I am a firm believer that because your wedding invitations are one of the first wedding details your guests will see, it will set the tone for what your wedding will be like. I think it’s important that your invitations not only reflect your couples style but also follows etiquette rules. There are also some do's and don'ts of wedding invitations that are important for all bride and grooms to remember before sending them out. Yes, some of these might seem obvious but it’s easy to forget the little details. So here are just a few reminders of what to put on your wedding invitations and what you shouldn’t.
7 THING TO MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE ON YOUR WEDDING INVITATIONS
1: LOCATION
Some of your guest be coming from far away and will need to make travel arrangements (flight, hotel, etc) to attend your wedding. So make sure to include all of the important details so they can make their travel plans in advance. Also make sure to add the venue name, address, city and state on the invitation.
2: DATE AND START TIME OF THE CEREMONY
This will effect all of your guest no matter if they are local to the Tampa, St Petersburg, and Sarasota areas or if they are traveling from far away. The reason is because you want to make sure they arrive on time and plan their travel time accordingly. They want to see you walk down the isle so make sure that the start time of the ceremony is on the invitation so they can be in their seats and ready to see you and your groom say I do!
3: WEDDING WEBSITE
I don’t know who started this trend but I LOVE it! Because this is a simple and effective way for your guests to find more detailed information that won't be on the wedding invitation. For example; where you are registered, hotel suggestions, and detailed information about any special activities of the weekend, such as welcome parties or brunches, can be listed on your wedding website. Also this is another great place to kindly tell your guests it will be a kid free weekend and that children are not invited to the wedding.
4: FIRST AND LAST NAMES OF THE GUESTS INVITED ON THE ENVELOPE
This part is really important if you're only inviting a select few people of a household to your wedding. For example, if you're having a child free wedding this is a great way to very specific as to who is invited and who is not. Here is an example of how to front of the invitation would look like.
Mr. Calvin Smith and Mrs. Madison Smith
If you’re allowing plus ones, make sure to add their time to the invitation envelope as well. If they don't have a significant other at the time the invitation goes out but would like to give them the option of bringing a date then writing "and guest" would be appropriate.
5: A LINE FOR YOUR GUESTS TO WRITE THEIR NAMES
Also make sure you put a line for how many people will be attending. If the invitation is only addressed to two people (the adults) and they put in 4 thinking their kids are invited, then you will know a phone call will be needed to let them know your wedding is an adult only occasion.
6: SPACE TO FOR GUESTS TO CHECK YES OR NO IF THEY WILL ATTENDING
Hopefully everyone that receives a wedding invitation will RSVP. But giving them the option will make it easier for them to let you know if they will be attending or not. This is wedding invitation etiquette 101, your RSVP must have a space for both!
7: A STAMP AND THE ADDRESS YOU WANT THE RSVP CARD TO BE MAILED TO
Here is another wedding invitation etiquette 101, every RSVP card must have a stamp on it. It’s considered tacky to make your guests pay for their own postage to send your reply card back. Also make sure to have the address of where you want the RSVP card to be mailed back to on the envelope. The last thing you want is to cause confusion for you or your guests or risk the RSVP getting lost in the mail due to a wrong address. After all you don’t want them to guess where they're supposed to send it, so make sure to have the address already printed on the RSVP card.
3 THINGS NOT TO PUT ON THE INVITATION
1: YOUR PHONE NUMBERS
No matter how formal or how simple a wedding is your phone number should never be on your wedding invitation. If it’s on there people might call you to ask you awkward questions (like if their 5 kids are invited or why your 3rd cousin wasn’t invited), thus stressing you out. This is where having your wedding website listed will help clear up any questions they might have.
2: HOTEL SUGGESTIONS AND PRICING
Again this is where your wedding website will come in very handy because you can have all of those things easy listed on your site! However, if you are choosing not to have a wedding website you can have a separate piece of stationery (details card) included in your invitation suite to fill in all of that information.
3: YOUR WEDDING HASHTAG
I didn’t think that anyone would consider doing this, but apparently its happened before. By adding your hashtag to your wedding invitation it can quickly take down the formality of the invitation, the seriousness of the occasion, and the overall feel of the wedding. If you are having a personal hashtag for your wedding then you can have it displayed on your wedding website and on your personal Instagram account for all to see!
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