Want to jump on the hottest wedding trends for 2023? From rustic elegance and bohemian chic to metallics and modern minimalism, here are the top trends and wedding themes to try this wedding season.
ByHelen Alexander|Updated July 6, 2023
What do branding and graphic design have to do with the biggest day of someone’s life? More than you might think! From designing wedding stationery to producing wedding videos, your design choices will contribute significantly to the event’s overall aesthetic.
For example, wedding invitations don’t only communicate information to guests but also help set the style and tone of the wedding. Whether you’re a pro graphic designer, wedding planner, or a happy couple taking a DIY approach, read on to ensure you send out a stylish statement that’s as eye-catching as it is on-trend.Read on for the top 2023 wedding trends, as well as tips and templates for how to make a wedding invitation.
What is a Wedding Theme?
It doesn’t matter if your client is planning a formal ceremony or taking a more casual approach; a clear wedding theme or mood board can help establish a visual identity that inspires them to say, ‘I do.’ As the designer, you should marry ideas and inspiration to develop a clear theme that informs everything from the dress to the decorations.
It also extends to wedding stationery such as save-the-dates, invitations, RSVPs, ceremony programs, and thank-you cards. And what about after the event? Check out our favorite wedding slideshow templates and collate a bite-sized digital album containing all the best bits from the big day.
But remember, marriage might mean happily ever after, but graphic design trends are constantly changing. From vintage glamour to minimalist modern, align your creative assets to a 2023 wedding trend so your designs are up-to-minute and perfectly suited to couples who want to stay current.
How to Make a Wedding Invitation
When designing wedding invitations, use your graphic design skills to convey details like the date, time, and venue in a way that’s easy to read and visually appealing. Then consider the color palette, typography, and layout as you align the invitation design with the wedding theme – as this will give guests a glimpse of what to expect.
Think about adding personalized details – such as monograms, custom illustrations, or photographs – so the invitation reflects the couple’s unique story and creates a sense of connection with a design that evokes emotion. Joy, romance, fun, elegance – it’s all about building anticipation and setting the scene for the upcoming celebrations.
If you’re not a graphic designer, don’t fear! There are plenty of professional, elegant, and romantic wedding invitation templates available for DIY brides or couples on a budget. Check them out here on Envato Elements.
Top Wedding Design Trends for 2023
1. Rustic Elegance
If one or more of the wedding party plans to wear wellies, you’ve come to the right place. This wedding style has rich rural appeal and elegant touches such as chandeliers, luxurious fabrics, and refined table settings.
By incorporating a nod to the great outdoors through a leafy color palette or simple floral flourishes, this fusion approach to wedding invitations creates a warm and inviting atmosphere with a sophisticated twist. Perfectly setting the scene, Envato Creator aarleykaiven incorporates a textured wooden background, jam jar posies, and strings of fairy lights into their design, telling guests to expect an evening of countryside chic.
From photo opportunities amid rolling farmland to piles of hay bales by the dance floor, the rustic elegance wedding design trend calls out for cursive-style fonts that add a handwritten, down-to-earth element.
2. Mixed Metals & Metallic Accents
From dazzling dresses and accent accessories to reflective centerpieces, we expect metals to appear at marriages worldwide this year – whether it’s warm rose gold, bronze, and copper or cool white gold, platinum, and silver.
Metallics are definitely trending this year! At the Met Gala, co-host Michaela Cole’s outfit was embroidered with 130,000 crystals, Amanda Seyfried walked the red carpet in a chainmail minidress, while Margaret Zhang and Olivia Wilde wore the same gold vintage Chloé gown.
To add a touch of glamour to the proceedings – and tell guests to expect some sparkling evening entertainment – invites are going to be iridescent this year. We see gold foliage on a marble background for extra high-end appeal and gold garlands and wreaths set against whimsical watercolors. While for partnerships with real panache, 3D metallic initials add weight to wedding stationery.
3. Bohemian Chic
Channeling barefoot vibes, a boho-chic wedding centers around the great outdoors – think gardens, beaches, and woodlands – kitted out with vintage and mismatched furniture and dreamy, flowing fabrics. This free-spirited style is proving so popular it even made its way into the Royal Coronation, with Kate Middleton swapping a traditional tiara for a floral crown.
Make the most of this wedding trend by incorporating forest foliage, botanical influences, and hand-drawn illustrations into your designs. Opt for fonts that communicate old-school romance – like the mix of scribbled notes and type-written letters used in these wedding stationery templates.
Finally, add a modern twist to this whimsical style by seeking to incorporate geometric patterns, metallic accents, and minimalist details.
4. Natural and Earthy Elements
Nature continues to be a defining theme for this year’s nuptials, with couples incorporating natural elements into their wedding decor, like wooden signage, hessian or linen table runners and chair sashes, and flower-studded ceremony arches.
As the trend for bringing the outside in continues, add organic elements to your wedding stationery. One surefire way to do this is through textures. For example, august10’s delicate floral sketches look even more impressive when printed on paper cards with torn edges, tied together with string, and imprinted with a real or digital wax seal.
Consider how you want to display seating plans, table numbers, and menus. Remember, when immersing your work in the natural world, consider whether you need to leave space in your designs for cards to be hung from pegs or inserted in wooden holders.
5. Minimalist Modern
With a focus on clean lines, simple styling, and modern elegance, the minimalist wedding design trend has gained traction recently, with many couples embracing a ‘less is more’ philosophy. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for couples to express themselves, and in 2023 we’re seeing minimalist weddings infused with modern elements such as transparent acrylic accents, futuristic lighting fixtures, and avant-garde floral arrangements.
This style emphasizes sleek designs, monochromatic color palettes, and streamlined decorations, but there is still plenty of room for graphic designers to experiment. Minimalist modern invitations are an excellent opportunity to play around with white space, symmetry, geometrical shapes, and framing elements that ensure important information stands out.
In addition, you might want to use this trend to combine a stripped-back color palette and black-and-white imagery without running the risk of overcrowding your work.
6. Vintage Glamour
The phrase ‘something old, something new, something borrowed’ couldn’t be more accurate regarding this vintage wedding design trend. In fact, we’re increasingly seeing designers seek inspiration from different eras. Take the branding for the 2024 Paris Olympics, a pastel-hued update on the Art Deco influences that were around when the games were last held in the French capital in 1924 – from the smooth geometric shapes and gold accents to the curvy typography.
The vintage glamour trend is all opulent centerpieces, ornate decor, and outfits inspired by the Roaring Twenties or Hollywood’s Golden Age – we’re talking about weddings that bring all the allure, charm, and nostalgia of bygone eras into the present.
The key here is to incorporate elements and aesthetics from a specific period into your wedding invitation design, such as art deco motifs, vintage-inspired typography, and calligraphy or retro fonts for a classic touch.
7. Sustainable Weddings
With a biodegradable bridal gown unveiled at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show in London, eco-conscious couples clearly engage with the idea of a #zerowastewedding. This trend aims to reduce the event’s environmental impact as much as possible by saying no to single-use plastics and flown-in flowers and yes to locally sourced ingredients, vegan menus and upcycled or secondhand furniture and decorations.
Tell guests about a couple’s commitment to the planet through your wedding designs, whether you go for a rustic design that looks great on recycled paper or head down a digital route with a template that looks marvelous when viewed on mobile.
8. Ethereal Romance
Celebrate the stars aligning with this wedding trend featuring dreamy designs and delicate details. The idea here is to enchant guests and create an otherworldly ambience. Think soft pastel shades like blush pink, lavender, mint green, or pale blue while twinkling candlelight and floral installations combine to give a magical sense of romance.
Flowers flourish in this design trend, especially pale pink cherry blossom, cloud-like sprays of baby’s breath, and delicate white daisies, and you might want to add a touch of sparkle or shimmer to an invitation with metallic accents. Foil stamping, metallic ink, or iridescent details can all create a celestial effect.
Finally, a watercolor wash can also impart a dreamlike quality, so consider implementing a romantic effect by learning more about this painterly trend and checking out our favorite watercolor templates.
9. Moody Color Palettes
Moody hues are proving popular across all design elements, sitting on the other side of the aisle to muted pastels. Pantone has even named its sultry Viva Magenta shade color of the year for 2023, signalling decadence and drama (in a good way!). A moody color palette can add a sense of luxury and formality to a wedding invitation while setting the tone for a refined, intimate, and sophisticated event.
Deep navy, rich burgundy, emerald green, and charcoal gray can add depth to the overall design while providing a striking contrast against lighter or metallic elements, such as text or design details. Speaking of light and dark, you could also play around with matching two shades of the same color – like this dark forest green and light grass green wedding stationery set.
10. Quirky Elements
We know that invites – whether to a wedding ceremony, a birthday party, or an anniversary dinner – are a chance to convey personality and individuality. So it’s no surprise seeing people approach their proceedings with a playful approach. For example, quirky signage, unconventional vows, outlandish decorations, and unusual seating arrangements – bean bags, anyone?
Wedding invites are important when letting guests know to expect the unexpected. Bring a sense of spontaneity and lightheartedness to your designs through eye-catching patterns and vintage-inspired illustrations, or create an anything-goes collage effect with a mixture of photography, line drawings, and overlapping organic shapes. Alternatively, adopt a non-traditional layout with a postcard-style approach.
And that’s a wrap! We hope you enjoyed exploring the top wedding trends for 2023, as well as our great selection of wedding invites. For more wedding design inspiration, check out our Graphic Design Trends and Font Trends for 2023!
