How To Prepare Your Stationery For A Multicultural Wedding
What could be more joyous than families and loved ones of different cultures joining to celebrate a couple’s love and future together? Multicultural weddings are such beautiful, momentous events – count yourself lucky if you get to host or attend one! But, they sure can be tricky in execution. Add up all of the factors that your guests may not be accustomed to: aspects from different spoken languages to introducing your family to unfamiliar customs and events.
The all-important wedding stationery can be its own challenge. You’ve got to balance attempts at brevity while also being as informative as possible. You want to incorporate the colors and symbols of your culture. However, your artistic skills might leave something to be desired. In the end, wedding invitation suites can be an elaborate task. Thankfully, there’s no need to stress with VistaPrint at your disposal.
With its easy-to-use customizable platform, VistaPrint is a fabulous option for printing your wedding invites and other paper goods (visit their entire wedding shop!). Print beyond the essential wedding invitations, including save the dates, menus, programs, and thank you cards. Choose from a variety of chic templates and fill in the blanks with your details, or upload your own design. Whatever you choose, VistaPrint is here to help – satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back!
Now, first things first. Maybe putting together a multicultural wedding invitation suite is intimidating AF and you need your Bridal Musings fairy godmothers to give you some guidance. Say no more, we’re here to help! Here are some of our top tips to keep in mind for creating the perfect suite.
Incorporate multiple languages.
If you’re in a multilingual situation, make sure your invites reflect as much. Try a double-sided card, or having one language on top, one on the bottom. You can get as creative as you want with this, but the important thing is that you’re honoring the languages spoken by most in attendance.
Prep your guests.
Include a special card that explains what type of ceremony you’ll be holding, or if there are any customs that will be upheld. This is a great way to prep your guests for the experience and get excited for the event while also helping your loved ones appreciate and understand the culture you’ll be marrying into.
Provide a timeline or schedule of events.
Multicultural weddings can stretch for many hours, and it’s important that guests know what to expect. They might need to hire a babysitter or plan accommodations for the night, so get super clear on how late you plan to party. You might also want to highlight any important parts of the ceremony that your guests won’t want to miss.
Clarify the dress code.
Even when a wedding is not necessarily multicultural, guests stress about what to wear. So, help them out by clarifying what dress you expect if there’s a dress code. If you’re requiring cultural dress, provide information on where to purchase or rent. You may even want to provide a link to a webpage that goes more in-depth or provides examples of the type of dress you request.
Use a theme.
Finding a theme to set the tone for a multicultural wedding is a fabulous way to incorporate both cultures. Use your invites to show off the colors, textiles, emblems, and designs that are common in your culture. Mix and match both cultures to create a unique invitation suite that you’ll treasure for eternity.
Consider an Indian/South Asian wedding for instance; you might incorporate elephants in your suite design. Elephants in Hindu weddings are a symbol of good luck, which is why you see those grand groom entrances on elephants in Indian wedding processions.
You may also incorporate some henna-inspired designs for a Muslim wedding. Henna (or Mehndi) parties are typically held for Muslim brides in the Middle East and South Asia and attended by close women friends and family to wish her good health and prosperity as she enters marriage.
Hire a designer.
So, maybe you’re not a graphic designer and you’re wondering who could bring your vision to life. Well good news, VistaPrint has that too! Their in-house designers can execute your dream wedding invitation suite within 24 hours – you just provide the details and any styles or colors you’d like to see. And you get three revisions, so what do you have to lose?