I wanted to take today to talk about Invitation Etiquette.  Almost everyone I work with asks these questions and I wanted to share some advice for sending out invitations to your guests.

1. Save the Date? – A lot of couples are discussing this as an option to forgo based on budgets.   There are a couple of things I consider when this is under discussion.  One, are a lot of your guests from out of town?  Two, are you getting married on a holiday weekend?  If you answered yes to these, I would strongly recommend that you send out Save the Dates to give notice to those two guests in the scenario above.  Remember that everyone that gets the Save the Date should also get an invitation, and your Save the Date can be sent out somewhere around six months prior to your wedding day.

2. When to Send – Your wedding invitations should be sent out at least six weeks before your wedding date.

3. Date of Reply – Ideally, your date for reply cards to return should be three weeks prior to your wedding date.  This allows for time for seating charts and place cards to be finalized well before the week of your wedding.   To be honest, sometimes you will have changes all the way up until the day of your wedding, but at least the stress of completing the entire list is complete and it is one less item on your to-do list

4.  The Plus One – When addressing your invitations or Save the Date’s, it is important to note on the envelope whether or not you are inviting a guest for that person as well.  Especially if that guest is from out of state, it will allow them time to prepare travel arrangements for your big day.

5.  Return Address – I recommend adding a return address to your envelopes.  Check with your printer or designer to see what the extra cost of this will be.  If cost prohibits you from having the return address printed on there, have it hand written in calligraphy or by hand by you for each envelope.  That way if an invitation is not delivered properly, you receive it back and can get in contact with that person so they do not miss your big day.

Happy Planning!