Planning Wedding Invitations
and Wedding Stationery
Available Wedding Stationery
There is such an amazing variety of wedding invitation styles
and stationery types available today. There are many companies
that wedding invitations and wedding stationery is their only
product. Your wedding invitations are important
because they will be the first impression your wedding
guests will have of your wedding day. Your invitations
speak volumes about the style of wedding your
planning. They give clues to wedding
guests as to what to expect at your wedding and
even what they should wear to it.
How Many Wedding Invitations
Will We Need?
You can estimate the number of wedding
invitations you will need by ordering half of the total
number of wedding guests you are inviting since
one invitation usually includes at least two people. To be on
the safe side, order an additional 25 wedding
invitations.
Check and Check Again
Make sure you have all the
correct information and details when you go to order your wedding
invitations, including the full names and addresses
of the place of wedding ceremony and wedding
reception. Always double check your spelling and wording before
placing your order or when ordering through a stationery
provider. It wouldn't hurt to have someone else check over your
writing just to be sure.
Addressing Wedding Invitations
You should include children's names or
"and family" on the inside envelope of your wedding
invitations if they are invited. This way there is 
no
confusion as to whether children are invited to the wedding or
not.
Try to find out the names of people who
will be attending your wedding as dates to the
people you are inviting. They will appreciate
it and will also feel more welcomed to your wedding.
Sometimes you just can't get their names or it may just be more
appropriate to write "and guest" on the wedding
invitations, this is still good etiquette.
The Big No No With Wedding Invitations
Wedding invitations should
never mention a particular gift you would like or store you would
like gifts bought at. Be discreet about gifts that you would prefer.
To get the word around notify your parents of your wishes and
the places you are registered. Bridal shower invitations
may list where you are registered or you can insert cards in the
invitations from where you are registered. Many
large department stores have a bridal gift registry.
Wedding
Invitation Budget Tip
If you're making wedding invitations
and other stationery on your own, stationery
corner punches and corner cutters are a fast and easy way to add
special detail. Most craft supply stores will carry stationery
cutters and punches in many designs. You can even use plain invitations
to save money and embellish them yourself with different stamps,
stick on decals, ribbon and more, to personalize them and make
them special.
Postage for Wedding Invitations
Postage stamps should be supplied on the
reply envelopes. It is proper etiquette and common courtesy. It
also helps to ensure that guests reply promptly by making easy
for them. Also, make sure there is a return address on your outer
envelopes incase invitations don't make it to
their destination. This way they will be returned to you so you
can find an alternative way of getting the invitation
delivered.
Send out weddings invitations to wedding
guests who have to travel a long distance to your wedding at least
8 weeks prior to your wedding date especially
if you have not sent them a save the date card. It's nice if you
can send out hotel business cards and/or brochures of hotels that
are close to your place of wedding reception.
Contact local hotels to see if you can reserve a number of rooms
for your out of town guests or for members of your bridal party.
Often you can get a discounted rate when booking several rooms.
Don't forget to send wedding invitations
to your parents, the wedding party and your officiant.
Don't forget to count these people into your total wedding
guest tally.
Wedding
Invitation Planning Idea
If you are placing
additional information in some of the wedding invitations,
for example local hotel information, be sure to take one of these
to the local post office to make sure you are using the proper
postage to send your wedding invites.
This will ensure that there are no postal delays. Wedding invitations
can get quite heavy and thick. You don't want to go over the allowed
weight or thickness for the postage provided.
RSVP's
When you're receiving your guests' RSVP's
it's vital that you keep track of their replies. Using our Wedding
Guests Tracking Worksheet is one way to do this.
Some couples are giving guests the option
to reply online though their email or wedding website. Most people
are near a computer everyday and this is a quick and convenient
way for your wedding guests to reply. Any ways to make it convenient
for them to rely will help reduce the number of non-relies received
by the specified "reply by date" and there will be less
people to follow up with.
For those wedding guests
from whom you have not heard from by your specified "reply
by" date, give them a follow up phone call asking if you
can expect them at your wedding. You may want
to ask your parents to help you with this task if there are a
lot of unresponsive guests.
Wedding
Invitation Tip
Sometimes your wedding guests
will forget to fill in the name portion of the reply card when
sending it back to you. It's frustrating to be faced with a blank
card, 
not
knowing who it's from and how many wedding guests
it includes. A great trick is to make a list of the names of the
people you will be sending wedding invitations
to and number the list. Then mark a small coordinating number
on the back of each of their reply cards. This way if anyone sends
a blank reply card back to you, you will be able to know exactly
who it is from. Another option is to take the time to fill in
the names of the guests on the reply cards before you send them
out. This way all your wedding guests will have
to do is check off if they will be attending and fill in how many
people to expect to the wedding. These methods
may seem a little time consuming at first, but they will save
a lot more time later if you receive blank reply cards, and changes
are you will.
Wedding Invitation
Extras
It's a good idea to include a detailed
photocopied map with your wedding invitations
showing the location of the place of wedding
ceremony and the place of reception so there is no confusion.
Just make sure the map is clear, accurate and to scale.
Sprinkling a few wedding
cutout confetti in the wedding invitations can
make them a little special and festive. There are also foil stickers,
punches, stamps or wax seals available to help dress up the envelopes
on the outside.
If you have a wedding
website, putting the website address on the wedding invitations
is a great way to inform people of where to get more
information about your wedding. Offering online
RSVP's is a great feature of a wedding website.
Electronic RSVP's can save you money and time.
Wedding Invitation
Wording
Your wedding invitation
wording depends on who is hosting the wedding.
It could be the Bride's parents, both sets of parents, step parents,
the wedding couple, others or any combination. If the wedding
is being put on by and is being paid for by the Bride and Groom
then the wedding invitations should reflect this.
The invitation should have the host of the wedding
personally inviting the guests. Always spell out the dates and
times on your invitations, especially if your
wedding is very formal. Most wedding
stationery books have many examples of invitation
wording. The internet is another great source for this. Your stationery
supplier can also help you with proper etiquette for invitation
wording.
Example of Wedding
Invitation Wording
Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Pride
and
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Winford
Invite you to share in the ceremony
uniting their children
Mary Elizabeth Pride
and
Zakary Mark Winford
on Saturday, the second of July
Two thousand and Five
at three o'clock
at the Church of Christ
50 Amaranth Street East
Peaceton
Save
the Date Cards
Save the date cards are a
great idea especially if you are getting married
during the busy holiday season or during the summer when many
people take their vacations. 
Save
the date cards are a little note sent to your wedding
guests well in advance of the wedding invitations
so they can reserve the date and attend your wedding.
The idea is to say, "Mark your calendar and plan to come
and celebrate with us." They are usually sent out 6 to 9
months before the wedding date so you need to
have all the main wedding planning details confirmed before sending
them out. Sending save the date cards will add to your budget
because of the cost of stationery and stamps,
but if you have people that are traveling a long distance and/or
people that it is very important to you that they attend your
wedding it is a good idea to send them a card.
The style of the cards should reflect your wedding
formality and match your wedding invitation stationery
as closely as possible. If you can, use the same font that is
use on your wedding invitations.
Information included on the save the date card includes your names,
the date of the wedding, and the city the wedding will take place.
The wording may go like this:
Formal
Wording |
Informal
Wording |
Please
save the date of
Saturday, the sixteenth of September
Two thousand and Six
to celebrate the wedding of
Kaitlyn Brown
to
Mark Peters
Orangeville, Ontario
Invitation and details to follow |
Kaitlyn Brown
and Mark Peters
are getting married!
SAVE THE DATE
September 16, 2006
Orangeville, Ontario
Invitation to follow |
|
Please
Save The Date of
September 16, 2006
to share the joy of
Kaitlyn Brown
and
Mark Peters
as they are getting married
Orangeville Ontario
Invitations and details to follow
|
When you send save the date cards, it can be a good idea to send
hotel information with it. This especially important if your wedding
is taking place during peak travel season.
Other Wedding Stationery
Invitations
are just part of the wedding stationery you will require. You'll
most likely require ceremony programs, labels, place cards, and
thank you cards for both wedding gifts and shower gifts. Wedding
ceremony programs are a nice memento of your special day for your
wedding guests. The information in them can include
the date and time of the wedding ceremony, the
location of the ceremony and reception, the order of how things
will proceed during the ceremony including any special songs,
poems or readings. You can list the wedding party
and their relationship to the Bride and Groom. Also include any
special thanks to family, friends and attendants. You may wish
to place them on the guests' seats or have someone hand them to
your guests as they arrive to the wedding ceremony.
You can make them yourself using a computer with special stationery.
You may wish to tie them with a little ribbon or gluing on a small
bow to dress them up. You can also have wedding
ceremony programs professionally made by a printer or wedding
stationery supplier. Have all your wedding
stationery paper corresponding if you can.
Wedding shower invitations
are a great time to be amusing and whimsical. You can have great
fun with the design of invitations especially
if the shower has a special theme.
Thank You Cards
Thank you cards should be sent out as
soon as possible. Your thank you note in the card 
should
mention the gift, how much you like it, and how you plan on using
it. For wedding guests, it is also nice to mention
how much it meant to you that they could attend your wedding,
or how much you missed them if they were unable to attend.
It's also nice to give any extra thank
you to those special people who helped you put your special day
together. It takes a lot of work and organization to put on a
wedding. People will love to see how much you
appreciated their help.
Thank cards should always be sent for
shower and wedding gifts separately. It's bad etiquette to send
one card for both gifts. Show your appreciation for their generosity,
thoughtfulness and effort by sending separate cards.
One of the easiest ways to keep track
of who has given you what is to write the gift items on the back
of gift cards as you open them. Keep your cards together in an
accordion folder so you don't loose any of them. Use a sleeve
for shower gifts and one for wedding gifts. This
is also a great way of keeping track of the gifts you have written
and sent out thank you notes for. Just simply move the cards that
have been responded to into another folder sleeve for sent cards.
Also use our Gift
Tracker Form to stay organized.
Wedding Day Schedule or Agenda
It's a good idea to put some time into
making up a Wedding Day Schedule to help keep
everyone informed. Write down how the day is planned,
at what time events are planned to occur, and
where everyone needs to be and when. You may want to include everyone's
phone number for easy reference. Give a copy to each member of
your wedding party, your parents, and all your
professionals.
Another romantic idea is
to place cards on your wedding guests' dinner
plates that have a special poem or story on them. You can tell
the story of how you met, describe your love for each other, or
dedicate some words to someone special in your life that as passed
on or has touched your life in a unique way. The cards are usually
decorated to compliment your decor and make a nice keepsake for
everyone. They also give your wedding guests
something to read while they are waiting for you to arrive at
the wedding reception.You can have them professionally
made up or make them yourself on your computer using specialty
paper.
If you plan
to use paper napkins at your wedding reception
some stationery printers can have them printed
with your names, date of wedding and even a picture to go with
your wedding theme. They come in many different
colours to match your wedding colours and can be used for your
dinner, buffet and/or bar. Don't forget to put one away to keep
with your other keepsakes. Although cloth napkins are more elegant
for your wedding reception meal. Paper napkins
are more practical for the bar.
