A wedding is a thrilling event. It makes everyone feel elated, enchanted, and young at heart and the first item to symbolize this blissful spirit is the wedding invitation.

After so many years of marriage and so many memories, most of them blurred by time and an aging brain, my wedding day still shines as one prominent remembrance with most of its details intact. It was a happy day; a Friday Ill never forgot. I still keep the white stiletto shoes I wore, although they are now curved in an infantile position on top of an off-the-way closet shelf with some of the other memorabilia, like one little box of sugared almonds that was given to each guest as a wedding favor.

In those days being the practical me, I had refused to have a wedding. Eloping would be so romantic, I had thought. How wrong I was! Luckily, my mother put her foot down and made me agree to a halfway decent wedding.

Looking through my memorabilia, I see that our wedding invitation is the only one that stands below par; however, in those olden days that was probably the best that could be done. A printer printed the words on heavy sand-colored paper in raised block letters with matching envelopes. Todays sophisticated varieties and personalized choices were non-existent then.

Such a pity it was, because after the marriage license, the invitations are the most important historical documents to recapture a couples special day. Besides being an announcement of their future, the invitation enlightens and informs, stating whos who in the wedding party, when and where the wedding will take place and the dress code required.

Thanks to more aesthetic expectations of today, if you want to spend the money, and believe me you should, you can send out spectacular invitations highlighting your wedding theme. They are definitely the most indispensable element of your wedding.

Wedding invitations glimmer like colorful dreams to divine the way to what is to come, and after the bouquet is thrown and the last dance is danced, these distinguished items will be the ones chosen to be preserved. Beyond any doubt, you should indulge yourself where your wedding invitations are concerned, so when you look back, say in fifteen or twenty years, you will not regret having skimped, even if it meant you ate less or rented a smaller apartment for your first few years of marriage.

If I were to do it all over again, I would insist on artistic, spectacular invitations. I would choose handcrafted and custom-designed aesthetic creations that would echo my vision of the specific, poignant theme for my wedding.

For a formal or even an informal wedding, a very talented artist I know customizes and handcrafts colors, themes, and contents to fit any couples needs. She also designs, if asked, monograms for couples based on their first and last names, and the keepsake boxes. This makes any wedding elegant, exclusive, tasteful, and so unforgettable.

If you are a bride to be, can you dare think how fortunate it would be if the same unique and memorable design on the invitations could greet your guests with table numbers, reception menus, wedding favors, escort cards, and place cards with matching thank-you notes to be sent later?

Designed by a true artist, your wedding invitation is unquestionably the forerunning ambassador of your special day. After its message is received, your wedding invitation will be framed for you as a keepsake to represent your happiness, and your family and friends, too, will cherish it inside their albums forever.