Top 10 Ways to Avoid Wedding Invitation Mistakes

Your wedding stationery is a big part of the to-do list for planning your big day. The invitation suite leaves a big impression on your guests, so be sure to take the time to do it right. Don‰'t fall for these commonly made mistakes, and miss out on having the perfect wedding invitations you imagined. It‰'s just as important knowing how to avoid common invitation problems, as it is knowing how to handle them. Follow our advice below and you‰'ll be sure to overcome any invitation issue.

Mistake 1: Including too much information on the main invitation

Finding a balance between your design and the context of information is important. Crowding the invitation with too much information such as ceremony and reception details or having too much of a design may distract your guest from the important information. When selecting a design, pick one element from your wedding theme to feature (i.e. color scheme or pattern or monogram). Next, plan out what your key wedding information is and use only that on the invitation. Any reception details should be considered as a separate event and should be placed on a separate enclosure card. These simple steps will make for a perfect invitation that is both elegant and informative.

Mistake 2: Not proofreading your stationery

It would be unfortunate to receive your order only to find a spelling mistake after you've already approved or even after your guests have received the Invitation. Be sure to take your time to look for spelling and grammar errors. We advise that you review your proof multiple times before finalizing your order. Take a look at it in the morning and then again at night and be sure to read from left to right to ensure you are checking each word rather than a glance over the whole invitation. We also recommend having a second pair of eyes (maybe a third and fourth pair too!), especially someone who is grammar savvy, to look over the final product before approving it to be printed.

Mistake 3: Waiting too long to place an order

It‰'s easy to get distracted with other wedding day preparation; We recommend ordering wedding stationery 8 months before the wedding date to give you enough time to put them together and address the envelopes. Ordering invitations too late will delay the process of mailing them out to your guests, causing you unnecessary stress and possible rush fees. Keep yourself organized by following our wedding checklist to stay on track with all your Wedding planning.

Mistake 4: Not ordering enough invitations‰ or ordering too many

You should always order extra wedding invitations, for unexpected situations that come up. Being prepared with additional invitations will be helpful in case you need to resend an invitation, if you plan to add more guests to the list or even to save some as keepsakes. We suggest ordering an additional 25 invitations with your order. This will save you time and money from having to reorder more invitations down the road.

While a few additional invitations are good to have, you also don't want to have an overload of extras. Keep in mind that not every person needs to receive an invitation. If you have a guest list of 200, you will not need 200 invitations. For example, a couple or family with children under 18 years old, would only need to receive one invitation.

Mistake 5: Using address labels

A Wedding Invitation sets the tone for the wedding day from the moment your guests receive it. The use of address labels on your wedding invitations, may seem like the easy option, however this can leave a bad impression for your beautiful invitations. Make the choice to hand write or hire a calligrapher to address your envelopes. This will make your invite more personal and show the recipient that you've taken the time to invite each of them. Believe us, small personal touches like this will be received in a positive way.

Mistake 6: Running out of envelopes

Mistakes can easily be made on envelopes, such as pen smudges, accidentally misspelling a name or using an incorrect address. It‰'s easy to grab the next envelope in your stack to start over but before you know it you have run out of envelopes. Having additional envelopes will give you enough leeway in case a mistake does occur when addressing the envelopes and will help avoid any delays in sending out your invitations.

For those who chose to address their envelopes on their own, we include 10 additional envelopes with your order. However, for our customers who order Printed Envelopes, we recommend adding an additional 10 envelopes when placing your order.

Mistake 7: Mailing out invitations too late

Wedding invitations should be sent out 6-8 weeks before the wedding day; however, keep in mind you may want to send out invitations at least 12 weeks before the wedding to your out-of town guests so they can plan their travel arrangements. Sending out invitations too late, may not only hinder your guests from being able to attend but will delay you in receiving back response cards in time to get a final head count.

Mistake 8: Forgetting to include a RSVP date

The RSVP should be set about 4 weeks prior to the wedding date to provide you enough time to give your venue a headcount as well as tracking guests who haven't responded yet. Giving too little time to respond may not give them enough notice to reply and too much time could result in losing the response card or forgetting about it. Be sure to have your stationer print the RSVP date on the response cards ahead of time. However, if you do forget to include an RSVP date, most guests‰ will usually respond automatically, but know it is acceptable to call and ask for a response if you have not heard back.

Mistake 9: Forgetting postage on a reply envelope

It's easy to get excited and want to rush sending out your invitations, but don‰'t forget about the little details that go into each component of the wedding invitation set. Forgetting stamps on the reply envelopes will result in fewer responses and take much longer for you to receive them.

Mistake 10: Incorrect postage

Nothing is more frustrating than sending out your beautiful invitations for them to get sent back with insufficient postage. We suggest assembling an invitation suite, with all of its components in the envelope and then take it to the post office to be weighed for the correct postage. This will save you the trouble in the long run. While at the post office, inquire about hand canceling, which allows the post office to handle postage by hand rather than run through the machine decreasing the chance of damaged envelopes.

Now that you know what to look out for and the mistakes to avoid, get started on finding the perfect wedding invitation for you. Learn more about what to include in your wedding invitation suite and what each stationery component consists of to create your dream invitations!

For many more tips take a look at our Stationery Etiquette Guides. Happy Planning!

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