Wedding invitations are essential unless you’re eloping or getting married at a justice of the peace. Otherwise, guests won’t know when and where to show up for the big event. Getting them right can take effort. However, it’s worth it to set aside time for choosing wedding invitations.
Your Budget
Set a budget for how much you can afford to spend on the invitations first. This will help you avoid looking at and choosing wedding invitations that are too expensive. You don’t want to fall in love with something you can’t afford. Take into account whether the vendor will print addresses on the envelopes for free or ship them for free.
Your Guest List
You need to decide how many guests you’re inviting and how many families that translates into. You only need one invitation per married couple. Kids under 18 still living at home still go onto the invitation with their parents. You may need a few extra invitations to save or to invite a few guests should people decline.
The Timing
You need to determine the major wedding details before choosing and ordering wedding invitations. This includes the venue and the timing. You also need to know who is hosting, or paying for, the wedding. This helps determine the proper wording of traditional wedding invitations. You also need to figure out the RSVP deadline. Choose an RSVP date at least three to four weeks before the wedding date. You need to give the final numbers to the vendors ahead of time.
B-List Considerations
If you have a B-list of wedding guests, order the wedding invitations even earlier. Then you can give the A-list people 3 or 4 weeks to respond. You want to leave time to mail invitations to B-list people and give them time to RSVP.
The Wedding Style
You need to have a good idea of what type of wedding you’re holding when choosing wedding invitations. Many people also like their wedding invitations to be the first clue about the wedding style and wedding theme.
The Formality of the Wedding
People use more traditional wedding invitations and fonts for more formal weddings. They are also more likely to use engraving and embossing. They sometimes announce less formal weddings using non-traditional types and colors of paper and more informal fonts.
Readability
Make sure people can see and read the writing on your invitation against the background color. Also, make sure you choose a font that isn’t too difficult for people to read. Some fonts look cool but might be too full of extra flourishes for people to read easily. If you put too much information on the invitation, it means using a smaller font. These fonts are harder to read.
Postage Costs
It’s trendy to opt for wedding invitations that are of different shapes and sizes. Keep in mind that it costs more to mail non-standard envelopes. If you include multiple inserts in your wedding invites, they can get heavy. This increases postage costs. If your invitations are fragile, pay an extra fee at the post office to have them hand canceled.