There’s the venue and your photographer and the dress! Oh man, that appointment is definitely on your calendar. And then florist and caterer and an officiant and mom is asking about centerpieces and what flowers you want and if your uncle Jerry is invited and are kids invited and what about those hotel rooms for guests???
And those are all your questions and concerns the week after you put on that engagement ring for the first time.
My goal is always to make wedding invitations a stress-free process. And to help with that, I have three quick tips when you’re thinking about your wedding invitations. Hopefully these can answer a few questions when you’re bombarded with them after you’re first engaged.
Three Quick Tips About Wedding Invitations
- Plan Early.
Not many people (other than me and other paper lovers) think about wedding invitations as soon as someone is engaged. But it’s definitely a good idea to think about invitations early enough. Wedding invitations go in the mail 2 months prior to your wedding. Before that, you wanna make sure you’re ordering them early enough so you have time to design, print, assemble and mail.
To help, below is a handy dandy timeline for you to pin (don’t we all love Pinterest?) to help you keep some dates in mind on when to order, etc.
- Get on that guest list.
The guest list is the HARDEST part of wedding planning. Not only are you going to have to sit down and think about all the people you want to invite, but you may have to cut some of those people if your dream venue can’t hold all 600 of your closest friends and family.
And when you have that list finalized between you and your parents, you’re gonna need to get addresses. As simple as this sounds, it’s definitely not. Start sending out messages right after you’ve narrowed down that list to gather addresses you may not have. Have your parents, sisters, brothers and friends be messengers for you too and gather addresses that could get for you. Use text, phone calls, Facebook, Instagram…ANYTHING…to get these addresses.
I’ve seen it a lot. The Save the Dates are designed and ready for print, but I’m waiting for you to grab the last 15 addresses that you’re having a hard time getting. Get on it early! - Remember the Postage
Two things you can’t control for your wedding: the weather and the USPS. I’ve seen just about every situation when it comes to the post office and some of them are well, frustrating to say the least.
I won’t go into a lot of details here about the USPS (that’s a whole other blog post), but mainly, remember you need postage for both your RSVPs and your wedding invitations. Some couples don’t budget for this and then are surprised later when they have to shell out another $200 to actually mail their invitations. I don’t handle postage but can put you on the right path when it comes to getting postage for your wedding invitations.
There are a lot of other tips when it comes to your invitations, but as you’re starting your wedding planning right after you get that ring, remember these three things and you should be off on the right foot.
You made a good point when you said that the hardest part of wedding planning is the guest. As you said, you must consider as well if your venue can hold the number of your guests. My husband and I actually planning to hold a renewal of vow ceremony as we celebrate our 15 years of marriage. We wanted to invite all our loved ones and friends who have been with us since day 1. Since I want to send our invitation letters, I am planning to shop for stamps and stationery. It would make sense for me to finalize the number of invites as early as now.