When To Order The Invitations
We recommend ordering your wedding invitations and other stationery 4-6 months before your special day. Many couples choose to order it all at the same time so they can move on to the next aspect of their wedding planning. Whatever you decide, make sure you allow enough time for printing, address gathering, postage to you, and also mailing out to your guests .
Do Your Guests Need To Travel Or Book Accommodation
If you are planning a destination wedding then you might want to send your wedding invitations earlier. Particularly if your guests need to plan flights, accommodation and time off work. This also applies to UK weddings if your family and friends are scattered across the country and need to travel. Top tip for city weddings: always check for sports, music or other big events that fall on the same day as your wedding. It can drastically affect the availability of local accommodation for your guests. Again, a scenario where sending wedding invitations earlier would be helpful.
Have You Sent Save The Date Cards
Save the date cards are a great way to get an early marker in the diary with your guests, but theyre not essential and not everybody wants to go to the expense of sending them out. I usually say that if you have sent save the date cards then you can wait a little later to send your wedding invitations. Your guests should have the big day in their planner and the invitation is primarily to confirm all the finer details.
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When To Send Out Save
The general etiquette rule is that you should send the save-to-dates invitations around four to six months before your wedding date. You should allow a reasonable time to reach them if they have made other commitments and encourage them to clear their schedules from the date. It is also necessary to allow a few months of preparation for guests who need to book travel or hotels.
However, if your wedding date falls on a holiday weekend or takes place in a far-off destination, it is strongly recommended to give you save the dates much earlier, such as 6 to 12 months before your wedding date.
Who Should Send The Invitations
Early in the wedding planning process, the maid of honor should discuss details about the shower with the bride’s friends and family. One person in particular may decide to take on preparations, whether it’s the bride’s good friend, mom, sister, or the maid of honor herself. The host of the bridal shower is the obvious person to choose and send invitations, but they may decide to delegate tasks. If this is the case, they should pick a trusted member of the bridal party or family to mail invites.
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Include More Details In Your Invitation Suite
The design of the invitation itself is truly up to you to choose, though professional wedding planners often recommend that you tie it into your wedding theme in some waythrough colors or design embellishments.
Wedding etiquette demands that the invitation only contains the above key details of the event. However, the invitation suite can include other important details:
- the appropriate attire for guests at the event
- a map to the event location
- accommodation details
- information about any wedding-related activities.
It can also include an RSVP card, with a please respond by date that is roughly four weeks prior to your event. Dont forget a self-addressed, stamped envelope!
Wedding etiquette also demands that you leave gift or registry information out of your invitation suite. If you have prepared a wedding registry for your guests convenience, family members can help to spread this information. Additionally, you can include registry information on your wedding website, with easy links to follow.
Another important detail is the wedding invitation envelope, which should always be hand addressed in beautiful handwriting. Your guests names should be written out in full, preceded by social titles like Mr. and Ms.
All the words in the address should be written out in full, with house numbers under twenty spelled out. The return address should be written on the back flap.
How To Navigate The Rsvp Deadline And Get People To Respond
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How long should guests have to RSVP for weddings? Ideally, the RSVP date should fall three to four weeks before the wedding, and the wedding invitation should be mailed six to eight weeks prior to the wedding. This way, its close enough that your guests feel like they cant put it off, yet its not so close that theyve made other plans, explains Arizona-based wedding planner Chandra Keel, owner of Chandra Keel Events.
Even with a wedding RSVP deadline in place, youll be surprised at how many guests ignore it. The semi-flaky folks only get flakier and the people who cant come assume its cool to just not respond at all. News flash: its definitely not cool. No matter how hard you try or how big or small your big day is, there will always be those guests you legit have to hound for an answer one way or the other.
Now that you know how long to give guests to RSVP for a wedding, here are some tips on how to actually get them to do it.
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When Should Invitations Be Sent Out Around Christmas Or Another Important Holiday
If youre wondering when should you send out invitations around a crazy busy time of year like Christmas or Easter, we recommend that you allow another 2-4 weeks to the lead time on your invites so that your friends and family are more likely to block out that date for you, not another event. The more time ahead the better, when it comes to the Christmas holidays in particular.
Does The Mother Of The Bride Pay For The Bridal Shower
Today its the maid of honor and bridal party or the bride or grooms mother who throws the bridal shower. Typically, whoever throws the event is the one must cover the costs. Often, the maid of honor and her fellow bridesmaids throw the bridal shower and pay for it, and the mother of the bride contributes.
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Can You Skip Save The Dates
Save the dates are going to be critical for some weddings but not necessarily all. If you are planning a destination wedding or will have many guests traveling, save the dates should not be skipped. If you have a lot of local attendees, or are planning on a shorter timeline, you can skip save the dates.
When Should The Invitations Go Out If I Have An Early Rsvp Date
When do you mail out invitations when you want the yes or no back ASAP? People need time to consider their availability and make plans, so if you have an especially early RSVP date we recommend adding at least two weeks to your timeline. This increases your chances of getting RSVPs back on time.
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Who Should Pay For What
The couple’s only requirement is to pay for the ceremony, including all the food and drink, and you needn’t pay for your guests’ travel and accommodation. As your guests will be splashing out more than for a wedding at home though, it’s nice to help them out as much as possible. So let them know the best ways to get there, when flights to your destination go on sale, and links to places to stay you might even want to book reasonably-priced accommodation for your guests and then ask them to reimburse you. If you do that, you could arrange welcome gift bags for them on arrival with items that they can enjoy during their stay such as local delicacies or, to help ease the morning after the grand celebrations, paracetamol.
Photo credit: Jason Mark Harris
Make Your Instructions Clear
Make the request clear when sending the wedding invitations. For example, have the Will Attend and Will Not Attend options so that guests can check any. Let them know when you expect their responses. Address a pre-stamped envelope to yourself, so that guests have no excuse for failure to mail back their responses.
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What To Include On A Shower Invitation
Before you pop those bridal shower invites in the mail, make sure youve included all of the following important details:
We’re Having An Adults
Address your invitations correctlyto each guest by name, not “and guest”and guests should understand that the invite is meant for only those mentioned. If you find that some reply with their children’s names added, give them a call and explain you’re having an adults-only wedding and you hope they can still attend. If there are a lot of kids in your family, you may want to consider hiring or arranging for a babysitter. It’s definitely not required, but it’s a nice gesture. Just be sure to include this information on the wedding website.
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Months Before Your Wedding: Preparing And Sending Out Your Wedding Invitations
With only 60 days or so left to the day you finally get to walk down the aisle, it is prudent to prepare and send invitation cards to all guests now. Many people think that sending wedding invitations is a simple affair.
The truth is that there is so much detail that you cannot afford to overlook. You do not want your guests to receive invitations late or when they have already made other plans for the day. The following steps should guide you.
Are Electronic Wedding Invitations Tacky
Whether or not email invitations are tacky is more of a personal opinion, but most people would readily agree that theyre definitely informal. Just like you wouldnt wear a ballgown to a beach wedding or overalls to get married in a stately church, the style of your invitation should fit the style of your event.
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Who Should You Send Your Wedding Invitations
should go out to all your wedding guests at the same time. It is not a wedding invitation etiquette to send a batch of invitations and wait to see if there are any nos before sending the next batch. Those who have already received the invitations could tell those without. This situation could make it awkward when they receive theirs late. Be sure you complete your guest count first before sending out any invitations.
Once you have finished all the wedding invitations details, settle down with the countdown to your big day. You will have done half the work in your wedding planning. Remember, if you hire a wedding planner, they will help you put all the invitations together and send them out. This will make it easier for you!
When To Send Out Save The Dates And Invitations
One of the trickiest parts of planning a wedding can be knowing exactly when to let friends and family know about your upcoming nuptials. Too far in advance might evoke some eye rolls and forgotten invitationswhile too close to your event might not leave guests enough time to prepare. With destination weddings, day-after events and, not to mention, all of the festivities leading up to the wedding itself , there are a ton of moving pieces to keep track of when it comes to sending out invitations. Today, then, we wanted to break down some basic rules for spreading the word via snail mail.
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How Big Is Your Guest List Do Your Guests Know And Are The Invitations A Formality
You might not have sent formal save the dates, but theres a good chance that your A list family and friends will know about your wedding and will have marked the date on their calendars already. If you have a relatively small guest list and you are confident that this is the case, again, you dont need to go too early with your wedding invitations. If you have a bigger guest list, where you are not in regular contact with many of them, it might be harder to communicate with via word of mouth. In this case you could send wedding invitations a little earlier to ensure everybody is aware.
Wedding Shower Vs Bridal Shower
On top of being a celebration, this life event is also a right of passage. A bridal shower symbolizes maturation, and the celebration usually consists of the bride, her close friends, the extended family, and friends of the brides mother and future mother-in-law. Traditionally, only women attended bridal showers
While Bridal showers are still the most common, many couples choose to have a combined wedding shower. A wedding shower is any kind of pre-wedding celebration that honors one or both of the people who are getting married. While bridal showers have been standard practice in the wedding industry for years, Zola is happy to see that showers are expanding to be a more inclusive event.
A wedding shower celebrates the couple as a whole, rather than the individuals themselves. This celebration of the couple is a more significant reflection of the premarital journey and reinforces the couples choice for unity.
Wedding showers are a popular choice for couples who cannot invite everyone they know to their wedding day. Wedding showers are especially popular if the couple is from two different geographic locations, or if the couple is eloping, having a destination wedding, or even a quickie ceremony at the courthouse.
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How Far In Advance Do You Send Out Invitations
Answer: It is best to send party invitations three weeks before your party date for birthday parties or general celebrations. However, you can send invitations out as early as six weeks before the party or up to two weeks before the party.
Is 6 months too early to send wedding invites?
Way too early and your guests will lose the invites and info long before they need it. Save the dates are sent out to all guests 6 months before the wedding to give guests ample time to make travel arrangements and schedule time off. The invites should be sent out at 6 weeks no matter what.
