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Important Information for Buying Wedding Invitations

There are some important details to become familiar with when choosing wedding invitations. If you are shopping for wedding invitations, it is easy to get confused by all the terminology, etiquette and available styles. Other pieces of a wedding invitation such as Save the Date cards, table cards and place cards need to be decided on as well. Both the amount of information and the presentation of the information also need to be nailed down. Considering all of the choices to be made, choosing wedding invitations can be confusing and stressful as well.

Just to make this process a bit easier, take a look at the following checklist of important information you need to know for buying wedding invitations:

1. How many wedding invitations do you need?

Wedding invitations are expensive, so you certainly do not want to order too many. On the other hand, you do not want to run out and have to re-order, which will end up costing you more money in setup fees and shipping. Before you order your wedding invitations, sit down with your guest list and count up how many invitations you will need to send out. A few guidelines:

- a husband and wife get one invitation

- a couple living together get one invitation

- adult roommates each get their own invitation

- adult children living with parents should each get their own invitation

- children under the age of 18 can be included on their parents invitation

- a couple who don’t live together each get their own invitation

1. Which pieces of wedding stationery do you need to order?

Wedding invitations have several pieces that can all be bought as one or bought a la carte. In addition, there are other pieces of wedding stationery that you may or may not want to purchase. The most commonly used wedding stationery includes:

- Wedding invitation

- Inner envelope

- Outer envelope

- Response Card and Envelope

- Reception Card if the reception is held somewhere other than the ceremony

- Save the Date cards for out of town guests or those that need a lot of advance notice

- Table Cards are printed with a table number for each table

- Place Cards tell your guests where they are seated

- Programs

- Menu Cards

- Thank You Cards

Obviously, you do not need to order every single one of these, but it is helpful to know what they each are.

1. Invitation Etiquette – the Words

Contemporary wedding invitations are much freer in terms of the words that are printed on the invitation. If you want to adhere to the most traditional and formal wedding invitation, you can find tutorials and templates online to help you word your invitations properly.

More importantly, though, you will need to supply the wording that you want printed on your invitation when you order them, so you need to know what you are going to have printed on the invitation before you buy them.

1. When should you order your invitations?

Invitations should be sent out about 6 to 8 weeks before your wedding date to give people time to plan. Your order will typically take about 4 to 6 weeks to arrive so you should order your wedding invitation at least 12 weeks before your wedding so you have time to address them and get them sent out in time.

1. How much do you plan to spend for your wedding invitations?

Many couples plan to spend about 2% of your wedding budget on their wedding invitations, including postage. It is helpful to have an idea of your price range for wedding invitations before you start looking so that you can choose invitations in your budget range.

1. Get familiar with the terminology

It’s helpful to know some of the terminology used in printing when you are looking at wedding invitations. This is far from an exhaustive wedding invitation glossary, but it will help you get started.

Border – a design around the edge of the invitation. It may be printed or embossed

Deckle Edge – an irregular edge that looks almost torn like homemade paper

Die-cut – paper that is cut into a distinctive shape or outline

Ecru – an off-white neutral color that is commonly used for formal stationery

Embossing – a printing technique that creates a raised surface

Envelope Liners – inner envelopes or linings for the inside of the outer invitation envelope

Flat Cards or Panel Cards – a single, unfolded card used as an invitation

1. What are your wedding colors?

If you want to coordinate your wedding invitations with your wedding colors, you will need to know what those colors are. Most traditional and formal wedding invitations don’t include color, but it can be an important consideration for contemporary wedding invitations.

About the Author

Lisa Parkeris a freelance writer who writes about weddings, often focusing on a specific aspect of weddings such aswedding invitations.

Are stamps really more expensive for invitation cards?

We were sending out Thank You cards and we took the remaining few directly to the post office to send off. We had put a Forever stamp on each of the invitations but the clerk said we had to pay an extra $0.20 for each envelope because they were smaller than standard mail.

When had put the first batch of Thank You card directly in our mailbox with the same Forever stamps and everyone received them just fine. So I left the post office branch and just dropped them into the mail slot instead of paying an extra 20 cents per Thank You.

Has anyone ever heard of this? Why do they charge you extra to mail envelopes smaller than standard mail?

With the last two rate increase by the USPS, the way they charge for mail is very much convoluted. Three years ago, weight was the sole criteria for mail. Now, it is based on weight / size of envelope / envelopes over 3.5 ounces subject to LARGE envelope rate, etc. It is all so confusing.

What you evidently have are 'nonmachinable' letters that are subject to a 20 cent surcharge:

Letters that meet one or more of the nonmachinable characteristics below are subject to the $0.20 nonmachinable surcharge. For items over 3.5 ounces, see Large Envelope or Package.

It is a square letter (the minimum size for a square envelope is 5 x 5 inches.)
It is too rigid - does not bend easily
It has clasps, string, buttons, or similar closure devices
It has an address parallel to the shorter dimension of the letter
It contains items such as pens that cause the surface to be uneven
The length divided by height is less than 1.3 or more than 2.5

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