30 Fresh, Elevated Ways to Approach Rustic Wedding Invitations

Whether you're tying the knot in a barn, in a field, or even in a ballroom with sweeping mountain views, it's not hard to see why many couples opt for rustic-inspired wedding designs. However, some bride- and grooms-to-be may fear that rustic elements would read as dated and bland, but that doesn't have to be the case! There are plenty of ways to translate this style into an elevated celebration that feels bucolic. A great way to introduce your elevated rustic wedding style? With on-theme invitations sent to celebrants.

As a guest's first hint at the wedding aesthetic, an invitation does far more than inform attendees about the when and where for your event–it clues them in about what to expect from the décor and overall vibe of the affair. Sending classic, preppy invitations with stripes and monograms emblazoned on them would feel incongruous for a cozy mountain lodge wedding. However, a stationery set with handmade paper, deckled edges, and nature-inspired vintage stamps? Now that's the way to get guests excited for what's to come at your woodsy event.

You're probably wondering what standout components you need to keep in mind as you design your bucolic wedding invitations. The answer is threefold: color, texture, and motifs. As for what form those elements should take, look to nature. For example, rich greens and browns, soft leather (like Amber Moon Design used here), and hand-drawn evergreen tree icons instantly communicate to attendees that they'll be welcomed to an intimate, woodsy celebration, not minimalist, modern nuptials.

Let the ideas ahead inspire your own wedding paper decisions!

Stationery is often paper-based, but that certainly doesn't have to be the case. A wood sheet was creatively used as the details card in this Prim and Pixie invitation ahead of a nature-inspired event planned by Lady Liberty Events.

With a bit of ingenuity, almost any color can be worked into a bucolic suite. While many rustic-inspired color palettes are either brown-centric or predominantly green, we love how this Shotgunning for Love suite deviated from the norm with a white, gray, and dusty rose scheme.

Of course, there's a good reason that deep greens are a classic standby with bucolic, nature-inspired sets. For couples looking to blend wedding aesthetics, this suite is for you. Fern illustrations and an evergreen colorway instantly read as woodsy, but traditional serif typefaces and sleek letterpress printing lent a definitively classic vibe to the overall look from Underwood Letterpress.

Not only do the hand-dyed envelopes Jesilyn Kay used in this suite show impeccable attention to detail, they added a distinctly rustic edge to the set. While the envelopes, creatively sealed with feathers and wax seals, were paper-based, they struck an uncanny resemblance to tree bark, perfect for the woodland event Lauren Field Design was planning.

Up until this point, we've focused mainly on adding rustic touches to your stationery through color and paper selections, but surface design is just as important. Here, a leafy line drawing added a bucolic element to these taupe-hued designs created by House of Modern Letters and styled by Sandra Chau.

This suite featured a little bit of everything, which is why it's worth bookmarking as inspiration for your own stationery. An on-theme color palette (gold and brown), plenty of texture from ribbon accents, and leafy tree-inspired motifs carried throughout the whole suite.

What's not to love about a woodsy, evergreen suite? You can almost smell the fragrant fir scent of this forest-inspired set. The look, from Papira, was a great reminder that deep greens are always a good choice for a woodland-centric celebration.

What better way to connect your suite to nature than to forage for finishing touches? Prim and Pixie's leather-centric suite featured foraged feather that added a bohemian, aviary feel to the design.

To ensure your suite feels multifaceted instead of one-note, think through various ways to add rustic accents to your wedding invitations. Here, both wood grain patterns and tree motifs play to the woodland aesthetic of the Pink Polka Design suite, adding a depth and texture that neither one could achieve single handedly.

Although many suites in this roundup feature wood used as a replacement for the invitation's main card, this Isidore Auguestine design stepped things up a notch with a wood grain print lining the envelope. The dark coloring of the print added dramatic contrast and referenced the color used for the design's text.

There are multiple striking elements in this suite, but we want to focus on just a couple. Flourished calligraphy often reads as feminine and romantic, so A Fabulous Fete opted for a modern hand lettering font that was more in line with the bucolic theme Amber Moon Design hoped to achieve. To further reinforce the woodsy vision, a wood tag, watercolor envelope liner, and curated nature-inspired vintage stamps polished off the set.

Envelopes may be a utilitarian component of invitations, but that doesn't preclude them from also being a creative, showstopping element. The animal hide pockets Amber Moon Design came up with pushed the envelope (pun intended!) for a ranch-centric celebration planned by Laurie Arons.

Getting married in the mountains? This is the ultimate suite (from Amber Moon with Curlicue calligraphy) to inspire your stationery. If you want to create a similar look, take note of the debossed leather, custom Emily J. Snyder crest, wildlife illustrations, and plaid accents—the combination of all these elements was the perfect recipe for a mountain-ready celebration.

Metallics aren't just for glam weddings; this Cast + Company and Lucky Onion suite is proof that they can hold their own within rustic designs as well. Metallic brown envelopes weren't the only element here with a bit of shine—the monogrammed tags were actually metal as well.

For a couple feeling torn between classic and rustic aesthetics, opt for a design (like this one) that toes the line between both. Thermography printing, which produced luxe, raised lettering, and a floral wreath motif brought a romantic edge to this Brown Linen Design set, but copper hues and a barn illustration provided a bucolic flair as well.

Worried that monograms and crests are only for classic brides? Think again. This suite is all the proof you need that bucolic designs can seamlessly feature crests. Botanicals and wild birds graced this custom crest from Lemon Tree Paper—both elements felt perfectly on-theme for a rustic celebration.

Adding rustic touches to a fall wedding invitation is a fairly straightforward task, but incorporating the theme during winter can feel like a daunting undertaking. If you're uncertain how to proceed with a winter-ready rustic design, let this ski-lodge inspired stationery inform your own paper. Evergreen branches and ski motifs made the whole look from Papertree Studio feel both appropriate for the cold and for a mountaintop wedding.

To make the tree motif on this invitation's booklet feel more realistic, Paper Daisies Stationery laser cut the wood to resemble towering pines. While an illustration of trees would've been beautiful, the texture the laser cut details provided made the stationery even more eye-catching and fun to receive in the mail.

What's better than letting nature inspire your wedding invitation? Adding a bit of nature to the design. That's exactly what Tiny Pine Press did here. Dainty springs of dried botanicals added to the subtle and elegant feel of this blush-and-mocha hued set. Wood veneer was also used throughout as another incorporation of nature in the invitation.

Dried flowers aren't the only botanicals that make great additions to rustic invitations. Dried leaves, featuring a unique pattern, were affixed to these invitations. If you want to do something similar but are worried the leaves might get crushed, do what The Idea Emporium did and enclose the suite in a boxed mailer for added protection.

For a destination wedding taking place in the mountains, take advantage of your picturesque location and let it inform your invitation design. That's exactly what this couple, who tied the knot in Crested Butte, Colorado, did. Their save-the-date introduced the mountain theme with a picture of the Rockies and their invitations and escort cards continued the aesthetic with depictions of the peaks surrounding their venue.

Destination inspiration can strike in a variety of forms. While this suite didn't feature the venue's landscape, they were destination-inspired in another way. Since these Wyoming nuptials were taking place on a ranch, hide pouches branded with the couple's monogram felt appropriate. To further reinforce the nod to the venue, Amber Moon Design included an illustration of the ranch's barn in the design.

Eclectic couples, with a bit of planning you can add a rustic touch to your off-beat design. Need proof? The Bluedogz Design save-the-date and Gail Brill invitations for this wedding in the Adirondacks blended bucolic nature with a quirky Wes Anderson-inspired vibe. Tree and nature accents juxtaposed the tuxedo-clad wild animals in a way that felt unique and surely left an impression on celebrants.

If you're looking for a detail that will instantly take your wedding invitations from good to great, look to envelope liners. While they aren't a necessity, the attention-to-detail an envelope liner displays is sure to wow your guests. This couple was tying the knot at a vineyard in the rolling hills of central Virginia and chose to elegantly highlight the location in the lining of their envelopes. From the moment guests opened their Steph B. and Co suites they were greeted by this welcoming illustration.

Still looking for evidence that envelope liners are a worthwhile investment? Look no further than this Typo Boutique's mountain vista liner. While a linear grid pattern graced most of the classic suite, the mountainscape helped soften the otherwise structured design.

Similar to the laser cutting technique seen earlier, this design enlisted a unique production method to make the rustic nature of the suite shine. Mountains were die-cut and layered by Yonder Design to create a textural mountain range, a nod to the wedding's Oregon location.

The bride, a graphic designer, actually created this letterpress printed design herself! While letterpress added a classic touch to the design, the incorporation of twine and laser-cut wood accents kept the set feeling decidedly rustic.

A neutral gray, green, and ocher color scheme might not be what first comes to mind when deciding on a rustic colorway, but this invitation suite is proof that the hues meld perfectly with a bucolic aesthetic. Dried ferns, botanical stamps, and a patterned envelope liner all further reinforced the set's nature-focused theme.