The Green Kangaroo - Unique Wedding Invitations and Stationery

Photo courtesy of Temecula Winegrowers Association’s Web site.

Many of TGK’s invitation designs have been inspired by brides searching for something entirely unique. Our design team loves nothing more than taking a customer’s vision and transforming it into a custom motif that fully reflects the bride’s personality or the spirit of the event. Such was the case when we created our Vineyard Square Pocket invitation! A couple was planning their wedding at a winery in the gorgeous Temecula region of California and was looking for a wedding invitation that perfectly captured the venue’s rustic style.

Working with the bride’s preference for a pocket-style invitation, our designers incorporated the grape vine and wine bottle motifs, showcased here on the invitation’s RSVP postcard. And the Vineyard Square Pocket was born! We’ve had numerous brides since then use the Vineyard Square Pocket as inspiration for their own wedding invitations.

Wedding venues have sparked quite a few of our invitation designs! Do you have an idea for a one-of-a-kind motif or graphic for your wedding? Most of our customers are surprised to learn that our custom design fees start at just $125. Just give us a call or send us an email to get started. After all, custom wedding invitations are at the heart of what we do best!

Dreaming of an elegant coastal wedding this summer? Our Sea Oats motif is the perfect complement! Pictured below in chocolate and turquoise ink on a rich chocolate shimmer pocket paper, this design is sure to set the stage for your seaside wedding.

Accessory options include a direction card with custom map and reply card. (They slip handily into the “clutch” pocket on the reverse of the invitation.)

Complete the look with our sea grass themed Ribbon Wedding Program, Sea Grass Menu, matching table cards and place cards. Shown here in chocolate and latte ink on antique white paper, with blue iris satin ribbon and french blue shimmer layer paper!

*Special thanks to Azul Photography here in Cary, NC for capturing that beautiful shot of our Coastal designs at a recent bridal show!

Our design team has been busybusybusy cooking up some fabulous new motifs to keep up with what our customers are clamoring for! We had such a tremendous response to our vintage-chic Bliss motif on our holiday cards and Bliss save-the-dates that we decided to incorporate this popular design into a new wedding invitation. And to make this announcement even more exciting, the Bliss wedding invitation has been added to our growing Frugal Collection, which is a favorite with brides on a budget!

Shown here in marigold and chocolate ink on champagne shimmer paper, the Bliss wedding invitation is the perfect blend of old and new, with its classic, flouncy blossom and modern use of color and off-center type.

We are also loving it in turquoise and cherry red ink as shown here …

... and in aqua and chocolate ink, seen here on the accessory card and RSVP postcard, items that are both included with each Bliss wedding invitation! How’s that for “frugal”?

Just in time for summer weddings, TGK’s designers have completely revamped the Hibiscus wedding invitation suite with stunning new artwork!

The Hibiscus wedding invitation in turquoise and cherry red ink, on diamond shimmer paper.

This bold, exotic tropical flower is the perfect theme-setter for elegant summer weddings, bringing to mind hot, bright days and steamy, sultry nights. Summer brides looking for a sophisticated way to incorporate just a splash of color will appreciate the Hibiscus wedding invitation’s clean lines and white background set off by the colorful hibiscus flower border. We also love how the designer incorporated the serene, botanical feel of this motif while letting the invitation’s style showcase summer brightness at its best!

Stay tuned for more new designs featured on the blog! In the meantime, check out a few more customization possibilities for the Hibiscus wedding invitation ... the options are endless!

The Hibiscus wedding invitation shown in lime and aqua ink on heavy white paper.

The invitation’s RSVP postcard shows two possibilities for incorporating chocolate and tropical pink inks.

Just in time for spring and summer weddings, our design team has unveiled their newest creation: The Modern Calla Lily Wedding Invitation suite! Having carried lovely calla lilies in a few weddings myself (my favorite were the sweet miniature variety!), I love seeing these popular wedding flowers gracing a TGK design.

Several brides have recently requested calla lily wedding invitations, telling us that the ones they’d seen elsewhere were somewhat “tired” looking. (Let’s just say that when a bride describes something as looking like it came “out of the eighties,” it’s not exactly a compliment!) We decided to let these beautiful flowers inspire a fresh, modern design with a TGK flair!

The invitation and two accessory pieces are shown above in pewter and marigold ink for a sophisticated, subtle look. For the bride looking for a fresh, spring style with a burst of color, this motif in lipstick and chartreuse ink (shown below) delivers an entirely different option!

Sure there’s a lot going on around the holidays, but there’s still something enticingly romantic about tying the knot around a significant holiday, such as Christmas or New Year’s. Incorporating your wedding theme into the glamour and giddy excitement already abounding in the air can add just the right touch of magic and whimsy to make your day extra special. As we enter Christmas week, we thought we’d give you a little holiday-inspired inspiration for wintery wedding designs. Ho ho ho!

The Snowflake booklet program with Christmas-y Cherry Red and Lime ink and a Flame Red ribbon.

The Grace Save-the-Date postcard in Black and Pewter ink sets the stage for an elegant New Year’s Eve wedding.

The Meredith wedding invitation shown in Turquoise ink on Champagne Shimmer paper with our Snowflake motif is perfect for an early December wedding in chilly Pennsylvania!

Now that our holiday shopping is almost done, we’re all feeling a little light in the pocketbook! So we thought it would be appropriate to highlight one of our Frugal Collection wedding invitations this month. Brides on a budget LOVE this collection that offers wedding invitations with a custom, designer look but with the option of a few less frills to keep the cost down.

The Circles & Dots Invitation, shown here in Aqua and Lime ink, is all about fun, contemporary, clean styling. We love the detail of the single-letter monogram and the bold use of color. This bride chose a post card style for her reply card, which is a hot trend!

All of our Frugal Collection invitations include:

• A choice among paper colors, fonts, and two ink colors,

• One matching accessory/reception card, printed on 1 side,

• Matching reply card and envelope (or reply post card), with return address printed on the front in black ink,

• Inner / outer envelope set, with return address printed on the outer envelope in black ink,

• One proof of each item ordered.

Our loyal readers know Melissa and Kristen have been contributing bloggers as the Wedding Stationery Aces on the terrific Wedding Aces site. This week, they give a great designer’s point of view on how to select the best font combinations for your wedding invitations. Here’s a sneak peek:

Our invitation business was built on giving our customers the freedom to make their own design choices. That doesn’t mean they all make “good” choices! This quick guide should help pave the way for those of you who are a bit confused about the purpose of combining one font with another on your wedding stationery.

Just follow the link to read the full article on the Wedding Aces site – and be sure to leave a comment for our very own Aces while you’re there. It’ll make them feel awfully special and important!

Pocket invitations have become one of the top trends in wedding stationery. And with good reason! The tidy pocket design neatly and stylishly holds all of the elements of your wedding invitation package, keeping those maps, reception cards, reply cards, and envelopes organized and orderly so that guests don’t misplace key information.

Our Claudia Pocket is perhaps our most popular pocket style. Brides love the no fuss, streamlined look of this piece, which features the invitation on one side and the pocket for accessory items on the reverse. Simple, and beautiful!

Shown above in tropical pink and black ink on white paper with a black matte pocket, the Claudia – just like all of our designs – can be customized with any combination of motifs, papers, inks, fonts, or embellishments you can dream up! Here’s the same invitation, customized in a whole new way: The Claudia Pocket in chocolate and marigold on a chocolate matte pocket with our sunflower motif.

These days, it’s not at all uncommon for a good portion of the wedding guest list to include out-of-towners who will be traveling some distance to attend your big day. And every good hostess wants to do her best to streamline event logistics for her guests. But we meet lots of brides who fret that including maps, hotel information, and other pertinent details along with the wedding invitation will diminish the beauty and formality of their carefully selected stationery design. Not so! Just take a look at some of these maps we’ve created in the past that perfectly fit into the overall style and special tone of the wedding invitation suite. We think you’ll agree that you don’t have to trade practicality for loveliness!

If your wedding is coming up in November, December, or January, now is the time to get cracking on your wedding day stationery! In honor of the blustery weather we’ve been having, we’re featuring our Classic Snowflake Wedding Program design today to get you in the mood for those upcoming wintery weddings.

Shown above in black and cranberry ink on classic white matte paper, this sophisticated snowflake motif is an elegant way to update one of the most beloved hallmarks of the season.

One of the things we love most is creating widely different looks with unique design elements. Take a look at the completely fresh feel of the snowflake motif used on our booklet program below. Shown in cherry red and lime ink on champagne shimmer paper and accented with a flame red satin ribbon, the motif that made the above program chic and sophisticated peeps up here to add playfulness and whimsy to this bride’s program. One motif, two completely different looks!

See why we find this so much fun?

Reply Card for the Amanda Couture Wedding Invitation

Believe it or not, back in the good old days, wedding invitations did not come accompanied with multiple accessory cards, such as the reply card. In fact, traditional etiquette still dictates that the proper manner in which to respond to a formal invitation is by handwriting your acceptance or regrets on your own formal stationery.

While we do appreciate the mannerliness of this traditional etiquette standard, the advent of the modern reply card has certainly made it easier for brides to ascertain an accurate head count. And if providing a reply card provides a helpful service to your guests, we think that’s the most mannerly thing to do!

But the typical format of this accessory piece often poses questions, especially for couples who haven’t seen a formal reply card until they get married themselves. The gold standard for reply cards is a version of:

M ………………………………………………….

……… Declines with Regret

The “M” provides a prompt for the guest to write either “Mr,” “Mrs,” or “Miss” and then their name and the names of any guests.

Now, at The Green Kangaroo, our customers tend to enjoy making their invitations their own! And we’ve created dozens of variations on the reply card; some falling in line with the “traditional” standard, and many offering entirely new takes on this accessory piece. To give you some inspiration, here are just a few examples of the creative ways some of our customers have approached the reply card:

1. A New Approach to Classic Etiquette

“Please respond by June 7, 2009” … followed by a blank space for guests to fill in with their own personal note.

A nod to the truly traditional handwritten-note approach, but with the modern twist of providing the note card and envelope for the guests!

2. Adapting Modern Manners

........... Will Not Attend

Eliminating the “M” and getting a bit more to the point is another popular style.

3. Getting Creative!

Replacing the staid “Will / Will Not Attend” with more creative language is a new trend that allows the couple to express their individuality.

............ Will be the first one out on the dance floor!

............ Will be missing all the fun

Next week, we’ll be providing you with a few insider-savvy tips and ideas to consider when designing your reply cards!

After featuring our new Preppy Monogram invitation on the blog last week, we started thinking about the questions that crop up when monogramming is considered for wedding stationery. Brides often wonder if it is appropriate (or even bad luck!) to use the new married initial prior to the wedding ceremony. Traditional etiquette considers the use of the bride’s new last name taboo until the vows have been read, but this is one area where we tend to disagree with the traditionalists.

In fact, one of our most frequently requested designs is this watermark monogram, which features a beautiful single initial behind the bolder text of the invite. The use of this design element is quite subtle, yet adds a striking level of sophistication that has made it increasingly popular with brides.

Since the purpose of the wedding is to celebrate the union of the bride and groom, we find it perfectly acceptable to use the couple’s future shared last name as a backdrop to the formal wedding invitation. After all, it IS the groom’s current last name, and the bride’s maiden name will be prominently listed on the invitation as well. We think incorporating the monogram as a design element in the wedding stationery is a lovely way to celebrate the upcoming union!

Of course, if you decide you don’t want to chance a visit from the bad-luck wedding fairies, there are alternative ways to use monogramming! The bride and groom’s first initials can be used alone for pre-wedding printing – and transformed with the addition of the new, shared last name for post-wedding/reception décor. You can check out some of the infinite monogram possibilities here in our monogram style gallery for inspiration – or let us know how you’d like to see your monogram!

Our Facebook fans already know how much we ADORE the Style Me Pretty Web site, which is aptly tagged as “obsessions for brides.” Yes, some of us are obsessed!

And when one of our obsessions takes notice of lil’ ole’ us on their uber-popular bridal blog, we get pretty giddy! You will adore browsing through the photos of this exceptionally elegant wedding at the Biltmore Estate. And yes, we helped Rachel and Dan tie their robin’s egg blue-and-brown color scheme into a to-die-for suite of Josie-themed invitations and table stationery. You can see some gorgeous shots of how they incorporated the stationery as a key décor element – a strategy we naturally adore! Using table stationery within your decoration plans really gives brides a big “bang for the buck” by making items you already have perform double duty. This couple was such a treat to work with – they chose North Carolina for their wedding after all!

Biltmore Wedding Photos courtesy of: Michael Oppenheim Photography

(Special thanks to Barb Bobick for your super sweet comment about TGK on the Style Me Pretty blog!)

TGK has just launched another new invitation in our Frugal Collection – The Preppy Monogram! This new design pairs the timeless class of a traditional monogram with modern, clean lines and wee, funky dots. What’s not to love?

Shown here in navy and lime green ink, the Preppy Monogram Invitation can be customized in a variety of ink and paper colors or with different fonts. I’m picturing it in black with hot pink for an evening soiree … or our bright delphinium blue with a sunny yellow for a midday summer wedding. We could customize colors all day around here!

Our Frugal Collection invitations always come with a matching accessory/reception card, reply card, and return address printing – and a proof, of course! We’re adding new designs to this streamlined, cost effective line all the time, so let us know what you’re looking for and it just might be our next design inspiration!