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Tips for choosing wedding invitations

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Choosing your wedding stationery is an important decision. The invites should reflect the style of the wedding, and the personalities of the bride and groom. It is the first impression your guests will have of your wedding! And it may be their first introduction to your future spouse. Following are some things to consider when choosing your wedding invites.

  • A beautiful, well planned invitation will compel guests to attend your wedding. A bad invitation may negatively affect your invitees decision about attending.
  • Catalogs – request catalogs from professional invitation companies. Go through the catalogs with your fiancé, and whoever is paying for the wedding, to find styles that you like.
  • Choose a company to purchase invites from. There are so many options out there – stationery store, printer, department store, bridal gown store, wedding planner, catalogs, or many online sources. Request catalogs and samples. Ask friends for referrals.
  • Choose a script/font that fits the style of the wedding.
  • Choose a style – single page, tri-fold, bi-fold or accordion.
  • Color of ink – traditional invites include dark-gray or black ink. Many other colors available.
  • Color of the invite – traditional invites are on paper that is white, ivory or ecru, depending on the color of the dress. However, today there is a wonderful variety of invite styles available to fit your own style, the formality and budget of your wedding.
  • Create the guest list before ordering invitations. You need to at least put down the names of your guests. You can always look up addresses after ordering the invites. You should start creating your guest list & gathering addresses as soon as you get engaged. Don’t forget to ask your parents, fiancé and fiancé’s parents for their guest list. Think about people from the many areas of your life that you would like to invite – family, friends, neighbors, church friends, childhood friends, high school friends, college friends, colleagues, mentors, associates, friends from clubs and teams.
  • Decide if children will be invited to the wedding. If you want them to attend, include their names on the invites. If you decide that you do not want children to attend, simply leave their name off of the invites.
  • Decide if you want to include a photo? You can have an engagement photo taken by a photographer or friend, have 4x6 snapshots developed, and then include in the invite. This may not be traditional, but it can be a nice touch. If you are sending invites to people you have not seen for a long time, or people who have not met your fiancé, they will really appreciate the photo!
  • Decide the type of envelope – lined or unlined, type of paper that matches the invite.
  • Determine your budget. There are many creative ways to stay within your budget.
  • Finalize your wedding plans BEFORE ordering the invites – make sure that the plans for your wedding date, location, time are absolutely final before placing the invite order. You can request catalogs and samples now, but just wait to submit until venue contracts are signed.
  • Formal wedding invitations are engraved – which is textured raised letters in gray or black ink – this is the most expensive route. Thermography will provide a similar look for less money. Or colored ink can be done with offset printing.
  • If including response (RSVP) cards, make sure they are in an envelope with your address, and a stamp.
  • Make sure you know the difference between the inside envelope & the outside envelope. If you address the wrong one, you will be in trouble – the inside envelope does not usually have a gum seal strip – so no way to seal the envelope.
  • Order all stationery items from the same place, at the same time – this will ensure consistency in style
  • Order extra invites – it is much cheaper to order additional invites with your original order, than to have to place another order later. After you place the order, you may remember people that you forgot to include on your original guest list, someone’s invite might get lost in the mail, and you of course want to save an invite (or a few) as memento for your scrapbook!
  • Order extra invites. Mistakes can happen, and guest lists can change over time. At very least, order an extra 25.
  • Order invites plenty early to allow time to have them printed, address & assemble the envelopes, and mail. You should mail 1-3 months prior to the wedding.
  • Other items to order? When placing your invitation order, you may also want to purchase thank you notes and place cards to match. Do you want your guests to RSVP? If so, you will need response card. Do you need a reception card or an extra card to include with the invite for other wedding details? And be sure to include envelopes for everything. Don’t forget to order these as well!
  • PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD! Before finalizing the order, carefully proofread every detail of the invite wording, style, quantity & order details. Ask several people to help with the proofreading.
  • Proofs! – Be sure and request a proof before placing the order. Proofs can be e-mailed to you, and will show you how the text will appear on the page.
  • Quantities – remember, 100 guests does not mean 100 invites. Spouses & children can be on one invite. So for 100 guests, you may only need 75 invites.
  • Samples! – search out invitation suppliers (online or in wedding magazines), find a few invitations that you like, and request samples.
  • Some couples like to include maps in the envelope with the invitation. This can be a nice touch, especially for places that are hard to find. However, with mapquest, google maps & GPS units, this is less necessary than it was 10+ years ago.
  • Some guests may include a “registered at” card in their invites. Although this can be a new popular decision, you need to decide if this is best for you. Guests can usually guest where you are registered at (it is easy to check guest registries online), or they can ask the family. It may not be worth offending someone by including that information in the envelope with the invitation.
  • Style of invite - formal, semi formal, relaxed, funky, romantic, funky, religious, traditional, natural, go-green.
  • The invite should include the name of the hosts (your parents, yourselves), full names of bride and groom; date, time and location of wedding and reception. You can include a card with more details about the day, and a RSVP card.
  • Type of paper – Many varieties to choose from, such as: photographs, textured paper, recycled paper, fancy edge, multiple colors, embedded items such as flowers, and more.
  • Wedding etiquette recommends that you hand address the wedding invites. This will take time. Recruit the help of a friend with nice penmanship, or hire a calligrapher.
  • When assembling the envelopes: place the response card face up under the inside envelope, place tissue paper over the letter of the invite, put other items in the envelope facing up, and place the invite on top of the other items, inside the inner envelope. Write the names of the guests invited on the front of the inside envelope. And then put that envelope inside the outer envelope to seal & mail.
  • When placing the order, be sure to have the following information with you: full name of bride & groom, names of parents; date, time & place of wedding & reception.
  • Wording can be complicated. The invitation supplier should be able to provide sample wording. Family relationships can be complicated, and you don’t want to offend anyone.
  • You may decide to have wedding invitations, and wedding announcements. Announcements go to people who you are not inviting to the wedding. Order them at the same time. Mail the announcements on your wedding day or day after.