Your wedding invitations are the first peek your wedding guests get into the style of wedding you are planning. It gives them a glimpse of what they can expect on your big day. When you get to the stage of posting them out, the excitement starts to build. Here are my top 10 wedding invitation tips to get you stamping and posting, celebrating and doing your happy dance!
1. Wedding Invitation Style
The style you choose will set the tone of your Wedding Day – whether it’s going to be formal, elegant and black tie or boho, rustic and outdoor – your wedding invitations must set the style.
If you are planning an elegant, formal wedding then the wording of your wedding invitations should reflect that. Whereas if you are planning a more casual, destination, beach-style wedding you would choose more relaxed wording for your wedding invitations.
The design style of the wedding invitations must also reflect your wedding day style. A formal wedding calls for an elegant wedding invitation style, whereas a relaxed wedding lends itself to a more colourful, playful wedding invitation.
2. Wedding Invitation Colours
As you begin to plan your Wedding you will start to think about what colour combinations you love. What colour your Bridesmaids will wear, the Groomsmen and what colour decor you will use. Make sure you tie your wedding invitations in with your colour scheme. Your wedding invitation tells your guests what style of wedding you will have so be sure to follow that colour scheme through your bridal party and decoration theme.
3. Wedding Invitations – When to Start?
If you decide to send Save the Date cards then you need to plan your time in advance. I would suggest sending Save the Dates about 6 months before your Wedding date. But of course, you need to decide on a design and get them printed so don’t delay. If of course you’ve decided not to send Save the Date cards then be sure to give your guests plenty of notice by sending your wedding invitations about 2 months before the wedding, or 3 months if you are having a destination wedding.
4. RSVP Card or RSVP details on the Wedding Invitation?
The choice between sending an RSVP card or including the RSVP details on the wedding invitation often comes down to the style of the wedding and your budget. Adding on RSVP cards does increase the cost of your Wedding Stationery but if you order everything at the same time you can often get them at a reduced cost. If you are having a formal wedding then the expectation is that you would send an RSVP card, whereas if your wedding has a more relaxed tone it would not be unusual to include the RSVP details on your wedding invitation. Either decision is perfectly fine, nobody will judge you on whether you do or you don’t send them.
5. Wedding Invitation Paper Types
Wedding invitations can be printed in numerous styles of paper. Generally a thick, luxurious, card stock is used with texture to give that luxe feel to your invitations. We like to print on linen and aquarelle card which are both beautiful thick, textured cotton card stocks with beautiful detail and soft to the touch. We also love the addition of vellum and of course offer a range of recycled card stock too for the sustainable bride and groom.
6. Envelope Liners
Take your wedding invitations up a notch with envelope liners. They fill what is usually a blank space and can add such class and elegance to your envelopes. You can buy envelope liners already fitted or to fit yourself. Knowing how much work it takes to fit them I’d advise you to leave the job to the experts unless you really enjoy spending hours in the evening putting them together!
7. Calligraphy
Something to consider is how you will address you envelopes. Traditionally wedding invitations are hand-addressed. Depending on how many wedding invitations you intend to send and how neat your writing is will help you make the decision on whether or not you want to hire a calligrapher. Having a calligrapher hand-address your envelopes can turn a standard envelope into a thing of beauty. There are many very talented calligraphers who can help with this task and one of our favourites is Jagdeep Sahans from Wedding Calligraphy Ireland.
8. Triple Check the Wording
Check, check and check again. Once you agree your proof with your stationer and your wedding invitations go to print it is very difficult to make changes without it costing a lot of money! We check every proof that we send to our clients but of course we also want the bride and groom to confirm our checks. Some names are spelt differently and of course you don’t want mistakes on your wedding invitations. Make sure to check all the details, including the grammar and to be sure ask a friend to run their eye over the wording as sometimes you can be blind to mistakes when you see the same design so often.
9. How many Wedding Invitations do I need?
When it comes to counting your numbers, often people think, ‘I’ll have 100 people at my wedding so I need 100 invitations’. Take a look at your list, who lives with whom, who are married, in a relationship or living together. Then go back through and reassess your numbers for invitations. Remember to count the households, not the individuals. We have put together a 100 Guest Wedding Stationery pack that includes 80 wedding invitations because on average 80 would be needed, 100 wedding menus, 100 wedding programs and 5 bridal party proposal cards.
That should cover all your guests and some extras for you and your photographer.
10. What other Wedding Stationery do I need?
Think ahead about what type of wedding stationery you would like. It makes financial sense and is most efficient to order all of your wedding stationery at the same time. For example, we offer free shipping on wedding stationery when €200 or more is spent, which means if you order everything at the same time you won’t have to pay multiple shipping fees. That is just one way you can save.
The 100 Guest Wedding Stationery pack that we offer is another fantastic way to save. If you are looking for wedding invitations, wedding menus and order of service cards then this pack is perfect for you. With this pack you can save about €70 which you can spend elsewhere on your Wedding.
In terms of matching wedding stationery to go with your invitations you can consider:
- Save the Date cards
- RSVP cards
- Menus
- Table numbers
- Place cards
- Custom wax seal stamp
- Envelope liners
- Envelope seal stickers
- Order of Service cards / Wedding Programs
- Thank You cards
- Bridal Party Proposal Cards
- Hen / Stag / Wedding Shower Invitations
- Favour Tags / Stickers
We can design and print everything above in the same design so that your wedding stationery theme runs through every element from your Save the Date cards to your Thank you cards.
Ok, now it’s time to get planning – let’s chat about your Wedding Stationery and start planning what you need.
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