If you are bored of the usual seashell/palm tree affairs of common beach themed wedding invitations, then it is time to get your creative head on and design your own beautiful beach style wedding invitations. Designing your own will not only give you a sense of satisfaction at a job well done, but will delight your guests at your skill and the uniqueness of your design.

Experiment with different graphics, motifs, papers and backgrounds. Try different layouts, fonts and text placement. If you are not all computer savvy and wouldn’t know where to start with a desk top publishing program, then you can either ask a friend to help you or make them the old fashioned way with some glue and colored papers!

Choose some good quality cardstock for your wedding invitations or you can search online or in craft stores for some card kits which will include everything you need to get started. Another alternative is to save a copy of your design to CD-room and take it to a local printers. They will print it out for you and although this will cost you more, you can be assured of a good quality printing.

Here are some great ideas for designing your own beach wedding invites:

• Make you invitations in the shape of scallop shells, starfish or conch shells. Print them with shell motifs and stick to seaside colors such as blue, coral and white.

• Make up a ‘message in a bottle’ style invitation. Print your invitations on parchment paper, roll them up and secure with apiece of raffia. Then place them in a glass bottle with a cork stopper, which are available from craft or dollar stores or search online. Make sure you mail them in secure mailing tubes or boxes to prevent breakages.

• For a casual wedding how about writing your invitation on a beach ball? Inflate the ball and write your invite on it in permanent marker pen. Deflate it and then mail.

• Give your guests a CD invitations with some additional music tracks. Save you invitation on to the disc along with a choice of 3 or 4 tracks. Print the CD labels and cover in a corresponding design and mail in CD mailers. Not only will your guests get a unique invitation but they will also have something to listen too as they get ready for your wedding!

• If your wedding is actually taking place on a beach and you are able to get to it beforehand (meaning the beach is local and you are not having a destination wedding) visit it on a nice day and take some photographs from different angles of the beach. Use these as a background for your invitations. They are particularly effect on flat single cards with the wording printed over the top.

• Use fine sand paper or real sand particles, sprinkled over wet glue, to embellish the front of your card.