Wedding invites are a very important part of any wedding, so it is really important that you take the time to get it right. Your wedding invite is the first glimpse of your wedding day that your guests will see so make sure your guests are rushing to get the date in their diary and are proudly pinning your invite to their fridge. Don’t let your wedding invite be the one that gets lost amongst a pile of post just to be looked at the day before the wedding for the time and address! It is important that your invite reflects the tone of the day and your personalities as a couple as well as exciting your guests.
Here are some must do tips when it comes to ordering your stationery…
Brainstorm
Your starting point should always be deciding what your dream wedding is. I am sure most brides have a loose idea of this by the time their man pops the questions but it is important to get a clear vision for your day before you start ordering anything for your wedding. There is a lot of inspiration out there to get your hands on so have a flick through some wedding magazines such as Wedding Ideas and Perfect Wedding or spend hours (because you know it will be hours!) trawling through Pinterest, check out some well loved wedding blogs such as Style Me Pretty, Boho Weddings, Rock n Roll Bride, and Rock My Wedding just to name and few and start making an album on your phone or computer of wedding images that you love or compile a scrap book of ideas and styling that you want to include in your wedding. By seeing the overall ‘dressing’ choices of your wedding from table centre pieces to flower bouquets you will get a much better vision for the wedding stationery that will best reflect the day and give your guests a sneaky peak of the wedding.
Do Your Research
When choosing a wedding stationer to create your paper pretties for you, be sure to do your research properly. Check out their website, and look for reviews and testimonials, trust the comments of previous brides that have used their service. See if they have won any industry awards which should give you confidence in the designer knowing they are getting recognition for the service that they provide. If they are a local business, take the opportunity to meet with them and ask to see samples of their work in the flesh, and if they are not close by ask for samples to be sent in the post. There is nothing worse then seeing something which appears beautiful on screen only to then receive a sub-standard invite in the post printed on cheap paper stock, with poor print quality and an unprofessional finish. Get quotes and compare prices, but remember without actually seeing the quality of the wedding invite you can’t judge the quality of the stationery on it’s price! Cheap is not always best and vice-versa!
Making Your Choice
Finalising your wedding invite design can be a difficult decision to make. There is so much variety out there that it can be very overwhelming, and a hard task trying to narrow it down to ‘the one’. There are 3 key questions to ask yourself once you have done research into your stationery options:
1. Which invite best reflects the overall look and feel I want to create on the day?
2. Which invite reflects us both as a couple?
3. Would I be excited to go to this wedding if I received this invite in the post?
Trust your own instincts, you know yourself better than anyone else. If it puts a massive smile on your face theres a good chance it will do the same for everyone else :-)
Get Creative
Don’t be afraid to ask your chosen stationer to personalise your stationery. If you want to add a ‘little bit of you’ into your wedding stationery make a request for tweaks to any of the off-the-peg designs so it is different to everyone elses or enquire about a bespoke service. It isn’t always as simple as typing your theme into Google and finding the invite design you are visualising, so opting for this personal service is definitely the way to go to get something a little more creative and unique. Find out more about Heart Invites bespoke service here.
Be Clear on Your Budget
If you are working to a tight budget be sure to highlight this from the word go to you stationer. They may or may not be able to accommodate you, so find this out from the start to save both you and the stationer time. If you are clear with how much you have to spend, your stationer may be able to amend designs or suggest alternative solutions such as Heart Invites Print from Home options or the Ready to Write Invitations.
Do Not Leave it too Late
Invitations should be sent out at least 12 weeks prior to the wedding day, so ordering anytime between 4-5 months is ideal, longer if your wedding is abroad. Make a little timeline for what needs to be sent out and when, to make sure you don’t leave anything too late. Take a look at my wedding stationery timeline blog post for more details on this…
Proofread
Be sure to check over your stationery proofs very carefully. Whilst most stationers will proofread everything before they send it over to you, it is ultimately up to you to ensure you are happy with everything before it goes to print. For example, a stationer can’t know if a guest name is wrong so check over everything diligently before signing your proofs off for print, it will save yourself a lot of embarrassment.
Quantity of Invitations
Be sure of the quantity of invitations that you require. I have found on numerous occasions that brides have almost ordered double the required number of invitations forgetting that it is one invite per household/couple not per person. Calculate your numbers carefully to avoid any unnecessary extra cost. Keep in mind that ordering a small number of invitations at a later date can often work out more expensive. This is due to the printing set up costs that need to be covered so it is always worth ordering extras, particularly if you are choosing an invite that requires you to write guest names on it, as there are likely to be one or two errors along the way. It would be a shame to spoil a beautiful invite with correction marks or misspelt names!
Invitation Wording
Knowing who to address your invitations from can be awkward and confusing at times, with the modern day family often not as traditional as it once was.
It is usual that invitations come from the hosts of the wedding (those paying for the wedding), so if it is the bride’s parents paying then the invitation would typically start off with something along the lines of ‘Mr and Mrs Smith would like to invite you to the wedding of their daughter Hayley Smith to John White….’ but it is very common for couples to host their own weddings these days or for parents to split the costs. Whatever your family situation be sure to ask your stationer for some assistance and advice with the wording of your invites if you are unsure. I will be writing a blog post on invitation wording in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled for that!
Additional Information
Don’t forget to supply your guest with all the information they need for the day. The last thing you want is people calling you left right and centre in the lead up to the big day asking you questions. Consider a wedding website if you have a lot of information to provide your guests, that way all you need to do is supply a web address on the invitation. If you can fit the required info onto separate insert cards or on a concertina invite for example then make sure you take these extras into account when budgeting for your wedding stationery as they do inevitably make each invitation that bit more expensive.
I hope you have found this post useful and that it aids you in finding ‘the one’. If you have any questions about any of the above or any of my stationery please do get in touch. I will be posting a write-up on invitation wording in the next few weeks, so if you need help with yours keep a look out for that! In the meantime, good luck with your wedding stationery hunt!
Lauren x