Today’s blog is a little something extra for you! Think of it as a little wedding planning gift! I teamed up with Britt Larson from Crisp Designs on Paper to bring you everything (seriously, everything!) you need to know when it comes to planning and designing your wedding invitations and the perfect wedding invitation checklist. This is perfect for those who are designing their own and for those couples working with a stationary designer. The following will help you to begin the process and get a very good idea of where you’re headed with your invites. We have seen couples struggle (needlessly) to design their invitations and get them into the mail. And, it can be super-nerve wracking because it’s not something you can do twice. So, today, we also decided to offer you a wedding invitation checklist. 

Creating Your Guest List | Wedding Invitation Checklist

We are going to assume that at this point, you have already written out your guest list, and you have all your addresses ready to go. If you have not, you will want to go to the BWE blog on Picking the Perfect Venue and scroll down to the guest list portion, for some great tips. 

Here are the next steps you have to take to ensure that your save the dates and invitations are addressed correctly (yup, it’s time to talk invite etiquette).  

• First, you will want to go through your guest list and replace all abbreviations with the full word. So, for example an address with “Apt” should be changed to “Apartment,” directions like, “SE” should be changed to “Southeast” 
• For events like weddings, the addressing should be a little more formal, so try to avoid abbreviating parts of the addresses. Avoid St., Rd., Blvd., Apt., etc.
• Please take the time to double check the titles you are using to address your guests. It’s never fun when you get back an RSVP and someone has scribbled “Dr.” in front of their name. I google address all the time. It’s a great way to check a zip code, or figure out if something is a weird spelling or a typo. 
• A few “wedding etiquette addressing questions” that come up a LOT…. keep the following in mind:
  • Couples that aren’t married but live together, you should put the person you are friends with first on the invite.
  • Miss = 0-17 years old / Ms. = 18+ years old.
  • Boys don’t need a title until they’re 18+, but if you want to get really fancy, you can call them “Master”
  • Children 18+ years old get their own invitation, even if they are still living in their parent’s home and the parents (and even younger siblings) are invited

If you’re still struggling with questions, let me know. Or, in a pinch the following websites can be really helpful (and they happen to be the two sites I go to when I don’t know off the top of my head, or if I feel the need to double-check).

• https://www.theknot.com/content/addressing-wedding-invitations
• https://www.brides.com/story/how-to-address-your-wedding-invitations

Another Insider Secret: Typically about 15% of your total invited guests will say no. But this percentage can fluctuate dramatically depending on how far in advance you give people the wedding date and when you send your save the dates out.

Children on Invites

If you are trying to figure out how to include, or not include, children in the wedding day invitation there are a couple of options. For more children and weddings details, check out this BWE blog. You can address the envelope to “The Smith Family” or, you can address it to “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and add a second line with the children’s names below. Or, go really traditional, and include an outer envelope (with mailing information) and an inner envelope containing the invitation and on that, you would put the names of all guests invited.

What to Include in your Wedding Invitations 

The Basic Details on the Invite

One of the best blogs out there on invitation wording and etiquette is from Brides Magazine. I’m linking it here. The article is great, and includes a bunch of real-world examples of invites if you scroll down to the bottom of the article. But, here’s the part that pertains to most couples 

“Traditionally, the bride’s parents are the hosts of the wedding, and are named at the top of the invitation, even for very formal affairs. However, including the names of both sets of parents as hosts is a gracious option no matter who foots the bill. Also, more and more couples these days are hosting their own weddings, or do so together with their parents. 

If it’s a collaborative affair hosted and paid for by the bride, groom and both sets of parents, you can also use “Together with their parents, Emma and Jax request the pleasure of your company …”

As you play around with invitation wording, please keep in mind that it’s a good idea to have a few people read it for proofreading! Be sure to bounce it off all of those directly involved in the wedding. If a couple finds themselves in a position where they are unsure who to list at the top of their invite, it’s often best to list both sets of parents so as not to offend or embarrass the set that may not be investing as much money into the event.

Invite Suite should include:

Typically invitation suites include the following items: (*optional)

• Mailing Envelope
• Inner Envelope* 
• The Invitation
• A Details Card*
• Transportation and Accommodations*
• RSVP Card

The Invite

The Invite which must include (in addition to the names of parents/bride/groom):

• The date and time of the ceremony
• The ceremony location (name of the venue, town/city, and state)
• *If the reception is at the same location, your invite should include something along the lines of “reception to immediately follow” at the bottom of the invite. If the reception is at another location, you will want to include a Details Card with the reception’s details, including, date, time, and location.
• *Dress Code. This can be on the bottom right corner of the invite, or left off. Many couples chose to put this on their website or on the details card. I’m a fan of including it on both the Details card and the website.

The Details Card

If you plan to not include a details card: Be sure to print the wedding website address on the back of the invitation, or print it on a tag that is tied to the invitation suite bundle. If you do choose to include a details card (mostly required when the ceremony and reception are at different locations) include the following on it:

• The address of the reception
• The date and time of the location
• Details on dress code
• Status of children at the reception (typically the words “an adults only reception will follow the ceremony and cocktail hour” is plenty. This implies children are welcome up until the reception. This can be tweaked depending on your circumstances)
• Your wedding website address/URL (be sure to proofread it!)
• Transportation and Accommodations can be placed here, or you can point people to your wedding website for the most up-to-date information. This is highly recommended, since it will allow you to help your guests most easily with access to correct information. 

The RSVP Card

Most couples have an RSVP card. But those who are planning a multi-faceted event, may want to have multiple versions of an RSVP card printed. This way, you can include one version to the majority of your guests, but have other versions for those guests being invited to a rehearsal, welcome party, after party, and/or brunch. All RSVP cards should have a number written on the back in pen (pencil can smear) that corresponds with your guest-list, do this because some of your guests will forget to write names on the RSVP. In general, RSVP cards should include the following information:

• A way for guests to indicate acceptance or declining of the invite
• A line(s) for the guest(s) name. The line typically begins with an “M” at the beginning. There can be a second line, so that guests can write their name and their guest’s name, if you invited them with a “plus 1.” (Especially important to know the name of their guest if it was a +1, so that you know the name of the person to include on their escort card or seating chart.)
• A choice for their meal if required by your venue or caterer (this is very important for some since they will want the guest’s Escort Card to indicate their meal choice, this speeds dinner up tremendously!)
• A second version of the RSVP card would include a spot to indicate the guest’s acceptance of the invitation to the reception, AND the rehearsal dinner, brunch, welcome party (which ever additional events are being included). A NOTE: There are times when the groom’s parents may prefer to send out their own invite to the rehearsal dinner. If that’s the case, you would skip this on the second version of the RSVP card. But if you want to save them time and postage, it’s a good idea.) You would need to include the following:
  • Ceremony rehearsal time and location
  • Rehearsal dinner time and location
  • The number of guests attending each event (and meal choices if required)
• Other things to include on your RSVP card, if you want/need to: 
  • Food allergy information (a simple line asking guests to write dietary concerns on the back of the card works perfectly)
  • Cell phone number or email address. Not both. This is good to have if your rain plan requires a change in location (aka, the beach gets swapped for a chapel if it rains). Check out a great wedding text service called WedTexts for keeping guests up-to date via text message. 

If you are still struggling to figure out exactly what goes into a wedding invitation, and you have downloaded the wedding invitation checklist, you should totally give Britt a call. She’s a wedding invite genius and one of the sweetest people I know. 🙂

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