Planning a wedding can be one of the most stressful things you can do.
With so many things to remember – from the dress to the cake to the invitations to the venue to the flowers – it can be all too easy to lose track and unintentionally forget some of the extra little things.
So, with this in mind, we thought we’d compile a brief guide of all the printed materials you’ll need to get in advance of your wedding day.
These materials often set the tone for the wedding, after all, providing your guests with important information about the day itself and setting the overall tone for the event.
Here are a few of the key ones you’ll need to remember:
Engagement Party Invitations
OK, so you’ve just gotten engaged – congratulations!
Now you need to celebrate your big news in style, by organising an engagement party for you and your loved ones to share in your happiness.
Once you’ve booked a venue for you all to attend – whether it be a local pub or in your own home – you’ll need to design and develop some invitations to send out in the mail.
While you can send these invitations out online instead, using the mail is a classic and much more fun way of kickstarting your engagement and wedding planning.
Plus, it’ll give you more of an idea of the design and greeting card printing process required which could help out a lot later on.
Engagement Party Thank You Cards
Going one step further, your guests are pretty likely to bring you presents in celebration of your engagement news, so why not print your engagement party thank you cards in advance as well?
This is a customary tradition going back centuries, so you don’t want to appear ungrateful if someone has gone to the trouble of buying you and your partner a nice celebratory gift.
Save The Date Cards
Once your engagement party is out of the way and the prosecco hangover has subsided, it’s time to start thinking about the big day itself.
However, with the coronavirus pandemic putting a number of weddings on hold for the time being, organising this can be a lot easier said than done – but it is doable.
Once you’ve pinpointed a church and a venue for your ceremony, and know the date you’d ideally like to be married, it’s important to let your guests know when this is well in advance. That way, they’ll be able to make plans in enough time to ensure they can be a part of your big day.
The best way to do this is to send out a save the date card in advance of your actual wedding invite. Whether you’d rather send these out digitally or physically, these cards are especially important for out-of-town visitors who will need to book travel arrangements well in advance.
Wedding Invitations
Easily the biggest and most important of the printed materials you send out in advance of your wedding is the wedding invite itself. These need to be a lot more involved than the rest of the printed materials on this list, including as much detail about the ceremony as possible.
Wedding invitations typically consist of the main invite, a details card and an RSVP card for the guest to confirm their attendance.
Since they’re generally the most expensive printed item, you’re going to want to make sure your invites set the tone for your wedding, ideally using the same colour scheme you intend using on the day itself.
Moreover, they should be printed professionally on a high-quality paper and, ideally, utilising the skills and knowledge of a professional digital printing service. You want them to look as good as possible, after all, and get your guests as excited about the day as you and your partner are.
Rehearsal Dinner Invitations
While on the topic of your wedding invites, depending on how you want the schedule of your day to go, you may need to include a rehearsal dinner invitation with your wedding invitations as well.
These don’t need to be anywhere near as complicated in design as the wedding invite itself though – you simply need to include an additional card explaining that they are invited to your rehearsal dinner and detailing where and when it is.
Plus, if you really want to, you could even have two sets of wedding invitations – one for your regular guests and another for any guests with more of an involvement.
The choice is ultimately up to you and your fiancée or fiancé.
About The Author
This page has been written by Justin Aldridge. Justin is passionate about helping couples to make their anniversary as special as possible. Justin enjoys being creative and coming up with different and inspiring ideas for couples to celebrate their anniversary in style each year.
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