What is one component that’s included in every wedding planning experience? Wedding invitations, of course! Along with your “Save-the-Dates,” there are so many fun ideas out there to ensure they not only look great, but also communicate all of the necessary details about your big day. And going hand-in-hand with this, there’s no denying the importance of proper invitation etiquette as well! 

Having helped hundreds of couples through the wedding planning process over the years, we’ve been fortunate to have seen so many creative wedding invitations. And as is the case with many of our blog posts, we always enjoy coming up with tips and tricks to simplify the entire process. Whether you’re currently planning your big day or even if you just recently got engaged, you likely already know how complicated (and potentially stressful) wedding planning can be! However, by staying organized along the way and working with an experienced coordinator, you’ll have no trouble enjoying every step of the process.

With that all being said, you can probably guess what this week’s blog post is going to focus on! Your invitations are undoubtedly a crucial piece, as they essentially share all of the important information that your guests need to know. Throughout this blog, we’ll touch on a few recommendations that we always share with clients, as well as a handful of things you may want to avoid when designing your invitations. Let’s hop right in!

Photo on the thumbnail is courtesy of Taryn Lynn Photography.

Set Deadlines

Trust us, having a timeline with estimated deadlines will make your life so much easier! For one, it will alleviate any unneeded stress, but it will also help ensure your guests, vendors and anyone else involved in your big day will receive adequate notice. In fact, this is a major reason why we created a Wedding Planning Timeline and Guide that all of our clients have access to in their portal. Yes, your coordinator or planner will be there to help you along the way, but this is the perfect resource for those needing a checklist to work through.

In any case, as this blog post is focused on the invitations themselves, timelines and deadlines are certainly a relevant topic to consider. While this may not be applicable to absolutely every wedding, it’s safe to say these numbers are true for the large majority of them. With that being said, some recommendations we typically provide to our clients are:

• Sending out invitations 3 months prior to your wedding. Just for comparison purposes, your save-the-dates are likely going to be sent out at least 6 months in advance. In addition, you’ll likely want to get your invitations ordered 4-5 months ahead of the wedding, just in case you have to make any adjustments. As a side note, if your celebration is a destination wedding where most of the guests will be coming from out-of-town, you might want to add a couple months onto the numbers above!
• Set your RSVP date 6 weeks prior to your wedding. Along with communicating all of the important details, a major purpose of wedding invitations is to get a headcount for your big day. Your venue and caterer will want this information. And considering not everyone will be prompt with their responses, this will provide some extra time to call those guests you haven’t heard back from.

Confirm Details

As you can likely guess, with wedding invitations, it’s always going to be a good idea to confirm all of the text prior to having them printed. This will help prevent any unnecessary expenses and keep everything on-schedule. Obviously, you’ll double-check all of the spelling and grammar, but it also wouldn’t hurt to confirm the ceremony time with your wedding venue coordinator. After all, better to be safe than sorry, right?

Follow All of the Best Practices

If you Google search “Wedding Invitation Tips and Tricks,” you’ll likely find pages upon pages of different ideas to incorporate. To avoid sifting through all of those various blogs and websites, we thought it would be more helpful to just walk through a few of our favorite best practices. These include:

• Knowing not all invitees will attend your wedding. This is more of a mindset, rather than a tangible tip. However, it’s important to understand that some guests may have prior obligations preventing them from attending the celebration and to avoid taking any “no’s” personally. To put a rough ballpark number to it, estimate that roughly 80% of invitees will attend your wedding.
• Use a black light pen on invitations. You may have some guests that don’t write their full name or no name at all on the return card. With a black light pen though, you can write their name on the back of the return card. No one will see it and then when you get one back with no name, you’ll know who it’s from. Plus, purchasing a black light pen off Amazon will only cost you a few bucks!
• Know what to include. We briefly covered this topic above, but knowing what to include in your invitations will speed up the process as well. The invitation itself is pretty straightforward, as it should include venue location, name of couple getting married, time of ceremony, etc. Additional items in the invitation suite though should be the RSVP card with an envelope and postage, any necessary directions to the venue and other logistical details (like hotels, transportation and so on).

What to Avoid

Throughout this blog post thus far, we’ve discussed a few of our favorite tips to ensure you have a flawless wedding invitation suite. However, to cap off this blog, there are a handful of items you’ll want to avoid as well. It’s essentially the opposite of many of the items mentioned above, but it never hurts to have an extra reminder! Here are a few of the more common ones:

• Postage. Make sure the return envelope has a stamp or enough postage for your guests to mail back their RSVP card.
• Who is invited? Clearly state who all is included for that particular invitee. This is relevant for plus-one’s and guests with kids.
• Registry information. You might think the invitation is a perfect place for all of the registry information. Not so fast! This is actually a popular no-no when it comes to wedding invitation etiquette. The proper approach would be to include an insert with the URL on it. This will have the registration information, as well as all of the other necessary details for the big day!
• Proofread. We’ve already said it before, but make sure to proofread them a few times! I’m going to guess that you would like to avoid any typos before you send them to the printer and definitely before they get mailed out!

Let the Wedding Planning Begin!

As evidenced with this blog post, you likely now know that wedding invitations can encompass a little more than you might’ve expected. Nonetheless, as long as you follow these tips and proper invitation etiquette, it’ll surely be a seamless process. Months before you start designing your invitations, it’ll be time to tour venues and find which one will provide the backdrop for your special day. And if you’re planning on hosting your wedding near the Houston area, we would LOVE to show you around our venue. Based out of Conroe, TX, Madera Estates is a luxury event space inspired by San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. From the Grand Fireplace to the Hacienda and everything else, we always enjoy making dream weddings come to life.

The best first step in determining if a wedding venue is the right one for you is to see it in-person. To do so, you’re more than welcome to check out our online tour calendar and select a time that works best for you. We look forward to hearing more about the vision you have for your big day!