20 Adorable Love Story Wedding Invitations

I am definitely not what you’d call an early adopter. I’m not the person queuing up to get a new iPhone, and it would scare you to know how long it took me to get a flat screen. It’s a policy that actually works really well for me, because usually I miss out on all the early tech problems and bugs, and by the time I get round to buying something, there’s a shinier version for the first adopters, so I get a better price. (I’m sounding like an old woman now, aren’t I? Oh well.) Sometimes, with wedding trends, it’s the same. There’s something new and hot and awesome, and then over the following couple of years, the trend doesn’t die away, it just stops being hot news on wedding blogs. But the good news is, meanwhile more people get involved in becoming suppliers of that thing, which gives you a lot more choice (and more options for your budget). A couple of years ago, love story infographic invitations were HUGE news – I wrote this post about them, which has remained one of the most popular on SBB (and that shows how many of you all still love this sweet idea). I also still think they’re completely adorable and a very personal way of celebrating your history together (setting a great tone for your wedding day), but I was glad to see when revisiting them recently that now there are loads of options when it comes to designs, designers – and price points, based on how much of the story and design is customised, and whether you buy a printable PDF or fully printed invites. So, why not consider one of these suites for your big day? As Taylor Swift would say: It’s a love story… baby, just say yes.Read More

20 Wooden & Wood Effect Wedding Invitations

Custom Wedding Invitations by Oak & Orchid

Texture, you guys. I am all about texture. From wood to velvet to sequins to linen, it’s the addition of a texture to a palette or wedding design that often takes things from pretty to pretty amazing, in my book. Since we’re talking autumn weddings, I thought it was appropriate for us to talk about a texture that works for many autumn weddings (especially those that lean toward the rustic) and that’s wood. And of course, there are lots of ways to incorporate wooden texture into your wedding day, but one of my faves is through the invitations themselves. Here’s the really cool bit – with lasercut and printing techniques being what they are now, you can get invitations that are actual slices of wood. So unusual! And, as it happens, better for the environment than processed paper invites. I love this idea, as well as paper invitations that have a woodgrain effect – and the good news is that lots of designers have wood invitation options these days. So I turned to my favourite online market, Etsy, to pick a few favourites. ‘Wood’ you like to see them? (Yes, I know. Poor. I couldn’t help myself ;) ) Just click on the links (or any of the images) below, and you’ll be taken straight to Etsy to get more information and make your purchase. This post includes affiliate links (in bold). SBB may receive a commission on any sales, but the cost to you remains the same.

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10 Unique Wedding Invitation Packages

So as you all know, April is our month for intimate weddings, and one of the things we love about a small guest list is that you can allocate a bit more of your budget to extravagant details. Hands up, I’m a bit of a stationery fiend, and there’s also nothing I love more than sending and receiving little parcels, so when I see creative, elaborate invitations (especially those that require more than the usual envelope to send) I get really excited (yep, I’m dorky like that). The thing is, I know that those sorts of invitations don’t scale up well to 120 guests on a normal budget. So as I say, this is one of those details that’s absolutely perfect for a small, intimate, beautifully styled affair. Here are 10 of my all-time favourite wedding invitation packages, made by some of the most talented and creative designers in the industry!

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20 Fab Elopement Wedding Announcements

Elopement Announcements | SouthBound Bride

Credit: BHLDN

*Updated for 2018* A few years ago, when my friend Sarah and her lovely fiancee stopped in London after a round-the-world trip, a group of us girls threw her a fairly impromptu hen night. All night, we drank trays of flavoured vodka and toasted their lives together, and sent them off back to Joburg expecting them to set a wedding date. Instead, as soon as they’d had a chance to tell their parents in person, we got an announcement – the sneaky minxes had in fact eloped while on their trip. And you know what, we loved it! There were all these gorgeous pics of the two of them, so in love and sharing this special secret moment on the other side of the world. I still think they looked like one of the most relaxed couples I’ve ever seen on their wedding day. So ever since then, I think elopements are pretty awesome. Sure, they’re not for everyone (and there can be hurt feelings from family members and friends who want to be included), but there really is something special about a wedding with a guest list of ‘just us two’. BUT here’s the thing – if you’re going this route, you’ll want a classier way to let your nearest and dearest know than just changing your status on Facebook. Something to let them in on the excitement, to let them know they were in your heart if not at the ceremony. Maybe even something to invite them to a party that you throw back at home. And that’s where the elopement wedding announcement comes in. The good news? There are tons of sweet, fun and pretty elopement announcements for you to say ‘we did’. Here are 20 of my favourites from the makers at Etsy.
*Links in bold denote affiliate links. The cost to you remains the same, but SBB may receive a commission for any sales made.

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Best of 2014: Stationery

Hello lovelies! We’re making another weekend house call to stop in and share some of the beautiful stationery that has graced the pages of SouthBound Bride this year. Being a paper aficionado (and designer) herself, Candice has been trawling through the archives to bring you fifteen stand-out stationery moments from both weddings and styled shoots, and featuring the work of some of our favourite SA talents, including Seven Swans, indieberries and Lezanne’s Designs (whose designs feature a fantastic three times in this countdown!). Over to you, Candice…

Glamorous Gold Art Deco

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20 Creative Save the Date Ideas

Hello lovelies! It’s FRIDAY! We love Fridays. Whatever you have planned, here’s hoping you have a fab weekend. And here’s wishing our American friends a happy July 4th! Today I’m rounding up 20 creative ideas for save the dates, to spark your imaginations for your very own STDs. (Yep, most awkward wedding abbreviation ever.) While many people often feel that an actual invitation should be relatively traditional, the Save the Date is a chance to go a bit off the map, play with your theme (or just your personalities) and surprise and delight your guests. Think 3D, texture and fun. Of course, we love electronic STDs too, but if you’d like to do something tactile, here are 20 of my all-time favourite ideas, each of them guaranteed to get your guests excited about the nuptials to come. Yay!

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Marbled Wedding Invitations

How’s the Friday afternoon going, lovelies? For this week’s trend, I wanted to share a little detail that I have noticed cropping up in weddings of late – you’ll see it in everything from cakes to runners, but where I love it most is as a little detail in the stationery, like an envelope liner or backing. And the good news is that, unlike most patterns, this is one that you can do DIY. In fact, it reminds me of when I did some youth business programme in high school, and our ‘company’ sold little notebooks we made with marbled covers. Went like hotcakes. And then I didn’t see much of it again for years, until now. As you’ll see below, talented stationers have been combining marbling with everything from Kraft paper to gold glitter, calligraphy to bold graphic fonts. For book or antique lovers, it’s a subtle nod, since the technique was so often used for endpapers in old books. Whatever your wedding style, this is a pretty detail/motif to consider adding into the mix, for a little bit of unexpected colour and visual texture.Read More

Travel Themed Wedding Invitations

Fold out map Save the Date tied with baker’s twine by Ello There Design via Elsje Designs blog.

Get ready, paperlovers and stationistas, because we are about to have a gorgeous invitation FEST. We’ve spoken before about travel themed weddings, and how it’s one of the big themes that brides and grooms are loving (and personalising) at the moment. We’ve even had a few fun colour schemes for different travel wedding styles. While I was researching that post, I was struck by just how many gorgeous travel-style invitation suites there were out there, and I promised myself I would do a post on it to follow up. Now here’s what I especially love about this collection – each designer (amateur or professional) has combined a series of recognisable, stylish travel elements (mainly maps, postage stamps and cancellers, airmail stripes, postcards, luggage tags, and suitcase stickers) into a unique look with different invitation styles, colours, elements and textures. My favourites are the suites that use a few of these elements, and some unexpected ones too, so that all the different pieces come together in one gorgeous, jet set-style look. Whether you’re looking to DIY your invites or, better yet, working with a pro to come up with a suite that’s uniquely yours, you should find plenty of inspiration here. Even if you’re not having a travel theme as such, but planning a destination wedding or have a love for seeing the world together, you may like to include just one of these ideas in your stationery as a personal element.Read More

Lasercut Wedding Invitations

Source: Love Me Do Photography/Where Do You Go To Design Co. via 100 Layer Cake

There’s a lot of gorgeous happening in wedding paper design right now – with letterpress on one hand and foiling on the other, and watercolour and calligraphy and hand drawn beauties in the middle, I don’t know which to call my favourites. But if there’s one trend that South African brides and grooms have been embracing for a while now, it’s lasercuts, and stationery is no exception. Just like letterpress and foil embossing, lasercut adds a really special texture to any paper product and its fine detailing allows not only for intricate detail but the use of unusual materials like wood or perspex as well as paper. The possibilities are vast, and I think we’ve only just begun to see the creative juices start to flow with this design form. Even so, there’s a lot of very beautiful invitations going around at the moment – here are ten of my personal faves to inspire you!Read More

Foil Favourites

Credits: Dauphine Press via Sweet Paper (left); source (right)

I honestly thought that all my stationery-loving heart had beat its fastest when I discovered letterpress, especially when we started seeing letterpress combined with hand drawn calligraphy fonts. Amazing. But the latest big trend in wedding invitations has taken it one step further. Foil, you guys. It is the gorgeous-est. And from a few beautiful collections last year to an absolute explosion of foil stamped goodness for 2013, this is one trend that is absolutely made for brides. It’s pretty, it’s tactile, it’s classic… and every time I see a new foiled invite I have the urge to run my fingers over it and go ‘ooh, shiny shiny!’. I’m a magpie, what can you do.Read More