planning invitations Mariah and Josh Burchnell hired a freelance designer to create their invitations’ modern floral motif. (614 Wedding Photography)
Hot on the Presses What’s trending in invitation style BY PETER TONGUETTE Your mother probably put it best: It isn’t what you say, but how you say it. The same logic applies to the world of weddings. It isn’t so much what your invitations say, but the design, typeface and accents deployed to say it. Just ask Jason Fletcher of Avant-Garde Impressions, which offers brides and grooms a dizzying array of invitation templates—from religious-themed to Disneycentric—from which to present the who, what, where and when of your wedding. Current trends in invitations tend to be dictated by what engaged couples might encounter online. “Whatever is hot on Pinterest is what’s been hot on the requests here—the trends keep changing with it,” says Fletcher, who 152
COLUMBUS WEDDINGS SPRING/SUMMER 2020
points to the current popularity of pieces with foil accents, as well as those displaying strong geometric elements. “There’s a geometric-shape pattern in the background—kind of like an octagon turned to the side a little bit, maybe another one turned the other direction a little bit—so they overlap each other,” he says. Also sought after this season are cards alternating traditional fonts with those that appear to be handwritten or rendered in calligraphy, with names lowercased. “They’re not as formal,” Fletcher says. “They pop the names or maybe the name of the church. It’s just a little here and there, and then they go back and forth between two different fonts.”
At Avant-Garde Impressions, the options go far beyond font choices. Almost any element on an existing card design can be swapped out, Fletcher says. For example, if a couple has chosen a floral design but does not care for hydrangeas, they can switch out the bloom images for peonies or roses. “The sky’s the limit with changing it however you want,” he says. Many couples opt for aesthetic cohesion between their invitations, programs, place cards, bar menus and even the welcome sign guests see when they walk through the door. “People are really branding their look for their wedding,” Fletcher says. Because couples often come armed with ideas picked up from Pinterest and other sites, the in-store selection process that once
