Beach Weddings – Invitation Tutorial I
Who doesn’t like the beach? Good things happen on beaches – parties, vacations, relaxation; all kinds of fun. My best friend got engaged on a beach. The more exotic ones are stunningly gorgeous with their palm trees, white sand and crystal clear, turquoise water.
And for those of us in the northeastern part of the US (mid-Atlantic too for that matter), a palm-fringed beach with balmy breezes sounds pretty good right about now. So what better place to have a wedding than in such a beautiful setting where people naturally relax and feel happy?
I personally love beach weddings, and today, I’m starting a mini-series of Illustrator tutorials on making your own beach wedding invitations, each with a very different look.
If you’re pretty new to Illustrator and haven’t done any of my other tutorials, you may want to read the Illustrator Toolbar and Illustrator Problem Solvers posts. Also, my first Illustrator tutorial post, “Save the date postcards – A step by step Illustrator guide” goes through the tools and steps more thoroughly than I do here.
We are starting with a 1970s-inspired sunset look, perfect for a more unconventional, informal affair. It’s super-easy and fast to make. If this is so not your style, don’t worry – the next beach wedding invitation will have a totally different feel.
1. Download the illustration here
2. Unzip it and open the ai (illustrator) file in Illustrator.
3. Lock the layer with the palm trees and sun, and change the size of the background layer to the size you want your invitation (I made mine an A2 – 6.25×4.5). Make sure you’ve selected everything on this layer before you do this – there is more than one part to this illustration. Once you’re done, lock the background layer.
4. Unlock the layer with the palm trees, select everything and drag it over to the left hand side of the background. Just somewhere over there is good, we’ll fine-tune it later.
5. Lock that layer and create a new layer for the text.
6. Select the text tool and type in you text. I used Braddon regular at 18pts for the “Join us” and “Mr & Mrs parts” and 14pts for the rest. As always, if you don’t have this font, read my post about adding fonts to your computer.
7. Make sure the text is placed exactly where you want it, and lock the text layer. Unlock the palm tree layer, select everything on it, and move them around until they look good to you. As you can see, my trees are hanging over the edge, but that’s fine, because I am going to cut the card to size so that part will just be trimmed off.
Text Layout Ideas For Your Printable Wedding Invitations
If you decide to print your own invitations, layout is going to be a task worth spending some time on. Whether you decide to go the traditional route (script font, centered on the card) or try something a bit different, you can expect to spend a good amount on time at your computer. Microsoft Word works for a lot of different layouts, but if you’re up for learning a new program, I highly recommend Adobe Illustrator. It does have a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, there are no limits to what you can make. You’ll easily be able to recreate any design you see online, as well as invent new ones yourself. The layouts below were all made in Illustrator and saved as jpgs, but the text portion can easily be created in Word as well (and printed on a card which already has a design on it)
1. 
For a square card, a cute, contemporary idea is to make the text aligned in a square in the middle. Type your names and the word “Wedding” (or anything else you want to highlight) in larger letters, and maybe with a different color (your theme color for the wedding?). I like using all caps for this layout and here, I used Times at 12 and 18 pts.
2. Another option that works nicely on “regular” 5×7 cards is to type your names in a script font, larger (and perhaps in a different color, matching the design on the card) and the rest of the text in small caps. For this card, I used Zapfino at 13pts for the names, and Myriad Pro at 12pts for the text.
3. For something very informal, use a whimsical font (I used Papyrus at 12 and 20 pts for the invitation below). You can of course vary the font for the names, pick a different layout, anything you want. Just have fun with it, and let your invitation set the tone for the whole event.