Wedding Tips - Wedding Invitations

Tip: Avoid Wedding Invitation Guest List Problems

It's important to tackle wedding invitation problems early on. Can your guest bring a guest? What should you do about divorced folks when you are still friends with both of them? What about a coworker who invited you to her wedding -- do you have to invite her to yours?

The answers to these questions depend on several things. If you are diplomatic about telling your single friend that you would prefer she not bring a guest because of budget reasons, there should be no hard feelings. On the other hand, you should invite someone with a guest if it's their spouse, unless it is a coworker. In this case, it is appropriate to just invite the person you work with individually.

What if someone recently invited you to their wedding? If you are having a small wedding, be up front and honest and tell the person that you are on a limited budget. It is quite understandable and should not cause hard feelings. When dealing with divorced parents, family or friends, gently remind them this is your day and you hope they will know not to air their differences at your celebration.

Tip: Deciding On Your Wedding Invitation List

After the excitment of getting engaged dies down, you and your partner have to discuss who will be invited to your big day. Much of this will have to do with your budget and what you can reasonably spend on your wedding.

Often family and friends will not understand why they were not invited and you will have to make sure you have the right answers. There can be a lot of politics that goes into making the invitation list, so forge ahead with a sense of humor and a smile. Some of the bigger questions you will need to meet face include whether to invite children, your parents' dear friends and even distant relatives that you have not seen in many years.

If you are not inviting children, be clear by not including their names anywhere on the invitations. Be fair -- you can’t make exceptions for some families and not for others. Inviting children? Determine a cutoff age. Distant relatives might also need to be cut from the guest list. However, be fair and don’t invite one third cousin and not the other two.

Tip: How Your Mother Can Help With the Wedding Invitation List

One of the most important people in a bride’s life during her wedding day countdown will be her mother. When it comes time to send out wedding invitations, the bride's mother can be a big help. Let mom help compile your guest list, write and mail the invitations. The bride’s mother should also keep track of who has accepted and declined the invitation to attend the wedding. A bride can expect anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of those invited to the wedding to send condolences. Depending on the budget -- which should be determined early in the planning stages -- you will also know how many of your family and friends can be invited from each side. One way to manage the invitation list is by using a spreadsheet. It is easy to keep track of invitations sent out, replies received, wedding gifts received and who has been sent thank you notes.

Tip: Mailing Out Your Wedding Invitations

Did you know there is actually a "proper" way to stuff your wedding invitation envelope? Wedding etiquette spans all areas of the wedding, so make sure you don't neglect your wedding invitations.

Most invitations come with an "inside envelope" that holds the invitation, response card, and any directions. The inside envelope is the placed in the mailing envelope. Place a piece of tissue paper (supplied by the printer in most cases) over the invitation to protect the lettering. Put the response card face up underneath the invitation, and place any directions or other information underneath the response card. Every item should face up so that when the guest opens the envelope, they see everything immediately.

If you have opted for an irregular shaped envelope, be sure you know the cost of postage. That goes for heavy invitations loaded with extra envelopes and response cards, too.

Tip: Ordering Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitations do more than offer up the place, date and time of the wedding. They also serve as a memory keepsake. There are endless options for finding your wedding invitations, including in stores and also online. Think outside the box and consider searching in other places for just the right invitation. If you're looking on the Internet, keep in mind that you might not be able to see the invitation until after it is ordered. In some cases, you can order a proof for a small fee so that you can touch and feel the paper stock and approve the font.

Tip: The Importance Of The Bride's Invitation List

A bride’s invitation list is a very important organization tool that keeps track of the people who will and will not be attending the wedding. The wedding invitation list will become the blueprint for the reception dinner seating chart, rehearsal dinner planning, and any wedding day- or day-after events. The wedding invitation list is also a guide for thank-you cards since you will have the necessary addresses, which are already compiled from the initial invitation mailing. For optimum efficiency, create a spreadsheet on the computer, keep a Rolodex of names and addresses, or arrange an address book to keep track of the invited guests.

Tip: The Look of Your Wedding Invitation

Your wedding invitations should represent your own uniqueness and taste. Whether you want wedding balloons or wedding bells on your wedding invitations, there are enough wedding invitation ideas available today that make your invitations exclusive to you. It is important, however, to make sure your wedding invitation reflects the type of ceremony you're having. For example, you don’t want to invite guests to a formal affair by sending out invitations with balloons announcing the place, date and time. There are all sorts of colors, designs, paper stock, and even borders to choose from when determining your wedding invitation. Make sure you get a proof of your invitation before ordering enough for your guests to ensure the look and feel of the wedding invitation is precisely what you're looking for.

Tip: The Size of Your Guest List

When putting together your wedding invitations, remember that the size of the guest list always depends on who is paying for the wedding. Generally, the bride and groom have the luxury of inviting the same number of guests (this is where parents come into play with their invite lists, too). However, there are a few rules to remember when sending out invitations:

If you invite a married person, the invitation should include the spouse.
Although the bride and the groom and their parents have a guest list, it falls on the bride’s family to actually send the invitations out.
There is another term that might be considered when thinking of the invitation list. It's called an “open church” invitation. It is an open invitation to anyone who attends the bride or groom’s church. Invitations don’t go out and the wedding announcement is made during a church service or printed in the church news bulletin. Be careful with this because you won’t know how many guests to expect until the day of the wedding.

Tip: Wedding Invitation Envelopes

You can't mail the invitations without an envelope! But did you know that there are specific envelopes for specific invitations? Envelopes, like the invitations, can be fancy or very simple. You will of course want to use high-quality paper to ensure your wedding invitations are protection, but have you ever stopped to think about the inside of the wedding envelope?

The inside lining of the envelope is important to consider because certain materials can rub off on your invitations. Make sure you consult your printer prior to purchasing the wedding envelopes to ensure that the wedding envelopes you chose will serve to protect, and not ruin, your wedding invitations.

Tip: Wedding Invitation Printing Options

There are many ways to have your wedding invitations printed -- engraving to thermography to lithography -- but what is the difference?

Engraving is the most popular and looks like a raised print that is pressed through and can be felt on the back of the paper.

Lithography actually imprints the lettering on the invitation with an ink, but it is not raised like engraving and cannot be felt on the other side of the paper. That said, it is the least costly of the methods and often a good option.

Thermography is yet another way to go and like engraving, it is a raised print. However, the print appears shinier and you can’t feel it on the back.

You should order wedding invitations at least three months ahead of time for engraving or thermography. Don't wait if you don't have to. Once the ceremony and reception site are confirmed, have the invitations printed. Being proactive will keep you ahead of the game in case there is a misprint on the invitation or the printer doesn’t deliver on the date promised.

Tip: When to Mail the Invitations

When is the right time to order your wedding invitations and when should they be mailed so the guest has enough time to RSVP? Since every wedding is different, the rules can change. But in general, you should mail your wedding invitations approximately six to eight weeks before the wedding. Due to caterer schedules, wedding coordinators and last minute adjustments, your guests should have a reply date of no later than three to four weeks before the wedding. Talk to your reception coordinator or wedding planner and get the cut-off dates for the caterer, flowers, table seatings and anything else that requires a head count. Since most weddings are paid for "by the head," it's important that all responses are in by the due date to avoid paying for unattended guests.

Tip: Wording Your Wedding Invitation

There are many ways to go about wedding invitation wording. From the formal or traditional wording, to single-parent hosts or in the case of a deceased parent, there is proper wording that should be adhered to when wording a wedding invitation.

The only names mentioned on the wedding invitation (aside from the bride and groom's) are the names of person or couple hosting the wedding - usually the parents of the bride and groom. If one parent is deceased, the name of that parent is usually not mentioned as a host, but can be mentioned "in memoriam" at the bottom of the invitation.

When entering a marriage with different religions, it's important to take into consider the different customs of both religions when wording the invitation.

For a military wedding, rank will determine where the names will be placed on the invitation. If the military rank is lower than Sergeant you should omit the rank altogether. A junior officer notation is placed below the name followed by the branch of service.

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