Timeline Selecting your Invitation How Many to Order
Organize Your Wedding Stationery Facts   Wording

Suggested Invitations Timeline from Paper Bride
As soon as you set the date
- Begin looking for an invitation design to suit your wedding style
- Decide on enclosure cards
- If you have guests coming from a long distance, it is advisable to send out hold-the-date cards as soon as your plans are firm, so that guests can make travel arrangements

Six months before the wedding
- Make your final invitation selection and place your order

Three months before the wedding
- Begin addressing invitations
- Set up system for keeping track of replies. We suggest that the hosts give all of their guests a number. They can write the number lightly on the back of the response card and can use this to keep a list of returns. This will also help in case a guest forgets to write their name on the response card

Two months before the wedding
- Determine exact postage needed (take a fully assembled invitation ensemble to your local post office to be weighed to determine exact postage needed)
- Finalize invitations for mailing and determine mailing date - it is customary to send wedding invitations 6 weeks before your wedding, although 8 weeks is becoming more common

Three Weeks Before The Wedding
- Make your response date 2-3 weeks before the wedding. Caterers usually need to know 2-3 weeks in advance how many people they will be serving

Wedding Day
- Send out wedding announcements - to announce your wedding to those that you did not invite to the wedding

After the Wedding
- Wedding etiquette states that newly married couples have up to two months to send written thanks for wedding and shower gifts received Thank you notes are available pre-printed with an appreciation verse for acknowledging gifts quickly, and can be followed-up with handwritten note after the honeymoon

Selecting Your Invitation
Your wedding or party invitation and accessories set the tone for your special event firmly establishing your style and taste. It is the first official message about the event, which a guest will receive from you, so makes it special.

How Many to Order
To calculate the number of invitations to order, count one invitation for each of the following: a) couple (married or living together), b) family with children under 18, c) each child 18 years old or older and still living at home, d) single guest, e) fiancée/fiancé of a guest, and f) invited boy-or-girl friend of a guest. For example, in a house with one set of parents and five children (one child 17, one 14 and three children 18 and older), four invitations would be sent. One would be sent to the parents with the name of the 17 year old and the 14 year old on the line below the parents’ names (on the only envelope if using a single envelope or on the inner envelope if using a double envelope set), and one each to the three siblings 18 and older. After calculating the number of invitations as noted above add approximately 25 invitations to your order: 10-12 more for keepsakes, plus extras for the last-minute guests (and there will be last-minute guests.) Reorders later can be costly. Also, depending on how large your order is, add 25 to 50 additional envelopes** in case of mistakes in addressing.

Organize Your Wedding Stationery Facts
Before you order, take the time to write down the facts surrounding your wedding and reception. The actual ordering process will go more smoothly with all of your facts at your fingertips!
Here is a list of things you will need to know to order your wedding invitations:

Bride's name as it will appear on the invitation
Groom's name as it will appear on the invitation
Wedding date spelled out – e.g. Saturday, the twenty-third of March
Wedding time - "at six o’clock in the evening"
Reception time Names of Groom's parents as they will appear on the invitation (if applicable)
Names of Bride's parents as they will appear on the invitation (if applicable)
Name of the Wedding location
Wedding location address
Name of the reception location
Reception location address
Outer envelope return address
RSVP to name and address
Entree selections for response cards
Rehearsal date, time and meeting location
Rehearsal dinner time and location
Names of maid of honor and bridesmaids (for programs, etc.)
Name of Best Man and groomsmen
Name of ceremony officiate
Names of soloists / musicians
Titles and names of composers for selected wedding music

Wording

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