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Wedding invitation - wording example

Dear ........ and ...........,

........................ and ......................... request the pleasure of your company at the wedding of their daughter

                                                            Carly Elizabeth

                                                            to

                                                            Andrew Mark Dunstan.

On:                Saturday 26 August 2011

At:                  3.30pm at Ceremony venue and address

and afterwards at

6pm:               Name of Reception venue.

Dress:             Semi-Formal

RSVP:             By 22 July 2011

Wedding Invitations - general tips

Your invitation sets the tone for your whole wedding. It is the first glimpse that your guests have of what to expect from your wedding - not only the ceremony and reception details but also the degree of formality.

Whilst wedding invitations are one of those wedding related items that can be purchased from both wedding and non-wedding related businesses. Invitations are also one of those items that even the DIY phobic can attend to with relative ease.

One problem with wedding invitations however, is that the cost can quickly spiral out of control with unforeseen extras if you do not pay attention to the details. 

Pre printed invitations

If you go to a specialist wedding stationer or a printer, you can order wedding invitations that will be pre printed for you. All you have to do initially, is choose the invitations, the font, font colour and wording.

The benefit is that most of the work on the invitations is done for you.

The disadvantage is that you will still need to hand write the guests name/s on each invitation and address the envelopes unless you pay extra to have this done. It can also be a more expensive choice than other alternatives.

Calligraphy

You can pay someone who does calligraphy to print the names on the invitations and  address the envelopes. The prices vary but generally you should be able to find a calligrapher to print names on invitations for a minimum of $1.00 per name and $2.00 per envelope to print address details on each envelope.

Do it yourself invitation kits

Many businesses now sell do-it-yourself wedding invitation kits. They look very professional, are often pre-cut and are a less expensive option. All you need is a printer, some spare time and you’re set.

Do it yourself

There are many truly beautiful paper varieties available for weddings. The paper ranges from printed paper and parchment that you can print on by itself to plain translucent paper and translucent paper with designs that you can attach to a thin cardboard backing.  All of these options are readily available.

Using your printer you can print the invitation yourself, changing the name at the top for each guest.

In the next few blogs, I will set out wording for an invitation and list some great value businesses that supply invitations. 

Postage

Stick to regular shaped envelopes.  A wedding invitation in a DL sized 110 x 220 mm envelope, which is the same size as business envelopes costs .60 cents each to post.  C6 envelopes which are 114 x 162 mm are also .60 cents each to post.

 

 

The following envelopes and cylinders all cost $1.20 to post:

C5 – 162mm x 229 mm

C4 – 324 x 229 mm

B4 – 353 x 250 mm

Something to note: Irrespective of who is paying for the wedding and the age of the bride and groom, unless you and your parents are either estranged or the bride's parents are deceased, it is a nice and much appreciated gesture if you send the wedding invitation out in the bride’s parents names.

© Sydney Fairytale Weddings on a Budget

Wedding stationery - money saving tips

There are a myriad of choices when considering your wedding stationery. Invitations, RSVP cards, place cards, Order of Service covers and Thank you cards. Some brides have even adopted the American custom of “save the date” cards.

Save the Date cards

The first step to saving money with wedding stationery is to eliminate Save the Date cards and RSVP cards. There are very few instances when guests need a considerable amount of notice unless you are getting married on either a long weekend, New Years Eve, Valentines Day or a public holiday.  If any of those instances apply, then an email or telephone call is sufficient.

RSVP cards

There are always guests who will not, for whatever reason, respond to your invitation by the nominated RSVP date. The provision of RSVP cards will not alter this fact. Your guests are perfectly capable of buying their own acceptance cards or writing their own acceptance notes. For those guests who do not do so, you can take comfort in knowing that in every wedding, there are some guests who have to be contacted to ascertain their attendance at your wedding. This is an inescapable, albeit frustrating, reality.

Order of Service Covers

For individual Order of Service covers with a lovely personalised touch, take a photograph of your wedding ceremony venue and print it off as the Order of Service Cover.  If you are having a religious ceremony, a photograph of the front of the Church/Synagogue/Temple/Mosque as a Order of Service cover, becomes a beautiful souvenir of the Ceremony site for your guests. If you are having a civil ceremony, then consider taking a photograph of either your ceremony venue or the front of your reception venue.

You can either print the photo off yourself using a good quality parchment or take it to a printing company such as Printer’s Devil or Kwik Copy to print off the quantity you want.  

Whilst I am not an advocate of do-it-yourself, printing photographs onto parchment does not require much, if any, skill. You should upload the photograph and then using photoshop, select “rotate right.”  The photo should be horizontal (sideways) with the bottom of the photograph on the left hand side and the top of the photograph on the right hand side.

The photograph should be on the lower/bottom half of an A4 size sheet. See below for an example. 

You can then either staple the pages of the Order of Service insert together or get 2 holes punched in the middle of the cover and insert pages then tie the bundle together with a little ribbon. You can buy spools of ribbon from craft stores, fabric shops such as Lincraft or the markets. You should aim for fabric ribbon as opposed to the curling ribbon used for gift wrapping.

Thank you cards

You really don’t need to buy matching thank you cards. A pack of plain cards with a photograph or print on the cover, bought from any discount store, works well for thank you cards.

Alternatively, a scanned wedding photograph printed on any leftover sheets of parchment make lovely thank you notes.

 

© Sydney Fairytale Weddings on a Budget