Summer weddings are such a popular choice for good reason. From incredible weather and vibrant hues to fresh, in-season bites and blooms, the summer months truly offer an abundance of beautiful options for your big day. As you’re planning your summer wedding, whether you’re hosting a garden soirée, a waterfront party, or you’re heading to a tropical destination, your wedding invitations will help set the tone.
Summer wedding invitations can often showcase vibrant, sun-soaked hues, but there are plenty of other options to consider as well. A textured paper can make your invitations all the more romantic, while choosing a gilded design will add a touch of elegance. It’s all about creating a suite that matches the tone of your big day to communicate the key details your friends and family will need to know.
Ready to find a garden-themed wedding invitation or bold modern design to share your wedding-day details? Ahead, find 20 of our favorite summer invitation ideas from real weddings.
Keep It Classic
Want to have your invitations be classic and minimal? Take a cue from this Rhode Island wedding, where deckled edge paper and an olive branch motif throughout ties the suite together.
Channel Your Destination
For a summer wedding in Montana, the couple gave guests a preview of the wedding’s locale with a themed suite featuring an illustration of the plains, wildflower seeds, and even a postcard from the state.
Showcase the Seaside
A custom illustration is sure to set the tone for your summer wedding, especially when a portrait of your ceremony location is front and center. We love the way this design created a seaside vibe, with other charming nautical details incorporated throughout the entire invitation suite.
Include a Pastel Portrait
Summer isn't all about bold hues. You can absolutely opt for pastels instead if you'd prefer! Consider a soft, romantic palette with a hint of texture, and make you and your partner the star of the show with a sweet illustration.
Evoke a Vineyard
The invitation suite for this Napa Valley wedding channeled the beautiful vineyards that would be surrounding the celebration. An envelope liner illustrates the vines while the inserts highlight the wedding’s soft and elegant palette.
Channel Natural Beauty
Summer means plenty of natural beauty, no matter where you look. Celebrate the season's abundance with a simple sketch in your envelope liner. We love the ethereal-meets-organic design of this invitation suite featuring a mixture of different fonts, paired with simple hues and natural illustrations.
Enter the Gates
When designing your invitations, consider the experience your guest will go through when they receive the design. Here, a folded wedding invitation with an illustration of a villa’s gates tied with a ribbon opens to reveal more architectural images and information for a couple’s wedding at the Italian venue.
Make a Monogram
At their September wedding in Jamaica, couple Rroya-Rae and Jordan created a custom palm-inspired monogram they used throughout the weekend’s design scheme. Naturally, they had to give guests a taste of the theme with their elegant invitation suite.
Add a Hint of Boho
This modern-meets-boho design was the perfect fit for a destination wedding in Tulum. From the packing list to the tropical greenery embossed in the paper, this invitation suite certainly didn't lack detail.
Send a Gift
Instead of just sending paper goods, one couple gave every guests a customized box with their initials on it as an invitation to their Big Sur wedding. Inside, guests found a chic invite with an embossed image of the coastal cliffs, an insert with event details, and even a candle inspired by the destination.
Circle Your Suite
A circular wedding invitation box is a unique spin on the design. This pretty style is full of beautifully painted illustrations along with all the wedding details.
Tile Touch
These beautiful invitations were inspired by a wedding’s tile-covered Portugal palace venue. A tile motif on an insert, florals evoking the palace gardens, and an illustration of the building add plenty of charm to the design.
Design a Toile
For their Sun Valley wedding, the bride and groom wanted to channel the spirit of their wedding locale and their story through all their paper goods. So, they had their designer create a custom toile seen in their invitations. Shares the bride, “From far away it looks like any -appearing toile, but when you get close you see that there are little nods to who we are as a couple: the state bird of Idaho is sitting on a stethoscope, Ernest Hemingway’s face is hidden in there, and there is even a potato!”
Front to Back
When designing your summer suite, don’t forgot to design the back of your invitations as well. For their June wedding, Rachel and Elie included their initials and floral illustrations on the reverse side of their invite to have a well-rounded aesthetic.
Play With Color
This illustrated invitation suite is perfect inspiration for a couple that loves color. For an Arizona desert wedding, the invites included plenty of inserts in different hues that felt cohesive rather than jarring.
Mix Up Shapes
No need to only design rectangular invitations for your wedding. Have fun with your shapes and offer inserts in circles and squares like this colorful suite.
Make It Fun
Another unique shape you can include is a fan-style insert. Guest learned all the important details for a wedding weekend with this on-palette piece for a chic Washington D.C. wedding.
Use Calligraphy
A summer wedding in the English countryside calls for a classic invitation, and this design pulled it off flawlessly. We love the calligraphed fonts, navy hues, and elegant illustrations included in the mix.
Nice Neutrals
Hosting a summer wedding full of neutral hues? Have your suite follow suit, like this beautifully designed invitation for a Santa Barbara wedding with an earthy aesthetic.
Try Chinoiserie
Want to pair your invitations perfectly for your garden wedding? Look to this suite for inspiration. Chinoiserie illustrations lend a pretty touch of botanicals and birds to these invitation inserts.