Our Wedding Invitations

There is just a little over three weeks until our big day! I can’t believe it. We’re finalizing tons of details, which led me to reflect on wedding invitations. Choosing your wedding invitations can be one of the first details you decide on. Often times, you’re choosing something that sets the tone for your wedding. Today I’m sharing our wedding invitations and tips for choosing wedding invites.

First things first, know your date and venue. If you’re doing Save the Dates before your invitations (which I highly recommend to ensure people keep their calendars open!), be sure those have gone out. Depending on what kind of wedding you’re having determines when to send your actual invitations. Since ours is a far off destination wedding, we sent them early, but the general recommended time frame is between six and eight weeks. You’re invited guests already know the date and have been able to plan based on your Save the Date, so this is plenty of time for them to make a final decision and send in a reply card so that you can get your final counts to vendors in time. Depending on the size of your wedding, final counts can impact not only food and drinks, but even number of tables needed which impacts rentals and flowers. Making sure you’re straight on your dates and when you need replies in is important. We had to plan who could stay where and other events, so we asked for replies about three months in advance! We figured if you’re going as far as Italy, you’ll likely be planning your trip that far ahead anyways. Also, keep in mind that if you give people too long to reply, they are more likely to forget to send one back in. Once you know when you need to have your invites sent out by, you’ll have an idea of when you’ll need them in and can determine by which date they need to be ordered.

Decide whAT KIND OF EXPERIENCE YOU WANT

We ordered our wedding invitations through Minted. As with our registry, we wanted the process to be easy and convenient. It was fun sitting down at home and sorting through things based off of our criteria, narrowing the choices down to our favorites, and taking some time to think and come back to them. We didn’t have to worry about anyone pressuring us to go one way or another or add anything, but the staff at Minted is readily available online to help answer questions as needed. Knowing what kind of experience you want with your invitations is important before starting the process. If you want something easy and laid back with endless of options, with assistance as needed, then I’d definitely recommend Minted! We also used them for our Save the Dates and I’ve been so happy with both experiences!

DETERMINE your style

Your wedding invitation doesn’t just provide guests with the location and details of your wedding, it helps define the style of the wedding, including the formality. Knowing what kind of wedding you’re having, whether it’s modern, classic, relaxed, or elegant. You want your stationary to reflect your wedding style, so knowing the general theme before you choose your invitations is important.

decide on YOUR COLORS OR PLAY IT NEUTRAL

Your wedding invitations should also reflect your colors. If you’re accent color is blue and you have red invitations, then no other red present at the wedding, it doesn’t offer a cohesive theme for the day. If you’re not positive on what your colors will be, stick to neutrals. You can’t go wrong with classic white and black!

CHOOSE YOUR WORDING

Wording can be tricky, so we kept it simple. With so many different family situations, it can be difficult to know exactly what to say. Wording can be influenced by whether or not both sets of parents are still married and who is paying for the wedding. This page on Minted’s website is super helpful. If you’re not sure, just ask! One thing I do know, the girls name goes first on the invite and you don’t include her last name, because it’s changing! Triple check your wording and have someone else read it to ensure it’s clear to an outsider, too.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Don’t crowd the main invitation with too much information. Too much wording can look sloppy, quickly. It can also be overwhelming. If you have additional information to include– such as reception location, rehearsal dinner information, or any other things, consider putting those on additional enclosure cards.

FINALIZE DETAILS

What size invites + envelopes you do can influence the cost to mail the invites, as can the weight. Postage is definitely a cost to consider! We were able to order custom stamps that matched our invites, which I highly recommend to ensure your invites are cohesive. You also need to decide whether or not you’ll have a calligrapher address your envelopes. If so, you need to plan enough time for them to do this. My envelopes were addressed by 26 Letters Calligraphy and I can’t recommend her enough! If calligraphy isn’t in the budget, Minted offers free envelope addressing and has a really easy address book so you only have to enter in addresses once and you can even upload them with a spreadsheet if needed. They have tons of different fonts and styles for addressing your envelopes. If a calligrapher isn’t in the budget and you don’t want to or can’t get your envelopes printed, then write them yourself. If you don’t have neat handwriting, bribe a friend who does with some wine and cheese! Just make sure you keep them looking neat.

A few other tips..

• Count the number you need by household, not by person
• Order extras
• Utilize your invitation suite for programs, menus, thank you cards, etc to keep the theme
• Check with your post office that you have the correct postage before mailing
• Don’t forge to include a stamp on your reply card envelopes!

Also, thanks to Carrie and Mr. Big for letting me use your invitation as an example, can’t wait to see y’all at our wedding! haha And no, I don’t live on Lovely Lane, I had to get a fake envelope to prevent anyone from creepin’.

Thank you to Minted for the amazing wedding invitations and for being such a pleasure to work with. I received invitations c/o Minted in exchange for posting about them. However, as always, all opinions are my own. Partnerships like this help make A Lo Profile possible.