Wedding Invitation
audience
This wedding invitation was intended for guests invited to a wedding ceremony, dinner and reception. The audience therefore includes family, friends and acquaintances of the bride and groom, as well as their guests and/or families.
purpose
Wedding invitations have four main purposes. The first purpose is to provide a formal invitation to a wedding celebration and introduce the theme of the day. In addition, the invitation presents important and necessary information to invited guests, such as date, place and time of the festivities. Some guests may choose to keep the invitation as a keepsake, while the bride and groom and their family are certain to do so. Finally, through receiving an invitation, the guest becomes responsible for responding to the bride and groom, either accepting or declining the invitation so that final attendance numbers can be calculated.
context
Wedding invitations are generally sent through the mail, arriving four to six weeks before the wedding date. They must be present to be used, and as important documents are usually read in high lighting, while opening other pieces of mail. In addition, wedding invitations are usually kept at least until the day of the wedding, in order that the guests can refer to them for information about the day. Some weddings require that the guest bring the invitation with them to the celebration to ensure that no uninvited guests will be present.
materials
This wedding invitation is printed on thick cardstock. When fully open, the invitation measures 5 inches wide by about 17 inches long. The main panel that contains the invitation is 5 inches by 7 inches. The document is presented in a cabinet tri-fold, with the front panel ripped in half. The rip is intentional, adding a certain style to the invitation. In addition to the tri-fold, a small logo is attached to the front panel to facilitate ease of opening and to add sugar to the front of the document. Inside, the information is printed on glossy paper that is much thinner than the cardstock. It complements the stamps on the front as well as the small logo. Panel five of the tri-fold contains a pocket, into which the invitation enclosures (printed on the same glossy paper of the main invitation) fit snugly. Business cards for registries are also included in this pocket.
typography
The majority of the document is presented in a script font. This is done to simulate the hand lettering that was traditionally used for invitations, while maintaining a formal feel. Overall, the font is more difficult to read, but creates the sense that this invitation is special, and encourages the viewer to read it carefully. The information provided in the pocket of the fifth panel follows the example of the script font in its header, but the body is printed in a Roman (serif) font with some italic styling. The different font indicates that this information is important and also allows for more information to be conveyed in a smaller area.
As with most wedding invitations, the date and time of the ceremony are printed in words, rather than numbers. This also maintains a formal feeling for the entire document, but subtracts from the profile of the text in the lines. Numbers would stand out more clearly, making it easier to locate the date and time. However, using numbers is not standard practice for wedding invitations.
space
Both the main invitation panel and the informative inserts are centre-justified. Although left or right aligned text in a paragraph is easier to read, the centre alignment is traditionally used for invitations, in order to encourage the reader to fully read every word. A wedding invitation is an important document that should be read from beginning to end.
In terms of line space, the invitation follows the rule of thumb of no more than two alphabets (or 52 characters) per line. In the main invitation panel, the longest line contains 40 characters, and in the inserts, the longest line is exactly 52 characters. The invitation also follows the rule of thumb for blank space, with 30-60% of the space unused.
colour
The invitation uses three main colours: the background colour (cream/off white), two shades of purple and black for text. As mentioned in purpose, the invitation serves as an introduction to the theme of the wedding, in this case using the colour scheme. The two shades of purple match the colour of the flowers, bridesmaid dresses, and reception decoration. The light purple works as a background with the black text creating a nice contrast.
usability
The tri-fold design makes the invitation easy to open and even easier to store. However, because of the orientation of the invitation, the pocket on panel five is upside down when the invitation is folded, or closed. As a result, the inserts tucked into the pocket easily fall out when opening or closing the document.
The centre-justified text combined with the script font make the invitation difficult to read and impossible to skim and/or scan. If the reader was referring to the invitation simply to pick out the time of day, he/she would have to read the entire document to find the words: “three o’clock”.
Overall, this invitation – and therefore most wedding invitations – is poorly designed. While it follows the traditions of wedding invitation design, it is not conducive to easy reading and information processing.