

·         Cake Flavor: Some of the basic inexpensive cake flavors include classic white, chocolate, red velvet, and marble cake. Some of the more elaborate and expensive options include black forest, German chocolate, and various other gourmet flavors such as liqueurs, mocha, and tiramisu.

·         Flavor Of The Filling: The couple can choose from a variety of filling flavor options available in the market. Some of the basic icing fillings are clearly least expensive, but as this goes on becoming more labor extensive, the price too increases. Fillings with crushed fruit, nuts or even liqueurs are quite expensive compared to the others.

·         Icing: There are many alternatives available to the couple even in their icing choice. Ranging from the least expensive option of buttercream icing to the smooth and seamless fondant icing, your choice can change the wedding cake prices consecutively.

·         Design Intricacy: As already known, the more intricate designing you employ for your cake, the more will it cost. A simple, classically patterned cake would cost much lesser than one with layers of lace clothing, frosting, monograms, small pearls, beads, or even some customized sugar flowers.

·         Miscellaneous: Apart from the above discussed factors, there are many other things that can cause the price of your wedding cake to skyrocket. These change from bakery to bakery and wedding to wedding. Factors such as setup cost, wedding location, delivery fees, cost of cake equipment, etc. have an important effect on the final price.

Thus, choose the best cake that fits into your budget. Instead of just blindly going in for designer cakes, choose the one which actually suits the theme and mood of the wedding while keeping an eye out on the wedding cake prices.

Summary:

Understanding of the wedding cake prices goes a long way in helping the couple to choose the best cake that suits their pocket as well as their preferences.