10 Wedding Invitation Etiquette Questions Answered

A wedding invitation is the piece of paper that officially requests the company of your guests, at one of the most important events in your life. You may be planning to marry your beloved in a romantic fairytale wedding that’s a traditional formal affair. Or it may be your preference to get hitched in a more casual ceremony, in an outdoor setting like a garden or the beach. Whatever the dream portrayal of your unique love story maybe there are certain wedding invitation etiquette rules that shouldn’t be broken.

Here are 10 top tips to ensure that you follow the correct etiquette when sending personalised wedding invitations to your family and friends…

1. How do I choose the perfect wedding stationery?

One of the most important decisions you will have to make when thinking about wedding invitations is the style of the invite. Your wedding stationery reflects your personal tastes, and it also motivates the recipient of the invitation to respond to your request.

Wedding invitations don’t have to be muted and subtle in design or tone. It’s perfectly acceptable to mix and match a formal font with a pop of contemporary color and accent shades. There’s no need to blow your budget just because you want to impress your wedding guests. Choose affordable wedding stationery that compliments your chosen wedding theme, style of ceremony, and your personality.

2. What details do I need to include?

Personalised wedding invitations must include essential information, like the day and date of the wedding, the wedding ceremony venue, and the location of the reception. Without this information, your guests won’t know where to find you on your wedding day.

3. What’s the correct way to write personalised wedding invitations?

How you present the information depends on the style of your wedding. For a traditional and formal wedding, you will need to follow the etiquette rules concerning the correct way of addressing your guests. A casual wedding has no set rules regarding the way in which you provide the key information.

You can handwrite the personalised wedding invitations yourself, or have them professionally done by someone else.

4. How do I make my personalised wedding invitations stand out?

At the height of the wedding season, your wedding invitation may have to compete with lots of other invites that have been sent to your friends. It’s not good manners to insist that your friends MUST attend your wedding. You can, however, entice them with a wedding invitation that has a personal touch.

When writing your handwritten personalised wedding invitations take care when choosing your words. Add a personal message to make your guests feel valued and appreciated, and more likely to send back the RSVP card confirming their attendance.

5. Is there any other information I should add?

Guests really appreciate it when you take extra care over the finer details. Providing a map direction card that includes information on how to get to the wedding ceremony and reception venues, and local places where guests can stay overnight is considered to be excellent etiquette.

You can also inform your guests of the appropriate dress code by writing: Dress: Formal or Dress: Smart Casual at the end of the wedding invitations.

6. Do I need to include an RSVP card?

If you want to know how many guests are coming to your wedding you will need to send RSVP cards with your personalised wedding invitations. To prompt a speedy reply, within a 4-week window, it’s also a good idea to include a pre-paid return address envelope. Keep a list of the guests so that you can easily identify who needs to be prodded for an RSVP response.

7. How many times do I need to check the content?

After all of the time and care you have taken over choosing the perfect wedding invitations for your special day (not forgetting the money you’ve spent), it would be such a shame to spoil everything with a mistake that you failed to notice.

When ordering printed wedding invitations and other items of wedding stationery, it’s essential that you ask for a proof copy that you can check.

Carefully and thoroughly read through the proof copy. Pay particular attention to the dates and spellings. Get your beloved to look for errors as well. Mark any mistakes clearly so that they can be corrected at the printers.

If you’re handwriting your wedding invitations make sure that you spell every guest’s name and address correctly. It’s bad etiquette to get the spelling of someone’s name wrong.

8. How do I assemble the personalised wedding invitations?

Modern-day wedding invitations tend to feature a number of components. The ‘package’ typically includes a personalised wedding invitation, an RSVP card, a reception card, and a map direction card. Some couples also add a self-addressed stamped envelope to encourage guests to send back a prompt RSVP.

The wedding invitation ‘package’ is assembled in size order, with the wording on the cards facing up. From the bottom up, your contents should be the personalised wedding invitation, the reception card, and the map direction card. If you’re including a self-addressed envelope it should be inserted next, face down, with the RSVP card facing up and tucked under its flap.

9. When should I send the wedding invitations?

It’s considered to be a good wedding etiquette to write and send your wedding invitations to your guests in a good time. This generally means that your wedding invitation should land on each guest’s doormat eight weeks before the big day. If you send your invitations too early it may end up in a to-do pile and be forgotten. A wedding invitation that is sent too late may mean that your guest can’t attend on the day.

10. Should I check the postage?

It’s good etiquette to ensure you have mailed your wedding invitations with the correct postage. You will need to check the correct cost for sending the ‘package’ to each guest.