Designing their wedding invitations is one of the first steps most couples take when it comes to planning their wedding. However, the invitations are a very important detail and they will set the tone and theme for your big day. You need to make sure they include your colour palette, and show your guests a hint of what to expect from the wedding.
Once you have completed the tricky challenge of choosing your wedding stationery design, the next thing is the wording and what to include. We’ve put together a quick guide of the essentials for your wedding invites.
1. Both your names and their names
First and foremost, you need to include the names of the people you are inviting (clearly stating whether it is just them or a plus one as well). And of course you also need to add your name and your spouse-to-be’s so it’s clear whose wedding they are being invited to.
Be sure to state whether children are invited to your wedding too – you don’t want any complications further down the line if you haven’t been clear exactly who is invited!
2. Details of the wedding venue
Whether you’re having a traditional church ceremony, or holding your reception at an exclusive wedding venue, you should include the exact location and postcode within your wedding invitations. It’s also a good idea to include directions and parking information for those travelling from far away.
3. Timings for the big day
If you have separate guests attending your evening reception to the main wedding, you need to make it very clear what time each group should arrive.
You don’t want someone to turn up to your reception in a hat or fascinator as they thought they had been invited to the ceremony. It’s also important to state what time your wedding will end, and whether or not guests will have to arrange their own transport home or if transport will be provided.
4. RSVP card and date
Not all wedding invitations have to include a special RSVP card with a pre-paid envelope. By providing this it just helps to get correspondence back in a timely manner. If you don’t want to go down this route, you just need to be very clear on when you need all your RSVPs back by.
If you want to be brutally honest with your RSVPs you could follow the example that the @MailOnline tweeted about:”‘bride and groom tell guests to bring a chair and a sandwich to their wedding if they didn’t RSVP on time.” A step too far maybe?!
5. Your wedding website
Wedding invitations are meant to be small and contain only the key information about your special day. The latest trend is to create a wedding website which contains more extensive information about your wedding, from dress code to local accommodation, your gift list and wedding menu options. You could always add a digital RSVP on here too, to save paper!
As a guide, we would always recommend sending out your wedding invites at the earliest possible opportunity. This allows your guests time to plan their outfits, arrange any childcare or pet sitters, and take any time off work that they need to. For any wedding enquiries, or information on how our wedding planners can help you prepare, please feel free to contact us.
