Wedding Stationery Lowdown

Choosing your wedding stationery is one of the most exciting parts of planning your wedding. It’s the first peak your future guests will get to see as to the theme and style of your wedding. It’s a reflection on not only how the day will be but of you and your other half’s personality. But don’t be daunted by the prospect, if you follow our tips you’re bound to get it right first time and save yourself from stationery stress!

Don’t forget save the dates! – Particularly important if you’re planning your big day during the summer months. It’s really important that you let your guests know of your upcoming nuptials by sending them a save the date 8-10 months before your big day. Formal invitations are usually sent out 6-12 weeks before the date and guests may have already booked their holiday by the time you do this.

Allow enough time for them to be customised – It can be easy in all the excitement to think that invitations can be with you within a week of ordering but it usually takes 3 – 4 weeks for customisation, approval, print and dispatch.

Correct Postage – Make sure you check how much it will cost to send each invitation before sticking a 2nd class stamp on them, particularly if your invitations are bulky or have embellishments on them. The last thing you want is the embarrassment of your guests having to pay for their own invite, eek!

Don’t forget to mention your RSVP date – at PaperGrace we always ensure we ask for an RSVP by date when personalising your invitations but if you’re making your own, don’t forget to include this otherwise you’ll be chasing your guests for a reply and with all the other arrangements you’ll be knee deep in, you don’t need to add chasing Aunt Joan to your list!

Be clear on who is invited – it can be a bit of a tricky situation if guests are unclear who in their household is invited, so either write the names of all of your intended guests on the envelope or we can customise your invitations to include a line where you can handwrite the names directly onto the card if you would prefer.

Don’t forget to mention the little ones – if you’re intending not to invite children to your wedding, it may be worth ringing ahead to those who have little ones and explaining this over a friendly chat rather than making a statement on your invitations such as “strictly no children”.

Spell check – when writing out your envelopes, make sure you have the right address for your guests, a quick email, text or call can ensure this. Make sure you have it written down next to you when writing the envelope rather than doing it from memory, there’s nothing like a little pressure to bring out the mistakes!

Check, check and re-check – Make sure you check the spelling several times before approving your designs. If you can, get someone else to run their eyes over it in case you’ve missed something. Once designs go to print spelling mistakes can’t be rectified so it’s so important to make sure you check spelling and ensure all the information such as dates etc are correct.

Easy does it – when you’re counting up how many invitations you’ll need to order, make sure you count 1 per household or couple and not 1 per person you’re hoping to invite. There’s always the chance that some can’t make the date so as a rule order 10% more of the total needed so you can resend if need be.

Don’t forget your Keepsake – under ordering is as annoying an issue as over ordering. Make sure to keep an invite or two back to have as a keepsake. It’s sure to bring a smile to your face when you look at them in the future and all those feelings of how excited you were when you first received them and got them ready to send to your guests will come flooding back!