It’s starting to look like the David’s Bridal of today and the David’s Bridal of the past are not exactly the same beast. In case you missed it a few months back, Vera Wang debuted a lower-price collection at David’s – the White Collection, featuring a small number of wedding dresses and accessories, with a bridesmaid line to follow. A few years back, they even launched a small online inventory for the bride-to-be who’d rather shop virtually. An inventory that’s grown significantly since. And now wedding invitations by David’s Bridal, shoppable online? Apparently so.

Wedding invites at David's? Well, huh.

And they’re none too shabby, with plenty of fun patterns – including monograms – and lots of color choices. The main omission in their stock of invites seems to be embellishments – there are ribbons, but none of the little string ties and leaves and lace and pockets and charms that are still quite popular. Which I used to love, actually. But the older I get, the more I seem to like simple one-sheet wedding invitations with, say, letterpress printing or something that looks like it. One-sheet invites are easier to turn into keepsakes if you want to scrapbook them, and similarly easier to recycle if you’d rather not clutter up the works with a whole lot of paper.

So, you tell me: Did you know David’s Bridal carries wedding invitations now? Would you consider (or have considered) shopping at a chain for your wedding invitations?

Remember that video game wedding invitation from a while back? I’m reasonably sure that it was the first real interactive wedding invitation I’d seen – but once a good idea starts making the rounds, it’s bound to be replicated. And in bigger, badder ways, too. A quick minute brainstorming, and I’m imagining a Choose Your Own Adventure wedding invitation (which I would SO do) or maybe a scavenger hunt wedding invitation for those who had the time and the inclination. But you know what tops pretty much every interactive wedding invitation I could think up?

This one. It’s a freakin’ papercraft record player, for goodness’ sake! I’m less impressed that it kind of plays an original song written by the couple – Karen Sandler and Mike Tarantino – who sent it out than I am that you can even make a record player out of paper. That someone even conceived of this idea in the first place, and then someone – that would be designer Kelli Anderson who talks more about the whole project on her website – took that idea and rolled with it. Seriously. A papercraft record player interactive wedding invitation. Seriously… Doesn’t that just beat all?

Are you part of a crafty couple? Because one couple out there made mini wedding invitation books (seen here) to send out to all their guests and they turned out pretty spiffy! Kind of the opposite of the traditional ecru wedding invitation with a single color of ink, so most certainly not for everyone, but I know for a fact that some of my readership is def. on the funky side!

Is your love an open book?

Wonder what the fine for not returning it is?

For the second week in a row, I’m going to have to go with L-O-V-E. I wouldn’t have had the graphics skills to pull these off or the money to hire someone else to make them for me, but I wouldn’t have said no if someone in my life had wanted to hook me up with kooky wedding invitation books!

What do you brides and brides-to-be think about these book wedding invitations? Too busy? Or just the right amount of busy?

What it is: A wedding invitation designed by Nuage Mulberry Digital Art, known for its unique custom handmade wedding invitations that are more affordable than most. What it looks like, to me anyway: Skin, stretched and dried. Not that there’s anything wrong with that if it’s a look you love! I’m just not loving it. To be fair, I do love just about everything else that comes out of Nuage Mulberry Digital Art. Just not this particular invite.

It’s pretty obvious where my opinion falls on the spectrum. What do you think? Am I judging this one wedding invitation too harshly? Am I missing the point? Or is there something of the amateur anthropodermic bibliopegy about this one?

Calligraphy… sometimes it’s frou-frou. Sometimes it’s less girly than you’d think. Sometimes it’s hard to read. And it’s always one of those wedding expenses that is absolutely not a necessity but some brides and grooms just plain like. And that’s cool. As far as calligraphy goes, I can take it or leave it, but I’m nonetheless loving Primele. Created by Patricia Mumau, Primele has so much more than invitation envelope calligraphy to keep penmanship enthusiasts amused and occupied! Think favor tags and amazing return address stamps, place cards and thank you notes. It’s all gorgeous stuff – and that’s coming from someone who usually thinks invitation calligraphy is kind of meh.

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You lovely people send me so much great material re: weddings and wedding planning and wedding fashion that I sometimes don’t get to it all. Eventually, it starts to build up in my inbox, and that’s when I know it’s time to clean house with a post full of linky goodness. Today, as you may have guessed, is one of those days. Enjoy!

Geeky wedding invitations that will make your heart go squee!

Wedding clothes that fit your bottom line – and your bottom, hee.

An OMG amzing Star Wars wedding (not sure what’s up with the kid inflating the condom near the end, though) (warning: autoplay music)

Destroying the sanctity of marriage, one wedding at a time

Let your friends and family vote on what they’ll hear at your reception via your wedding website – maybe not the best idea?

Sometimes unhappily ever after starts right away

How did I miss this?? Vera Wang to Design a Line for David’s Bridal

Love LOOOOVE this wedding, even if the tree on the wedding cake does kind of look like a turd

The wine box wedding ceremony seems to be all the rage at moment

Planters wheel invites and one sweeeeet chuppah!

How awesome are these pencil and magnet save-the-dates? Real bride and groom Amber and Jeff designed their own monogrammed magnets and had custom pencils engraved with their important info. Everything was prettily boxed and looked super professional, but it was DIY all the way for Amber, who said on Once Wed that her “craftiest pre-wedding endeavor involved cutting a heart out of construction paper”.

For real, I love stuff like this. Is anyone out there reading this thinking of a similarly original save-the-date? Or for those resigned to something simple, what kind would you be sending out of money, time, or skills were no object? I might have snagged this idea if I’d seen it before sending out my own save-the-dates, which were your standard postcard save-the-dates. They didn’t even have our pictures on them, boo!