So you’re planning your wedding (congrats!), picking your venue, and refining your guest list. What’s next? Invitations! Whether you address wedding invitations to your guests or family, keep reading for a full list of wedding addressing etiquette including when to send them, how to address, wordings, and as well as what to include.
When To Send Out Wedding Invitations?
Mailing Date
For local weddings, we suggest sending your invites three months prior to your wedding date which means you will need to start working on them 5 months prior as design and print usually takes about 4-6 weeks.
For your out of country guests, we suggest sending invites 5-6 months in advance to allow time to book vacation time off work and to plan their trip.
For destination weddings, it is best to send out invites no later than 6 months prior.
This will give guests the time they need to coordinate their lives accordingly.
A Save the Date wouldn’t be a bad idea for a destination wedding anywhere from 8-12 months prior as many people book their vacation times with work up to a year in advance.
RSVP Date
Most vendors and venues need 3-4 weeks for final headcounts, so to be safe, ask for the RSVPs back 1 month and 10 days prior to the date (to account for postage times). This can prevent a last-minute RSVP chasing while still giving guests ample time to sort out their calendars.
Invite Style
How To Address Wedding Invitations To A Family?
Historically, wedding invitations read very formally, with the bride’s parents’ name appearing in the host line (as they were commonly paying for the day), the bride’s name listed before the grooms, the time and date written out in full, and styled in traditional calligraphy.
More recently invites are seen with brighter colors or fun, unique (read: relatable) wordings. It might not be your style as a couple to have an old-fashioned element in your wedding so having an invite presented that way wouldn’t be natural.
The invite is a way to first showcase the look and colors of the wedding, so it makes sense to match the invite to the wedding.
Digital invites, on the other end of the invite spectrum, are becoming more and more common. Not only because of the safety benefits e-invites offer with COVID restrictions still in place, but couples recognize the value of saving time, money, and trees with online invites.
Also, as we are still in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, you might be faced with last-minute changes that need to be communicated with guests. If you have a website with the link to the invitation and RSVP, it can be easily updated instead of sending out the second round of mail correspondence should any changes arise.
If you feel like you’d rather sit somewhere in between an online invite and a traditional, formal multiple card and envelope invite, opt for a tri-fold invite with a detachable RSVP card.
Couples, the main thing to keep in mind when planning all aspects of your wedding is to make it your own and choose what makes you happiest, even if others’ opinions object to yours.
So take these tips as a guideline and understand that they may not necessarily work for your wedding, and that is okay! What matters most is keeping the details truest to your preferences and making sure to keep that in mind when planning your wedding program!
Read more:
What to do with extra wedding invitations? [10 keepsake ideas]
Wording for destination wedding invitations [with samples]
