Wedding
Invitations! Get It Right, From The Start!
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 wedding stationery 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 wedding 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’re 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 Creative-Wedding-Planning.com
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