Invitations

• Invitations make the first impression about your wedding. An invitation can reflect the degree of formality of your wedding, your wedding’s theme, your religious background or your heritage.
• So, we can sum up by saying that the wedding invitation is generally a reflection of a couple’s personal style!

How many invitations do you need?

• This will depend on your guest list. To get a good idea of how many invitations you will need, group your guests together by family or by husband and wife.  Remember, that you only need one invitation per couple/per family, if they live at the same residence.
• Single friends can either be invited alone or with a guest.
• When ordering, request extra invitations for keepsakes and order spare envelopes in case the person addressing makes a mistake.
• When compiling your guest list, be sure to include an invitation for your ceremony officiant (pundit/imam/priest/reverend/pastor etc.) and if applicable, his/her spouse.

• It is always better to order a little more invitations than you need from your guest list, because there may be last-minute invitees.
• The more invitations you order, the cost per card will decrease.

Where can you get wedding invitations?

• Locally, invitations can be ordered from specialty invitation retailers, from a printery, or they can be custom-made and handcrafted.
• Printeries often have samples of wedding invitations they have done for previous clients, which you can choose from or modify.
• Other options are: to order from the internet, buy them from abroad, buy invitations at a stationer and hand-write them or have them printed or you can make them yourself using the computer and a high-quality printer.  The last two options are more suitable for informal weddings.

What should your invitation look like?

• Modern invitations offer couples many options. Your choice can range from being very traditional, ultra contemporary or funny and quirky.
• When using accents (e.g. charms, ribbon, fabric, flowers, raffia, seashells, decorative buttons etc.) be sure your envelope is roomy and sturdy enough to accommodate the invitation’s three-dimensional effect, otherwise it will pucker and be difficult to seal.
• You should try to keep your invitations in line with your theme.

When should invitations be sent out?

• Invitations should be ordered at least 3-6 months in advance of the wedding date, perhaps longer if the majority of invitations are going to be sent abroad.
• The earlier you order the invitations; you will have more time for addressing, mailing and receiving responses.
• The invitations should be mailed or dropped off at least 6-10 weeks before the wedding.

What should we include along with the invitation?

• You can enclose a reception card. Stating the date, time and venue of the reception. (You don’t have to use a reception card.  You can include your reception information onto your wedding invitation.)
• A ceremony card is used when only a few guests are invited to the ceremony but all are invited to the reception.
• If either the wedding or the reception is held at location which is far way from where the majority of the guests live or if it is a new or unusual location, it is a good idea to enclose a small map with the invitation.
• For formal weddings, it is appropriate to include a response card.  This is a small, stamped and pre-addressed card, which guests fill out and post to the bride and groom, to indicate whether they would be attending or not.
• Registry card.

Smart Tip!

• If possible, collect the envelopes ahead of time, so they can be addressed and ready to mail when the invitations arrive.

CELEBRATION SAVERS!

• Take a sample invitation in its envelope to the post office to get a costing for the amount of postage. Once you get this cost, you can easily multiply this amount by the number of invitations you have, to get a good idea of what it will cost to mail all out.  The cost of postage will vary depending on the size of the invitation, its weight or number of enclosures and obviously, the invitation’s destination!