Yay! You’re engaged and the planning has begun.
Nothing puts wedding planning more into perspective like designing your wedding stationery and sending it off in the mail. In the excitement of announcing your date, it is easy to get confused in the world of wedding stationery and to fall into these common mistakes when it comes to wedding invitation etiquette!
Your custom wedding stationery will set the tone for your entire wedding, so it’s important to get them right. That is why I am here to share some of the most common wedding invitation mistakes to help make sure that creating and sending your wedding invitations remains an exciting and enjoyable part of your wedding planning experience.
1. Overloading your guests with too much information
Announcing your wedding is a very exciting time, but you don’t want to be so excited that you bombard your guest with too much information. When choosing what information goes on your invitation, you have to think of what is most important for your guest to know. So it doesn’t take away from the design of the stationery.
That information is
- Whose wedding are they attending
- Date and time of your ceremony
- Name of your wedding venue(s)
If you have more details you want to share with your guests, include them on an additional details insert. These match the invitation design and include accommodation options to gift list information. A wedding website is another great resource to centralize all the wedding details your guest may need.
2. Spelling mistakes
You are going to spend endless hours perfecting your wedding invitations, don’t let simple spelling and grammar mistakes take away from your gorgeous stationery. A well-written invitation is a sign of care and respect for your guests
One of the most common mistakes couples make when designing is using the incorrect wording. Take the word ‘Honour/honor’ for instance. When addressing your guest you should only use the words “Honour/honor of your presence” when the ceremony is held in a house of worship. If you are not getting married in a holy place, alternative wording such as “request the pleasure of your company” or “invite you to celebrate the marriage of,” is equally acceptable as well. Determining which one to use just comes down to your personal preference.
Another common mistake is forgetting to include the time and/or date of the wedding. Yes, you do not want to overload your invitation, but you need to include the basic information. A good rule of thumb is to plan for your invitation stationery to be the only item your guest holds onto. Yes, having a wedding website is wonderful, but most of your guests will look at your site once. The invitation will go on the fridge where everything important goes. The last thing you want is for your guests to miss your wedding because the information on there was incorrect or even worse missing.
The best way to counter these mistakes is to have as many eyes on your invitation stationery as possible. When working with Chelsey Huff Design, we have many years of experience avoiding these mistakes. That being said we have 3 rounds of checks before even sending the proofs off to you. We also advise you to have 3 people that care about your wedding as much as you do check the proof before we send the invitations for print.
3. Waiting too long to order your invitation stationery
Printing and shipping times are the most underestimated points in the invitation process. At Chelsey Huff Design we recommend 4 to 6 weeks to design your custom invitation suite, then another 5 weeks for printing. Depending on your wedding suite it could take longer. Then you will need to assemble the suite, which usually takes another 2 to 3 weeks. After assembly you have to mail your invitations off to your guests and have enough time to receive their responses back.
So, how far in advance of your wedding date should you order your wedding invitations? I generally recommend ordering them 5 to 6 months ahead of your wedding date. Chelsey Huff Design offers designing and printing, you will just assemble and send off your personalized invitations with little to no stress. That being said, don’t worry if you are less than five months out and you need invitations pronto. If you’re in a crunch, I offer semi-custom designs that will give you options for quick turnaround.
Now that you have everything on schedule, how many invitations do you need? Many clients have a list of guests and accidentally order an invitation bundle for each guest and not each household. What is the difference? Your number of guests could be 300 people invited to your wedding, but how many of those guests live in the same house? That number is most likely closer to 150/200. If you have a multi-generational household where multiple families live under the same roof a good rule of thumb is if the guest is over the age of 18 they receive an invitation. If you aren’t sure of how many invitation suites to order, a good stationer can advise you on the correct number.
Conclusion - Take a breath
Your wedding deserves to be perfect, and avoiding the above-mentioned mistakes will assure you have one. Your wedding invitations are as important as a perfect venue, they are setting the tone and spreading the word of your wonderful wedding day.
A professional wedding stationer, like me can make the stationary part of your wedding a zero stress experience. When working with Chelsey Huff Design you are one hundred percent a part of the process without having to manage it. My goal is for you to have a fun and stress free experience designing your dream wedding.
Let’s start designing your perfect day!
XOXO – Chelsey