This Chinese Double Happiness wedding invitation from Carnethie Design is unique in that it is quite difficult to find invitations with a Chinese theme and the Chinese symbols for ‘Double Happiness’ shows that you are giving your guests more than an invitation, but sharing your vision for your future with them as well.  These invitations won’t cost the earth either in monetary terms or eco terms as they are made from 100% recycled card and the deep red paper is handmade tree free paper.  Invitations in this range cost £2 each and you can have your guests names printed for free.

Well, we knew it was coming.  We have been pinging emails to each other for years, and christmas ecards are becoming ever more popular…. but a wedding einvite ?  It is time to make a stand and say no.  It is fair to say that wedding invitations have become more contemporary and less formal in recent years but there is no excusing the informality of an invitation that will ultimately end up in your guests trash folder when the wedding day is over.  American firms Evite and Pingg have introduced the electronic wedding invitation, primarily to the US market but of course, like the internet, it is open to anyone with a PC and a modem.

I could have based this article around the theme that the first environmentally friendly wedding invitation has arrived.  This is one of the main selling points that the developers of these ecard sites like to portray and to a certain extent I have to agree because the absence of a paper card, envelope and stamp is certainly eco friendly.  However, I do not view a wedding invitation in the same vein as a birthday card, christmas card or any other kind of invitation.  It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to invite your friends and family to one of the biggest events of your life.  More importantly for your friends and family the wedding invitation means more than the paper and card it is made from.  It is a physical item that will be kept and treasured like a gift long after after the event and will trigger happy memories of your wedding for years to come.

Traditional wedding values have already been eroded over the decades but I think that this is one leap to far.  What next?  You may as well just set up a Facebook group and send all your guests an email to join it if they can make it.  Oh what the hell, they will probably be busy, why not do away with the invitation altogether and set up a webcast so your friends and family can watch the nuptials from the comfort of their own sofa.  Then, if they are busy or there is something better on the telly they can download and watch it later.   When you are back from your honeymoon why not upload your wedding video to YouTube so the whole world can comment on how you looked in that dress.

Rant over.  Let me here your opinion on the electronic wedding invitation.  Is this the future?

With a title like that I just knew you couldn’t resist a nosey at this post.

I usually have a quick look each day to see who Google is ranking on its first page for popular wedding search terms such as “Wedding Stationery” and “Wedding Invitations” and usually it is the same old companies that crop up again and again.  In fact we don’t usually cover many of them on this site because the chances are you have come across them already.  There was one that caught my eye this morning that appeared from nowhere in the Google top 10 and that was the Wedding Sheepy from Sheep Poo Paper.

This light hearted design is colourfully described as the most “ewe-nique” wedding cards you have ever come across.  Who am I to disagree?  The puns continue and Sheep Poo Paper reliably inform of more useless but nevertheless entirely relevant information :

Please note, a real sheep does not comfortably wear a top hat or a tiara – even when attending very formal ovine events.

 and

On a more serious note, real sheep do NOT get married – mainly because of the difficulty in obtaining that right dress.

Now, on a genuinely more serious note you might like to know that Sheep Poo Paper is made by Creative Paper Wales the only craft paper mill in Wales and all their paper is made from recycled materials.  Their production processes are environmentally friendly too.  Hats off to them and their sheep.