Wedding Planning 101: Invitations

Good Morning Y'all! it's good to see you on this Friday morning! Today I'm going to be bringing you another post in my wedding series and this one is allll about the invitations. Invitations are so important. they can honestly make or break your wedding. From the timing of sending them out, to the design, to the etiquette, I've got tips and recommendations for it all! Invitations were a little bit stressful for me just because I wanted them to reflect my vision of our wedding perfectly so they had to be just right!

1. The Guest List

This is a huge stressor in wedding planning. I know it was for me. We have a limited amount of space in our venue and we wanted to keep the guest count to about 150. This biggest thing we had to remember was, you can't invite everyone and that's ok. Focus on who you're closest to and who you would love to be there most. It's hard because when you're deciding on the guest list, it's hard to decide who gets a plus one and who doesn't. The way we decided it was that if anyone in our bridal party was dating someone, they'd get to bring their significant other. A lot of Joey's friends are married so that was helpful and basically made the decision for us. We also gave a plus one to people we didn't think would know many other people. Nobody wants to be lonely at a wedding!

2. Be Very Clear Who Is Invited

We were as clear as we could be when addressing our invites. Not only did I address each person who was invited on the envelope, I made sure to include a space where I indicated how many people were invited per invite. If only the parents of a family were invited, I made sure it was clear only they were invited. I addressed the envelope to those people specifically (i.e. Mr. and Mrs. Jon Snow). Thought I'd throw in a little GOT reference in there ;)

3. Try to Get Invitations On Sale

We purchased our invitations and inserts around Christmas so the sales were in full force! We got our invitations at a steep discount from Shutterfly! It was such a steal. Even if your wedding isn't for a while, try to look around holidays for special offers and sales that can make that paper cheaper!

4. Don't Include Registry Info on the Invitation

I know what you're thinking, "How are my guests going to know where we're registered?". And this one is just kind of etiquette. You're inviting your guests to share in your special day and don't want to demand gifts from them right off the bat. Instead of putting that information on the invitation itself, include it on one of the enclosure cards. We put our registry information on our information card with our wedding website and wedding information on it. It's kind of like saying "We'd love for you to be there...and if you'd like to get us a gift, we're registered here". It's just a little more polite in my opinion.

5. Timing

Plan on sending out your invitations at least 3 months prior to your wedding. Most venues and caterers have a date when the final headcount is due which is usually about a month before the wedding and sending them out 3 months in advance gives your guests plenty of time to respond. 2 whole months! We still have about 3 weeks until our headcount is due and we still haven't heard from everyone. There will absolutely be procrastinators.

6. Always Include Postage on RSVP Cards

This just seems like common sense to me but in order to make it easier for your guests to respond, always include the postage for them. That way they can just fill out the card and pop it in the mail without any fuss. Some couples have opted for online RSVPs to save money on wedding paper. Personally, I 'm not a fan of this for 2 reasons. The first is that if you have elderly guests or people who aren't great with technology, it may make it harder for them to respond and second, I just like having the physical card. That's just personal preference. If you don't have a lot of older guests, then online RSVPs may be a good option.

7. Be Clear About Children

This is a big one. If you aren't planning on having children at your wedding, make it CLEAR! Joey and I are not having kids at our wedding and we made that clear by adding a cute rhyme to our info cards indicating that. That way, nobody can assume.

8. Pick Invites That Go With Your Theme

The invitations set the tone and the scene for your wedding so they should match whatever you're trying to do with colors or a theme. Our wedding is right on the Chesapeake Bay so we were going with nautical colors of navy and white with accents of gold. We went with gorgeous gold invitations with a striped pattern on them to echo nautical stripes. I love how they turned out!

I hope these tips have helped you with your invitation anxiety! I'll see y'all next week!

XO,

Gabby