A to Z of wedding planning I for Invitations
Welcome back today we’re carrying on with our A to Z of wedding planning and today’s letter is I for Invitations. Wedding invitations really are a great way of setting the scene for the whole of your wedding day, it’s the first thing you’ll guests will see and it will give them a little insight into what kind of day you’ve got planned.
What kind of day are you planning?
Do you want a very formal day or is it quite a relaxed informal day – the invitations can tell your guests all about that from the way they look to the wording you choose it also helps shape and mould the kind of day you’re going to be having
What wording will you use?
The wording is one of the best place to start in terms of the kind of tone of the day. If you are going down the formal route there are lots of etiquette rules that you need to consider – who are the hosts – your parents or are you inviting the guests etc? There are lots of great guidelines online about the formal way to word an invitation. If you’re going to be doing something a bit different maybe it’s more relaxed affair then actually the wording is up to you, how do you want to word it? Again think about the tone, is it going to be quite lighthearted, fun, a party vibe? How you choose to word it will help your guest understand and set the tone for the day.
Other things to bear in mind when you putting together your wedding invitations are things like the dress code, do you want to include one? This can be another indication of a kind of vibe and feel for the day
What are the essentials to include in your wedding invitations?
On the invitations themselves try and keep it to the essentials, the key facts – things like the date – I have heard stories of people having accidently forgot to put the date on their wedding invitations! Times are very important and the locations of where your wedding events are happening – is it a separate ceremony, followed by a reception somewhere else.
Additional Inofamtion
Put the key facts on the invitation, but you don’t want to crowd the invites so I would always advise going for a separate additional information pack in with the invitation or a note saying ‘Please see our wedding website’ which has got more information on the details of the day
What do your guest really need to know?
Fuller location instructions – key landmarks near your venues, perhaps you want to include a map, if you’re really customising your invitation suite, you can get beautiful hand drawn maps these days that can point out the location of where your ceremony is in relation to your reception location.
Double check your address, double check the postcode – lots of people these days do use their phones or sat nav to find places but sometimes the postcode doesn’t always correspond to the actual address and vice versa, just double check (drive there using the postcode) before you put it on your invitation/additional information – you don’t want guests to turn up at a back entrance or some random road.
If it’s a city location you might want to put in information on local public transport, nearest tube/train station and if it’s a bit more out in the sticks you might want to think about putting in a local taxi numbers so at the end of the night they’ve got some taxi numbers handy..
Also include local accommodation options – are you going to have a group booking for them, have you managed to secure group booking discount that’s good things to include.
Gift list – are you going to be having any kind of gift list or anything? You may want to put a little note in on where your gift lift is hosted or if you don’t really want to have a gift list just put a little note in to say you’re not doing one and why? eg your presence not your a present is all we want etc
Remember to include all this extra information so your guests know what’s happening
When to send your wedding invitations?
Do give yourself a plenty of time to get your invitations out, the standard is about 8 weeks but if you’re having a wedding at a particularly popular time of year you may want to get them out quicker and on top of that I would also consider send it sending out save the dates particularly for a destination wedding, to give your guests plenty of time to book their holidays, book the flights, accommodation that sort of thing. You can send out a save the date before have finalized all the final details so the guests know the date and can start planning.
I would also include a date for an RSVP (with dietary requirements) that is really helpful to the guests so they know when they need to get information back to you by. I would be careful about not giving it too much time but it’s a fine line between not enough time and too much time, sometimes if your guest thinks they have loads of time to let you know and they may just forget, so bear his in mind when setting your RSVP date- also check with your venue when they need to know final numbers by too, you may need time to chase guests as well.
Before sending out
When you when you’re working with the stationer proof everything really carefully, print everything out and maybe think about getting a second set of eyes to check it too..
Finally do remember to weigh your invitation before sending it out , if you had a lot of extra information in the envelope, info on additional events, an RSVP card, a return envelope, a map, etc double check the weight so you can put the correct postage on it, you don’t want it be returned to sender.
There you go my quick tips on your invitations. Do let me know if you have any further questions get in touch today I’m always here to answer them and have fun creating your perfect wedding invitations.
