Your wedding invitation will be the first contact you have with your wedding guests. Therefore, you want to put your best foot forward. This does not necessarily mean that you should spend a lot on invitations. However, you can find quality invitations without the big price tags. If your budget allows, you should splurge a little bit more on your invitations because they will become memorable keepsakes for all of your family and friends.
When choosing your invitations, you should try to find invitations that reflect the taste of the bride and groom and the atmosphere of the wedding ceremony. If you have decided on the ever increasingly popular idea of a theme wedding, many invitation publishers can offer invitations that go perfectly with your theme. A traditional wedding invitation packet should include:
-Invitations -Outer envelope with the return address of the host printed or embossed on the envelope flap -Inner Envelope, usually lined -RSVP card/envelope with the address of the person receiving the reply printed on the envelope face and it is pre-stamped by the host. -Reception card if the reception is at a different location from where the marriage ceremony will take place. -Map/Directions card/Accommodation cards are optional but should coordinate with the invitation if they are included with it.
Most wedding invitation vendors sell each item above separately with the exception that most invitations are sold with unlined outer envelopes.
Once you have decided what will be included in your wedding invitation packet and you have decided on the invitation design, it is time to order your invitations. Proper etiquette says that you should order your invitations as soon as possible. This is with the understanding that your dates, times, and number of guests being invited are firm. Once you order your invitations, you should expect to wait anywhere from 4 days to 3 months for them to be produced. Your wait will depend on the number of guests and quantity of order. Also, you will want to leave enough time (about 1 month) to have your beautiful invitations addressed by a professional calligrapher.
