A recently conducted survey suggests that the past decade has witnessed the re-emergence of the wedding card industry. In their pursuit to have a big fat wedding, people are taking special care of every small detail.
Wedding cards in the past were used as a formal invitation to the nuptial but with the advent of technology and with more creative ideas flowing; people now use wedding cards as a tool to generate anxiousness and excitement for the guests.
EE reached out to few notable wedding card designers in the country to get an insight into some rapidly evolving ideas and trends in the wedding card business.
Rahul Jain, Co-Director, King of Cards says- Well, the industry has changed completely. There was a time when people would ask us for discounts on wedding cards and bargain but today they are willing to pay even 1500 INR for a single card even when they are ordering in bulk.” When asked upon the latest trends existing in the market Jain told us, “Recently new concepts like in built personal message and musical messages are very much in trend. Also, electronically designed LCD cards are being appreciated. These cards actually have an LCD panel installed in them that plays a customized video when you open it and the LCD can also be used for other purposes.”
With people willing to thrive on unique and innovative ideas a strong demand for unconventional wedding card invites such as inflated balloons, small baskets with toys, chocolate engraved wedding invites and saplings of plants are also being widely used.
Vikas Marwaha, Owner, Baklawa House responds by saying, “Few years back we have had musical cards that played a musical message but now pop up cards are the new buzz word. These are actually made inside wooden boxes with the help of laser lights and as soon as someone opens them you have a laser light effect that displays the invitation. People today want their wedding cards to be unique and hence we have recently used a lot of metal work to design them.”
Speaking on some of the most demanded cards Vikas says,” Our customers today easily spend around 5 per cent of the total wedding expenditure on invitations and they also want special invites for bachelor parties. We have recently used gold printed metal sheets that give a 24 carat gold effect and engraved the invitation on the same to add a royal touch.”
Himanshu Sharma of Wedding Cards says, “Today, the trend is heavily determined by technology as the people want to get their art-works, doodles, lifestyle and memories incorporated in the wedding cards to give it a more personalized touch. The most recent trend is also of Whatsapp cards which have to be digitally designed. Also today people want to give expensive gifts to the invitees and hence the invitation is also engraved on gifts like selfie sticks tablets and mantle showpieces.”
Sharing his personal favorite from the wedding invitations Himanshu says, “For me laser pop-up cards are definitely a must try. Today if an overall wedding budget is 2-4 Cr then people at least spend 5-10 percent of that on wedding cards which is a tremendous amount.”