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!

A few weeks ago, TGK was asked to create a menu for the local chapter of the National Association of Catering Executives (NACE)’s annual awards gala at the luxurious Umstead Hotel. We loved the way the event planners incorporated the menus into the design of the tablescapes – allowing the printed stationery to add to the beauty of each table’s design. This strategy, frequently used by professional party planners, is a savvy, cost effective tip for brides who want to maximize their decorating budgets!

Custom menus, table cards, and place cards, designed to complement the colors and motifs of your wedding, are a simple way to jazz up table décor and to take your event’s overall look-and-feel from “nice” to “wow!”

Special thanks to Brian Mullins Photography for sharing his gorgeous photos with us!

Last week we gave you the basic skinny on the standard protocol for listing (or not listing) parents on the wedding invitation. But as with so many things involving weddings and major life events, “standard” rarely applies in the real world! To help couples navigate the potentially intimidating realm of wording a formal invitation, we’re starting a blog series to address some of the more common – and not so common – questions we get about handling non-standard situations.

So let’s start with a basic: Missy’s Mom and Dad are contributing to the wedding expenses, but Missy and Mason are pitching in where they can, and Mason’s parents are also footing portions of the bill. In any situation where the event’s “hosts” aren’t necessarily obvious, you can word your invitation to more appropriately reflect the contributions of those involved. Using the above example, Missy and Mason might opt for wording such as:

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Michael Smith

Mason Geoffrey Adams

Another option for a similar situation is to leave the parents’ names off all together:

Together with their parents (or families)

Request the honor of your presence …

We find the choice between these two options is typically easy: Some parents really want to be on that invitation! Others don’t consider it crucial. Either option works beautifully to keep the focus on the real center of the event – the happy couple.

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!

We counsel brides (yes, sometimes we feel like counselors!) every day on the best strategies for wedding invitation wording that reflects unique situations. One of the questions we frequently receive surrounds the traditional practice of listing the bride’s parents on the invitation, but not the groom’s.

A wedding invitation is just like an invite to any other party, where the hosts are the ones doing the inviting. Traditionally, even though the happy couple, the groom’s parents, and a cadre of friends and well-meaning aunties may be involved in the planning, the bride’s parents are the ones who foot the bill and, therefore, are considered the “hosts” of the wedding. As hosts, they are the ones listed as “requesting the honour of your presence.” It’s not a slight to the groom’s side, but rather a logical course of action.

Of course, in today’s world, the bride’s parents aren’t always necessarily the ones covering the lion’s share of the cost. And we very often see invitations where the groom’s parents or the couple themselves are listed as the event’s hosts. The decision is most practically determined by choosing to name the event’s host and leaving it at that.

But what’s a bride (or groom) to do if one set of parents (or a single parent) is paying and the other family is griping about not receiving some sort of “shout out” on the invitation? Rest assured, we’ve seen it all! We’ll start hitting on some of these potentially stickier situations on the blog next week – stay tuned!

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!

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!