Creating your first impression with wedding invitations

Once you have chosen who you're planning to invite, you should determine how you are going to invite them. Your invitations should fit in with the main theme and mood of your wedding. Invitations are your guests' first impression of your wedding. Wedding invitations can be expensive, but you don't necessarily need to pay tons of money to convey the style and atmosphere of your special day.

There are thousands of invitations available in stationary stores, on-line and from "discount" catalogs. You can also choose to make your own � a rising pattern for today's bride. Explore all these options and decide the one that best fits your style and budget. If possible, use similar stationary for everything in your wedding. Order everything at one time and order more than you think you need. Invitations are typically purchased in increments of twenty-five or fifty. If you're designing your own invitations, order extra paper, velum, envelopes and anything else you would like to create them. It's more cost effective to order more the first purchase than to have to order more later because you don't have enough.

There are some issues you should consider when selecting your invitations or browsing around to make your own invitations. Look at the weight of the paper, the shade, font and size of wording, size of invitation and envelopes, general style and postage restrictions and costs.

Think about buying your invitations on-line. You can many times find the same invitations on-line for a fraction of the price you'll pay at your local stationary stores. Regardless of whether you plan on buying your invitations online, browse the web for ideas and price comparisons. It's a convenient place to research ideas from home.

Determine the materials you will be ordering and including with your invitation. There is no wrong way, but generally most brides order invitations, inner and outer envelopes, a reception card, response cards and response card envelopes. Other options include: chair cards, tabletop cards, and direction information cards � even bridal registry cards.

Invitations need to be mailed six to eight weeks in advance of the wedding. It's customary to all invitations by hand. If your handwriting is bad, recruit some someone you know with nice penmanship to give you a hand. You can also choose to have your invitations written by a calligrapher.

Your invitations need to include everything your guests need to know to get to your ceremony and reception: date, time, address, exact name of site and reception room along with driving directions.

Times have changed as far as whose names need to appear on the invitation. It used to be that invitations were issued in the name of the bride's parents, even if she lived away from home or had been married before. If the bride's parents were divorced, the name of only one parent appeared on the invitation. If the parent remarried, the step-parent's name was placed on the first line followed by the daughter's to indicate relationship. These are still good guidelines to follow but they are surely no longer considered the only way to word your invitations.

About the Author

John has been a licensed and ordained minister for 41 years. He has served as wedding officiant for more than 1,000 Maui weddings with his wedding planning business, Maui Me Inc. All of his ceremonies are original and he performed his first wedding 35 years ago. John has written almost 50 Christian books (which have been translated into eight languages). In addition to performing the ceremonies for Maui weddings, he shoots most of the photography.

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