We give you our best tips to make sure that your wedding invitations don't turn into yet another headache! Find our 10 professional tips.
#01 | KEEP THE TEXT OF YOUR WEDDING INVITATIONS SIMPLE
First of all, my first piece of advice is not to overdo it when announcing your wedding. One guideline: keep it simple! There is no need to drown your guests in a flood of information, prefer to go to the essential. The text must be clear and the presentation well spaced out so that they can find their way around. Also, make sure to choose a legible font. On the main card of your wedding invitations, specify the following elements:
- possibly the names of your parents
- the first names of the bride and groom
- the date of the wedding
- the times of the ceremony at the town hall, the religious/not religious ceremony and the reception
- the locations where the ceremonies and the reception will be held (with GPS coordinates if necessary)
- the desired return date for the answers
- the contact information of your wedding planner or the person in charge of managing the responses from your guests (mail, email, phone…)
- your address on the back of the envelope (think of the stamp matching your collection of invitations)
If you do not invite all the guests to the meal, make:
- either 2 separate invitations: 1 for guests invited to the wine of honor and the dinner + 1 for guests invited to the wine of honor only,
- or a main invitation mentioning only the vin d'honneur and add a complementary card "invitation to the dinner" to slip into the envelope of the people concerned.
- If you wish to extend the party and organize a brunch the next day, remember to include an invitation to the brunch with the date/time/location information. Of course, if everyone is invited to the whole party, one card with all the elements is enough!
#02 | GIVE YOUR GUESTS ADDITIONAL USEFUL INFORMATION
Then, to make life easier for your guests, you can also attach other information to your invitation, such as:
- a map to the reception venue
- an itinerary from the place of the ceremony to the place of reception
- the timeline of the day
- a list of nearby accommodations
- the dress code
- the RSPV card: ask your guests to specify the number of adults/children who will be present on the answer. Also, for dinner, if they have a food intolerance or allergy you can suggest they mention it here (type of intolerance/allergy + name/first name of the person concerned).
#03 | AVOID THE MISSTEPS
And yes, there are some difficult messages to get across! I'm thinking in particular of 2 sensitive points: wedding gifts and the presence of your guests' children on the big day. You are already well settled in life and don't want to end up with 10 sets of matching linens and 20 pie plates? You are wondering if you can mention on the invitation the wedding list or that an urn will be available on the day? Well, the answer is no, because it's not appropriate and indelicate to write it on the invitation…. On the other hand, you can be more refined by passing on the message through your close circle of friends and family (parents, witnesses…) or by indicating the link to the website or blog that you have (perhaps) created for your wedding, the information will appear there! Can I write on my invitation that children are not invited? Again, the answer is no! If you don't want children at your wedding, be (very) diplomatic. Ask your parents and/or witnesses to kindly inform the concerned guests as soon as possible. You can also add a little note on the invitations stating that the venue is not child-friendly.
#04 | PROOFREAD YOUR INVITATIONS!
Nothing is worse than an invitation full of spelling mistakes or langage mistakes! Proofread it several times or have it proofread by another person, it's imperative! If you use a professional for your invitations, check the proof before you print it, after that it will be too late! NB : If you are organizing a religious ceremony, write "in" the church and not "at" the church…
#05 | PLAN A SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF INVITATIONS
Start by making a list of your guests and count one invitation per couple or family. Always plan more just in case (+5%), you never know!
#06 | ASK FOR A SAMPLE BEFORE ORDERING
Avoid unpleasant surprises. Before ordering your invitations, ask for a sample (many designers offer them) to make sure the quality of the paper and printing is what you expect.
#07 | COORDINATE YOUR INVITATIONS WITH THE MOOD OF YOUR WEDDING
Likewise, think about the overall mood you want to set for your wedding and choose invitations in the same spirit to set the tone for your guests right away. Check out our inspirations on Pinterest.
Get creative! Who said an invitation has to be printed on paper?
Make sure you also use beautiful envelopes and stamps, because it would be a shame to ruin everything at this stage… The little extra detail: close your envelopes with a wax seal.
#08 | INCLUDE THE SHIPPING COSTS IN YOUR BUDGET
Be sure to include postage in your initial budget! Yes, sending your wedding invitations by mail is far from being free! Often, at the beginning, we absolutely want to make several pretty boxes (one for each type of information for a better visibility), without thinking about the weight of your envelope that increases, increases… So yes it's adorable, but it has a cost: because the more boxes there are, the more the bill is salty, think about it!
#09 | ANTICIPATE THE SENDING OF YOUR WEDDING INVITATIONS
No question of waiting until the last minute to send your wedding invitations! So ideally, do it 3 to 4 months before the big day.
If you have made a "save the date", your guests have already reserved the date of your wedding in their diaries. But they will need to know more precisely the course of the day to be able to organize themselves, especially if they come from far away.
Remember to take into account the time needed to make and print your invitations in order to receive them on time, especially if they are custom made!
#10 | ORDER THE THANK YOU CARDS AT THE SAME TIME AS YOUR INVITATIONS
Finally, unless you want to have thank-you cards made with a beautiful photo of your wedding, order them at the same time as everything else, so you don't have to come back to them after the wedding.
Organization !
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