10 Wedding Invitation Etiquette Mistakes To Avoid
1. Forgetting to print “Please RSVP by ….” on your invites. Admittedly up to thirty percent of your wedding invite list may forget to RSVP, but don’t be an enabler. Put a date on the card so that when you call them you can say that they should have known better.
2. Neglecting save the date cards if you have a good reason to send them. For instance, say that you are scheduling your wedding the week of Christmas or new years or Easter. If you don’t send your cards out WELL in advance you can plan on many of your close friends and family getting stuck caught between plans. Or if your wedding is coming up fast and you are in the time period to send invites, but you don’t have the details ready, you can send the cards out so that people at least get the date on their calendars.
3. Never list any gift registries on your invitation itself. Save that for personal correspondences and your website, or include a second, smaller card in with your invitation. It seems needy.
4. It is impolite to invite anyone to a pre-wedding event that you will not invite to the wedding. There are some exceptions, such as if a religious or school or work group decides to host a celebration for you—but even then they must invite you, not the other way around. You shouldn’t expect someone to come to your shower and give you a gift if you don’t expect to return the favor.
5. Never forget to weight and measure your wedding stationery so that you are absolutely sure about the correct postage. Getting 400 invites back in the mail can ruin your day and a lot of wedding stationery is deceptively heavy.
6. If you don’t want kids at your wedding, make sure to say so. Write the number of individuals allowed for each recipient or put a small, ‘please no children’ note. Just be consistent.
7. Don’t be late! Invitations should be sent out six to eight weeks before the wedding. The RSVP date should be four weeks before the wedding date.
8. Don’t go freestyle. Wedding invitation wording is highly formalized, with distinct rules that change depending on who is paying for the wedding, whether the location is religious or secular, if families are blended… Check with an expert and be sure.
9. Match styles across all your wedding stationery. You can get kits or simply stick with one color scheme, but consistency is good and makes your wedding seem much more formal and well-planned.
10. Don’t play it by ear! Have a master list that you can use to check off for each recipient for each piece of stationery as needed. It will make your life infinitely better—and back it up.
