Every couple will try their best to find a unique wedding invitation. This is also the case in Hong Kong. However, couples in Hong Kong often face a dilemma that on one hand they would like to choose some western or modern wedding invitation but on the other hand their parents would like them to have a more traditional design, which is red and gold in color. This may sometimes result in disagreements between the couples and the parents.
Most couples in Hong Kong have a perception that a traditional wedding invitation is something old fashion, choosing such wedding invitations will ruin their perfect wedding. There is no doubt that most "traditional" wedding invitations provided by the printing company (a printing company, not a design firm) looks very old fashion. They are usually red in color with gold color hot stamping contents. They are considered old fashion mainly because all these invitations look very similar.
The only alternative for these "traditional" wedding invitations are what they call "western" style design. There designs are normally white in color, which is totally perfect in the western world. In Chinese culture, however, white color has a meaning of death. People wear white color clothes when their relatives pass away. Without any surprise, the parents will not like this "western designs" and they will ask the couples to go for a traditional red color design.
One may think that these different perceptions between the couple and the parents should not be a problem if they communicate well. Theoretically this proposition should be correct. However, this is usually not the case in reality. The choice of wedding invitation can result in disagreement between the couple and the parents.
A real case is that there was a couple who loved the white color "western" style wedding invitation design. They ordered and had the invitations done without even informing their parents. After everything was finished, their parents were furious when they saw the white color wedding invitation.
The couple was really in a dilemma since they had never thought that their parents would not like the white color wedding invitation. They tried their best to persuade their parents but eventually they surrendered and made the wedding invitation once again.
In fact many couples admit that they are not really fond of the white color "western" style wedding invitation very much. The reason behind the decision of choosing the white color invitation is that they do not like the traditional red color design. It is probably because these wedding cards look very similar and it seems that there is no choice for a couple even if they would like to go for a red color design.
This is mainly because these red color cards are not properly designed and they are only provided by printing companies, which are not obsessed to produce high quality wedding invitation designs. Professional designers should be able to help to produce more refined red color wedding invitations.
For example, a wedding invitation can be designed such that it is basically red in color, which is treated as a folder containing all the cards, and the cards (invitation card, RSVP etc.) are gold in color. This idea of folder is very common in UK or US. They can be easily seen from wedding invitation providers' websites. However, they are very rare in Hong Kong. With this "East meets West" treatment, a couple can get a unique and beautiful wedding invitation and it can at the same time fulfill the requirement of red color by the parents.
From this example we understand that the wedding invitation providers should start change the way of doing business. In the past a printing company was just focusing on printing something that other companies printed. With the higher expectation of the couples, these companies should work with professional designers to create more unique wedding invitations.
These wedding invitations should be on one hand creative and unique and on the other hand in line with Chinese culture and traditions. In fact some wedding invitation providers in Hong Kong have already started to explore this possibility. With these designs, the requirements of both the couple and the parents will be fulfilled. The wedding invitation designs from Hong Kong may also become a choice of couples in other places around the world, since these designs combine the cultures and traditions from both East and West.
Jerry Leung is a wedding invitation designer with great interest in Chinese Style Wedding cards. He designs unique Wedding Invitations in different styles. Besides, he runs A Wedding Blog to share wedding tips. You can also find lists of wedding vendors from his Wedding Directory Websites.