Your Wedding Invitation gives the first impression for your wedding. Express yourself with flair and elegance through the wedding invitations you send! Personalized invitations and stationery specialists featured in Easy Wedding Invitations are sure to make the right impression on your wedding guests.

 

 

Ordering Your Wedding Invitations – The Wedding Checklist

 

 

Six to nine months before your wedding date is when you should choose and order your wedding invitation. Toronto Area invitation specialists, as featured here, have the selection to make that easy.

 

 

Wedding Invitation Styles and Designs

 

 

You can decide between a strictly traditional, formal style of invitation or a more personal modern style. Or you may find a happy blend of styles, a traditional look with a less formal, more modern message.

 

 

The traditional wedding invitation is very formal in style. It is generally engraved on fine light brown or white paper with black ink. The wording is formal and written in the third person and addressed from the parents of the bride to the guest, often beginning “Mr. and Mrs. Jones request the honour of your presence...” followed by lines giving the date, venue, etc. The typeface for these invitations is usually a formal, old-fashioned script.

 

 

The traditional wedding invitation is usually sent in two envelopes, the outer one is where the name and address of the guest is written and the inner one just the name and title of the guest. The inner envelope contains the wedding invitation protected by an elegant sheet of tissue.

 

 

On the other hand, you should feel free to depart from this formal tradition is you so wish, and our featured Toronto Area wedding invitation specialists can show you many exciting alternatives.

 

 

There are many kinds of paper to choose from, including rag (cotton), wood fibre and hand made in a variety of textures. You can choose from many different colours and shapes for your invitation. You can have your picture printed on you wedding invitation – photo invitations are becoming very popular.

 

 

There are many embellishments you can use to enhance your invitation, such as silk ribbons, wax seals, pressed flowers, embossing and illustrations. As well, you can make your message less formal and more personal, such as having it written in the first person and addressed from the bride and groom.

 

 

Other Wedding Stationery

 

 

You may require a reception card, a separate invitation to the reception. If only some of your guests are being invited to the reception, you must enclose the reception card with their invitations. If all guests are invited to the reception, you may use a reception card or you may include the reception information in the wedding invitation’s message.

 

 

Other items you may wish to include with your wedding invitations are travel instructions and map, parking information, pew card, a program of the ceremony, reply card, etc. You may also want to choose your thank you cards at this time if you want a consistent look with your wedding invitations.

 

 

Invitation Tips

 

 

When you order your wedding invitation, it’s a good idea to order more than you think you need. You may want to invite guests who were not on your original list, and it is much less expensive to print more than you need than it is to make a special order for just a few.

 

 

Don’t forget to make follow-up calls to any invited guests, who have not responded by two weeks before the wedding.

 

 

You're planning your wedding and have finally decided on the design of your wedding invitation. The wording has been chosen and the guest list is well on its way to completion. Here are some additional wedding invitation tips and advice that you should also be aware of.

 

 

If children will also be included as guests, you can choose to write out their individual names on the addressed envelopes or put "and family". For example:

 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Bob Smith, Mary and John
or
Mr. and Mrs. Bob Smith and Family

 

 

If the children are older teenagers (say 16 years of age or older), you may wish to send them an individual invitation, just like you would an adult.

 

 

If you don't wish to include children at the ceremony, do not include their names or "and family" on the outside of the envelope. It's suggested you add "Sorry, but children are not invited", "adults only" or something similar somewhere on the invitation to make it clear. If you wish to include them at the reception, but not at the ceremony, you could note this information on the response card?or on the invitation itself at the bottom in some fashion.

 

 

When issuing wedding invitations to a guest who is single, it is polite to put "and Guest" on the outside of the envelope so that they have the option to bring along a companion. For example:

 

 

Mr. Ralph Jones and Guest - or
Miss Sarah Campbell and Guest

 

 

Be forewarned. Usually 7% to 10% of the guests who respond with a yes will not actually attend the wedding. In addition, 20% to 30% won't make it to the reception. This can wreak havoc when budgeting for a sit down dinner. You may want to consider a buffet style dinner instead.

 

 

In some cases, you'll want to invite people to the ceremony, but not the reception or vice versa. If so, then you will need two sets of invitations printed. One that includes reception information and one that doesn't.

 

 

If you don't receive a reply from some guests by your reply date, do not hesitate to call them. It is important that you know how many are attending so you budget accordingly.

 

 

If you decide to order your wedding invitations, be sure to do so at least 4 to 6 weeks before they are scheduled to be mailed. If you plan on mailing your invitations around the 15th of March, order them between February 1st and 15th.

 

 

Double, even triple check everything before it gets printed. This includes invitations, response cards, envelopes, wedding programs, etc. whether you're doing them yourself or your having them professionally printed. Check for spelling errors especially.

 

 

Always order extra invitation envelopes and response card envelopes. There will inevitably be a few mistakes when addressing these and you'll want to have a few extras on hand.

 

 

You should mail your invitations at least 6 weeks before the wedding date and indicate that you would like a response at least 3 weeks before the wedding date. So if your wedding date is July 1st, mail your invitations by May 15th and ask that they respond by June 7th. This will give guests time to receive their invitations and reply by mail, which in turn, gives you time to firm up catering plans, seating arrangements, etc.

 

 

If your wedding is going to actually be held on a beach or other outdoor area, be sure that you let your guests know this, so they can dress appropriately.