Wedding Invitations – Common Mistakes

Your wedding invitations are a crucial part of your upcoming nuptials. Not only do they notify guests of the specifics of the event, invitations set the tone for your wedding theme and style. Here are a few common invitation mistakes to avoid:

1. Ordering Too Late: If you order your invitations too late, you not only run the risk of mailing them behind schedule, but also being hit with a significant rush fee. Select a stationer early in the planning process and find out their printing and delivery wait times.

2. Overdoing the Design: Invitations are the first opportunity you have to reveal your wedding colors, theme, or aesthetic. While it can be tempting to go overboard on design elements, be careful not to overwork the design or incorporate too many features of the wedding. Sometimes simple is better.

3. Overlooking Typos/Grammatical Errors: If ever there was a time to proofread, this is it. Don’t trust yourself exclusively when it comes to spelling and grammar in the invites. It’s easy to make mistakes or miss errors when you’ve looked at it so many times. Ask a few grammatically astute friends or relatives to read over the copy and make sure you didn’t overlook any tiny details.

4. Mailing Too Early/Late: Invitations should be sent six to eight weeks before the wedding ceremony. Any earlier and you run the risk of the invitation being overlooked or forgotten; any later and you guests might not be able to attend. For international guests, invitations should be sent ten weeks in advance. Save-the-date cards are a great option to ensure that guests have ample time to make travel arrangements, get off work, and book the date. Save-the-dates should be sent six to eight months prior to the wedding.

5. Using Too Little Postage: Before mailing your invitations, take an assembled packet to the post office and have it weighed to find out the exact postage needed. Often, due to heavy card stock and extra inserts, wedding invitations require additional postage than one stamp. If you assume your envelope is light enough for a standard stamp and you’re wrong, all of the invitations will be returned.

6. RSVP Too Late/Early: Guests should be required to RSVP to your nuptials three to four weeks after receiving the invitation. If you give guests too much time to RSVP, they might forget to do it altogether. If you request an RSVP too early, you might not get an accurate count.

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