Wedding Invitations! Get It Right, From The Start!
By: Carmel Baird
You have decided on your wedding ceremony and your wedding reception, everything is booked. Now is the time to think about your wedding invitations. Do you have a theme for your wedding? Or are you just going with a color scheme? Either way, this will help you decide on the style of wedding invitation.
You should have a list of guests, family and friends, that you wish to invite. Having said that, you also need to decide if it will be an adults only wedding or if you will be including all the family, adults and children. You can save money with the cost of the invitations if you are including the whole family as smaller children can be included on the invitation sent to the parents, adult children sometimes like their own invitation.
With computers these days, many invitations are designed and printed on the home computer. There are some wonderful papers and styles and even computer programs especially for just this. The tone of the invitation will follow the tone of the wedding. A more formal wedding will have a more formal wedding invitations, a more relaxed, casual style wedding will have a more relaxed style of invitation.
If you don’t want to try the computer invitations, another option is the specialty packs available from stationery suppliers. They can include the invitations, place cards for the wedding reception, thank you notes and envelopes and matching stationery for personal notes etc. The next option is the printer, you can find these normally in the yellow pages and often times they will be listed under “Weddings”. Make your list, phone for appointments and get your quotes.
Whatever way you decide to go, you will need the wording for the invitations. Basically it is the four “Ws”, Who, What, Where and When.
Who– is doing the inviting, this will be the name of the host and/or hostess
What– is announcing the celebration of the marriage of…
Where– Is the place where the ceremony and reception will take place
When–is the date the happy event will occur.
Then comes the RSVP by a certain date. When you think about it, you are inviting someone to an event, your wedding, you want them to know who is inviting them, you want them to know where it is and when it is. There may be those you are only inviting to the wedding ceremony, then there will be the guests you wish to celebrate with you at both the ceremony and the wedding reception and then the guests who will be only invited to the wedding reception. So your invitations could be for three different events. You will need three different lists. Browse other wedding invitations, you will find wedding etiquette books or online sites that will help you. Start a file of the ones you like the best, then make your decision.
Six weeks before the wedding date is a good time to send the invitations out. This is considered enough time for your friends and family to organize to have the date free. Always check with the wedding caterers and/or reception venue as to when they require the definite guest numbers and remember to include the bridal party and immediate families.
When ordering invitations specially printed, order extra in case you make some mistakes when writing them out. While we’ are on the writing out of invitations, calligraphers will do this for you and give your invitations that old world feel, this of course, depends on the theme of your wedding too.
In some cultures, it is the tradition to include the RSVP and return addressed and postage stamped envelope with the invitation. This is an extra cost and not always necessary today. If you include your phone number as well as your address for the RSVP, then including the stamped, addressed envelope may be an unnecessary added cost.
Remember, inviting someone to your most special day, your wedding day, will make them feel so special.
Carmel Baird is a freelance writer and publisher of wedding information and resources at Everything Weddings for http://www.ourfloristshop.com.