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Selecting your wedding invitations is a big step in the planning process and we want you to do it with confidence. You don’t want to make any mistakes — and I don’t want you to worry about any blunders — so I’ll walk you through it.
I won’t let you mess this up! :)
In this blog post, we’ll cover the most important wedding invite mistakes to avoid so you can keep from making any.
We also have a few hints to save time and save money in the process! And that’s always a good idea. :) Throughout this post, you’ll also find invitation ideas from Minted, so you’ll have some ideas on invitation styles to choose from once you finish reading.
I’ve also made a video on the topic: scroll to the bottom of the post to watch it. Let’s get started!
Wedding Invitation DOs and DONTs
First, let’s talk about a mistake that many couples make: skipping the theme or tone altogether. Let your invitation speak for itself!
1. Skipping the theme.
Give your guests something to get excited about, whether it is a traditional ballroom dinner, a beach-side ceremony, or a wedding in the woods, complete with barn reception. What do you have planned for your wedding? Give hints of it within your invite!
Since your wedding invitation is the first impression given to guests about the day itself, so don’t make the mistake of skipping out on conveying both the theme and tone of your event.
The theme isn’t just pretty to look at: it will help guests discern the formality of the event and indicate what they should wear, without you needing to suggest it. :)
2. Not including the necessary information.
One of the biggest wedding invitation mistakes that couples make? Forgetting to include very essential information about the wedding!
Here is what to include on your invitations so you don’t make the same mistakes.
• Names: Don’t Forget Your Names
• ‘The Wedding Of’ or Similar: Make it clear this is your wedding invitation
• Venue: The location(s) of the ceremony and the reception
• Date: The Wedding Date
• Time: The Start Time (Make sure you double-check this with your officiant!)
As you can see above, your invitation should always answer these questions: who, what, when, and where. :)
Also, here’s one of the easiest invitation mistakes couples make — but it’s important to include: your RSVP information.
• RSVP: How to RSVP (with card and envelope included).
RSVPing online? Great! Make it clear with a proper RSVP card that instructs guests how to complete their response online, like this:
3. Writing out all of the addresses by hand.
Stop. That’s so time-consuming! Who has time to hand-write everything yourself? Well, some people prefer to do it themselves, and that’s perfectly OK. But if you want to outsource the addressing of invitations, you’ll avoid one of the biggest wedding invitation mistakes: addressing them messily by hand, or worse, using labels on the front. Don’t do it!
Make your invitations look their very best with FREE wedding invitation addressing, which comes with your order at Minted (yay!) What a time saver!
4. Waiting too long to place an order.
Once you’ve selected the perfect wedding invitation, put down that deposit. Check out the website for ordering times, and shipping wait times, and leave a little additional time for assembly, addressing, and delivery to the post office.
Remember, wedding invitations should be mailed out no later than six to eight weeks before the big day.
5. Not adding enough postage. Yikes!
Thanks to my mother’s advice while planning my own wedding, I took one of my wedding invitations — fully assembled with enclosure cards, RSVP cards, and map inside — to find out the amount of postage. I was informed that my envelope was slightly too bulky, even though the size was conducive to the ‘standard’ mailing size; therefore, we would need to apply additional postage to each invitation.
This is one of the biggest wedding invitation mistakes: not enough postage! And the woman at the post office informed me if I hadn’t brought in a sample, every invitation would have been marked ‘insufficient postage’ with an ugly red stamp and returned to my address days later. Every. last. one. What a nightmare! Disaster averted! And hopefully, you’ll heed the same advice. Thanks, Mom!
6. Forgetting to proofread your invitations.
Proofread. Proofread like there’s no tomorrow. Read it over in the morning, post-coffee; read it over on the train; read it over when you’re trying to fall asleep. Ask your fiance to read it over. Your mother. Your best friend. Get everyone to read it over before you send your little checkmark approval to the printer.
Nothing would be a bigger bummer than a misspelling, an incorrect address, a wrong time, date, or name.
What to Do If It’s Too Late
Mistakes happen! If you notice an error with your invitation, assess the situation. Is it a small, almost non-existent error, such as a misspelling? Let it go. If the mistake is essential to the event – such as the location, date, or time – you could send stylish postcard notices to fix the error.
I’ve received a postcard in the past with updated information and it was no big deal. (In fact, I didn’t even realize there was a mistake in the first place.)
If you have a wedding website like this, it is so easy to update it with the correct information. However, don’t rely on your website to share the news; you may not reach all guests.
Finally, don’t freak out: at the end of the day, the wedding will still go on!
7. Forgetting to get a sample first.
It always helps to see the invitation in your hands, feel the paper, see the colors in person, and know — for sure! — if it is an invitation for you.
At Minted, you can get a sample invitation to see it for yourself here. They offer free sample kits along with samples with other options to suit your needs. It’s a great way to try out an invitation style BEFORE you commit to a large order, just in case you decide to go with another style.
VIDEO: Prefer to watch? Here’s a wedding planning vlog to help you avoid those tricky invite mistakes!
[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziIlj_h-kw4[/embedyt]
Get Wedding Invitation Samples Here!
Which of these wedding invitation mistakes have you seen before? Which mistakes did we help you avoid? Tell us in the comments below!
NEXT UP: Check out the new wedding invitations for 2023 on their website! Now that you know the wedding invitation mistakes to avoid, you’ll be well on your way to picking out the right invite for your big day. Get inspired here!
Happy Planning!
xo
Emma
This is a post in collaboration with Minted.
