Wedding Stationery Ordering Tips
We feel qualified to offer some common sense tips when it comes to ordering wedding stationery because we have personal experience of providing stationery for our own daughter's wedding!
Ordering Stationery
Wedding stationery plays a vital role in setting the right tone for the wedding, even offering a prelude to the theme or colour scheme that the bride and groom may have chosen. The message to the guests that the wording conveys is extremely important together with additional information such as maps, means of transport, local hotels, options for dietary needs, etc and should be thoroughly researched and presented with thought so that guests have all the information at hand to make an informed decision about the arrangements they need to make in order to attend. A well organised invitation, additional information, together with reply card, will send a message to your guests that their presence is valued and will ensure maximum attendance.
In general the wording chosen for the invitation itself will depend on the level of formality required and individual family arrangements, such as who is to host the wedding. We believe that it is not a bad thing to encourage some formality into the proceedings as you will reap the benefits from your guests being on their very best behaviour and well turned out on the day.
We recommend that wedding invitations should be ordered at least 3 months before the wedding date. Always order a few more invitations than you actually require - as it is easy to make mistakes when you are trying really hard not to! If the wedding is to be held in a Church, the priest or vicar will need to be consulted regarding choice of hymns and wedding service format, as some variations do occur. Please note that some of the modern hymns may also carry a copyright charge for reproducing words in the Order of Service. In this case it is adviseable to compile all the text for this item as soon as possible.
Sending Out Main Invitations
These should be sent out at least 2 months before the wedding - sooner if the wedding is during the traditional summer holiday months. Sending out Save The Date cards up to a year in advance is an excellent way of ensuring guests do not book holidays before knowing about your wedding. You may have guests who will be invited to a full day of events, whilst other guests may only have an evening presence. In this case it is a good idea to send out the main invitations first, as you may be left with the odd spare place which you can allocate to an evening guest instead. Check the date that final numbers will be required with the caterer before deciding your RSVP date. Allow 2-3 weeks for preparing your invitations.