Inspiration to Print Your Own Wedding Invitations

These days you can create and print your own wedding invitations at home easily. If you've got a bit of imagination and a printer, then you're well on your way to creating your own wedding invitations. There are plenty of simple ideas that can look stunning and here I outline some simple techniques to get you started.

If you're not feeling inspired, you could use a free printable wedding invitation, then all you need to do is sit back, relax and print them out! Now, back to inspiration...

Finding inspiration

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Look around you at how other things are designed. I find inspiration on anything from wrapping paper, magazines layouts, business logos to emblems or patterns on clothes.
I find that even just walking around the high street, I look at how things are designed, the way elements of the design come together and the way that colours are used. One of best places for inspiration for wedding invitations is card shops! I always come out inspired and raring to go!

Try an illustrative route

If you're a dab hand at drawing, then why not try creating an illustration. For my own wedding invitations I experimented with different illustrations and it worked really well. Just keep it simple so that it's easy to repeat over and over again. Some common drawings for wedding invites are cakes, hearts, rings, bride and grooms and doves.

You could draw it out and then scan it into your computer. (If you don't have a scanner, a copy shop will be able to help). Once you've got the illustration on your computer, treat it like any other image. You can then repeat it, manipulate it or re-colour it. Lay it out on your chosen size paper and then print your own wedding invitations! Simple!

Use photos as the basis of your wedding invite

In recent years, we've embraced digital photography wholeheartedly. We 'point and click' our digital cameras wherever we go, storing our pictures on our home computers and tinkering with them to create the perfect crop, smooth skin and ideal framing.

Why not take these skills and put them to good work by using some of these techniques on your wedding invitations? Here are some simple ideas with photos so you can print your own wedding invitations:

- Take of photo of you and your fiancé and simply print it out onto photo paper in colour or black and white and secure it to the front of your card. You could then place some ribbon or other embellishment on the card to finish it off.

- A slight twist on this is to use some of the special effects in a photo package. The oil paint effect, sketch effect and outline effect are simple techniques that can be found on free software like Paint.net. Just add a quote or saying underneath and then print it directly on some card blanks.

- You could use passport photos of the two of you. You can either stick them to the front of your card, or scan them in and then print out your invites on your computer - it'll be cheaper than getting lots of sets of passport photos.

- Use a photo sharing system such as photobox.com where you can upload your photo and get a card made. The finish is really good and it's a great way to print your own wedding invitations. All you need to do is then create the insert and pop it inside.

Experiment with free downloadable images

There are also plenty of downloadable images on the internet that you could use too. Clipart is much better these days and you may be surprised at what you can find. Again, you can either print these directly on to your wedding invitation or print them on to special paper, cut them out and fix them to the front of your invite.

Creating your 'print at home wedding invitations'

You should also think about the invitation format you'll need. Will your intended design look good on a A6, DL or square card? Do practice runs and tinker with the layout or design until it looks just right. So when you print your own wedding invitations they'll be perfect.

Experiment with different card stocks and types of papers. There are literally hundreds of different papers around these days that will go through your printer, so try something different for a unique, individual look.