One of the most challenging elements of planning a wedding is knowing how to handle the wedding invitations. Reception Details is pleased to present this comprehensive guide to assist in preparing and sending your wedding invitations.

Your invitations will be the first indication to your guests about the formality and tone of your wedding. Once you’ve decided on the degree of formality, style and time of day, you can then go on to choose your invitations. Therefore, you should wait until you have your reception and ceremony sites established before ordering. Your wedding invitation is the perfect way to reflect your theme, if you’ve chosen one. You may want to select your main invitation design first and from there, you can choose or design your other wedding stationary, such as save-the-date cards, thank you notes, rehearsal dinner invitations and ceremony programs to match.

Table of Contents:

When to Order and Send Invitations:

Invitations are typically mailed out four to six weeks prior to your wedding date. If you have numerous out of town guests, or if you are getting married on a holiday weekend, you may want to send their invitations earlier, approximately ten to twelve weeks prior. Even if you’ve already sent out save-the-date cards, this will allow your guests plenty of time to book hotels, rental cars and make other travel arrangements. Check with your chosen invitation supplier how long it will take them to prepare your order. Add an additional two weeks to allow for assembly and addressing of your invitations to determine how far in advance you need to place your order.

     

How Many Invitations to Order:

To determine how many invitations you will require, use your preliminary guest list to count. Here’s a general rule of thumb on how to count:

• One invitation per couple, married, co-habitating or in a long-term relationship.
• One invitation per family, unless there are children over the age of eighteen. Those that are over 18 should receive their own invitation.
• If you are allowing single guests to bring a date, correct wedding etiquette dictates that you should issue a separate invitation to the person they are bringing with them. Even if you chose to only send one invitation, you should find out the name of the person your guest is bringing and add it to the invitation. As much as possible, you should not add “and guest” to your invitations.
• Don’t forget to add invitations for those that are close to you and you know will be attending such as parents, grandparents, siblings and your wedding party. They still need invitations and many will want them as keepsakes. Remember yourself as well!
• Once you have tallied up the amount, add a buffer of approximately 10 - 15 additional invitations. You may have last minute additions or people you’ve forgotten (it inevitably happens!). It is much cheaper to tack on a few additional invitations with your main order than to discover later that you’ve run out of invitations and have to place another order.
• Order extra envelopes for your invitations to allow for mistakes and wrong addresses that you may later have to correct. If possible, arrange to receive your envelopes early, so you can start addressing your invitations while you wait for them to be completed.

Where to Find Invitations:

There are many places you can find your wedding invitations in a range of prices. Depending on what you are looking for, whether you're looking for do-it-yourself, custom or unique invites or pre-designed, here are some of the places to look:

• Stationary stores, printing shops and party stores often sell wedding invitations. They will have huge catalogues that you can look through to order your invitations.
• If you’re looking for convenience or 24/7 shopping, there are many online wedding invitation retailers where you can select your invitations, complete your wording and have your invitations shipped directly to your home or office.
• If you have the time and patience, you can make your own invitations. Craft stores such as Michaels and A.C. Moore or department stores such as Target have wedding invitation kits that you can purchase. All you need is an inkjet or laser printer to complete your invitations. You don’t have to stop there with the kits, you can purchase embellishments such as tags, hearts, ribbon etc. to add your own personal touch to the invitations.
• Paper stores and artist supply stores will often have services to assist you with developing your own customized invitations using various fancy papers such as vellum, mulberry, cardstock and other specialty papers.