Make Your Own Wedding Invitations

For me, I always find colour combinations and patterns difficult to create, but with a little inspiration I'm well on my way.

My first stop is always other wedding invitations. By checking out the latest styles and creations of the designers, I can often incorporate them into my ideas. Letterpress stationery is particularly inspirational, but comes at a huge cost - but there are elements you can use, even if you're only going to be printing at home.

My next port of call is magazines. Not bridal or paper craft magazines but home décor magazines. These types of magazines always showcase the latest colour combinations and the textile fashions always give me inspiration too. Current trends such as paisley and damask, usually feature in the home décor magazines first and then filter down to other forms of design.

Getting out and about is always a good option too. Look in the fashion stores for next season's key colours and check out the home furnishing sections of the larger stores for patterns and textures being used in key pieces. Cushions, curtains, lamps and wallpapers are all great sources.

Finally, I find scrapbooking stores are superb for inspiration. Most scrapbookers are great with creating layers and depths as well as using pretty embellishments. Obviously for cards you won't want quite as much depth, but you could certainly get some inspiration from what the scrapbooking world is doing!

If you're going to embark on making your own wedding invitations, then make sure you follow these tips:

- Think about how much time you have. Creating something really complex is going to take a long time to do and you probably don't want to spend all your weekends making your invitations!

- Keep them simple but classy by either using printable elements or simple embellishments.

- Use as high a quality card as you can afford, but if you're using printable elements, make sure it can go through your printer!

- Make sure your invite design is easily repeated. Anything hand drawn or illustrative may be difficult to recreate over and over again, so choose printable options, stamps or stickers to create patterns or designs.

- If you're printing out elements on your home printer, remove each one after it's printed to ensure that the ink isn't smudged by the next sheet.

Finally, you could always try using a copy shop. Print out one copy of your invite and then take it to a copy shop to get it professionally cut to size. You can then assemble at home, knowing that the size is perfect!

Simple invitations printed out at home can often look a little dull. Yes, you can make them look great with illustrations and fancy fonts, but still they look a little flat. You can however liven up your home printed wedding invitations by adding different kinds of embellishments - which will really add a unique look. Here are some simple ideas:

- Use ribbon as a belly-band around the centre of the invite to add a bit of luxury. You can easily choose a colour that matches your wedding theme.

- Add accents of glitter to illustrations to add a bit of sparkle.

- Add a cute, little charm to the top of the invite to secure layers together.

- Use lace borders or patterned paper borders to create vintage effects.

- Add sequins, beads or jewels for a bit of dazzle.