(1) Font-driven and usually centered around a single word/s or picture. These are simple, straightforward, heartfelt and usually pretty inexpensive to design and print.
(2) Blind imprints. It has an amazing bold-yet-understated impact. I would put black invites in the same category of rarity and impact but they are for a very specific kind of wedding couple!
(3) Themed. Got to love these ones, they are full of personality and best when matched to the type of occasion and party you should expect ie. don't use a tractor motif unless it's really held in a barn with checkered tablecloths. Most of these tend to have a Western-BBQ slant but there are also some themed by profession or like the last one, an elegant chinois theme.
(4) Botanical. These are undeniably beautiful especially when detailed and textured. They can sometimes come off too inspid with a small design and they tend to be a bit lacking in personality (what does a flower really mean unless your name is Iris?), so I prefer them paired with a strong or unique colour.
(5) Storytelling. This is always awesome to receive because it combines artistry with the evolution of a relationship. This Chinatown card says "For five years, he took the Chinatown bus to New York to see her". Brilliant! Avoid stories that have multiple run-on passages or references, unless that's what the design entails. Focusing on just a particular aspect tends to sound less self-absorbed and more heartfelt.
(6) Calligraphy. The most classic and still my favourite because nobody does it anymore. It's stylish, graceful, cost-efficient (no high design fees and a low one-time calligrapy fee) and I always feel that in ten or indeed a hundred years time, if you see one of these in the family album, everyone still appreciates it because it really never goes out of fashion.
It makes you appreciate the subtleties of the lettering, while making a celebration out of the wording and logistical details, which I always think quite hard to do. The last invites are what I call the almost-calligraphy and it's probably the most common and the least committed of the lot. It also probably belongs more in the faux-vintage preppy segment, as the calligraphy is actually a font.
(7) Preppy. That's kind of what I call this brand of pastel, cute, vintage type geometrics, prints and fonts. Again, because the patterns tend to be fairly standard, I like those with an unusual colour choice or motif. I actually like this modern-take on traditional a lot but I always feel it veers more toward the brides taste, since unless it comes in a masculine colour or motif, I never really get a sense of the men when looking at these.
(8) Location specific. These are becoming more frequent, for people who want to celebrate their city and give perhaps a sense of context to a destination wedding. Again, they can seem a bit stereotyped, so I like them best when paired with another element, like a dark-red vintage Christmas botanical print as in the case below, or a seagrass texture and coral colour for a beach wedding.
(9) Craft. This is a rare one but I'm receiving more of these. There is no real personal link, except maybe the colour but these are cards where the focus is just on the artwork or on a watercolour effect of wedding colours. Works particularly well when you have a close colour palette like peaches and cream or shades of water, not really doable if you have a contrasting colour palette. I particularly appreciate it when the couple have made their own craft invitation, always think that's a nice personal touch.
10)Handwritten. I don't have any favourites in the list but this is one of them. These are simple tablet cards, embossed with the two names on the top and a simple message on the venue, time and place below. These cards don't have print because they are the ones that are hand-written with a personalizd message note in black ink. First class!
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