Your wedding stationery & more importantly your wedding invitations will provide your guests with their first glimpse as to what style your wedding will take. Today there are many choices available for the style of your stationery & your wedding invitations.
Your wedding stationery will cost a sizable portion of your budget if you choose to have the expensive engraved type from a printer. However, printing your own at home can produce equally as stylish results & save you a packet as well!
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Here is a guide as to the various elements you will need for your wedding stationery:
Save-the-Date Cards: although technically not part of your wedding stationery, they do have an important role to play. They are sent out as a precursor to the formal invitation & are intended to ensure your guests keep your wedding date free.
Lots of printers & online sites offer a wide range of designs to choose from. You can also have them made into fridge magnets. The design of your save-the-date cards does not have to match that of your other stationery.
Send these out as soon as you have set your wedding date & booked your venue.
Wedding Invitations: these are the first glimpse your guests will get of how formal, traditional or casual your wedding will be. There is a whole lot of etiquette to follow with your wedding invitations, especially concerning who they should be from, reply cards & gift lists.
The choice of invitation style is very wide ranging, from traditional single sided flat cards, folded cards, pocket styles & styles with extra ‘pockets’ for important enclosures.
Choose a design & style that will reflect that of your wedding, particularly if you are having a themed wedding.
Invitation Enclosures: traditionally only the invitation itself would have been sent but these days it has become the norm to send the invitation with a range of other informative enclosures as well. The jury is still out on whether or not these conform to wedding etiquette but there can be little doubt that including as much information as possible can save you a lot of time & phone calls Typical enclosures include:
RSVP card & envelope
Menu
Directions to ceremony/venue
Travel information for those who are not local
Accommodation information
Gift list or registry details
Wedding Programs: these are designed as a schedule for your ceremony intended to let your guests know what will happen during the ceremony & in which order. They are also known as Order of Service.
Traditionally these were simple fold cards detailing hymns & readings, but like so many things to do with weddings, they are far more than that these days. Some couples choose to turn them into mini books about themselves & include stories, poems & prose significant to them along with photographs of themselves. The idea is to create keepsakes of the wedding for the guests.
Creative ideas for wedding programs include printing them on silk fans, making them into scrolls & even creating fans from them.
Other Stationery: this includes menus (if you haven’t included them with your invitations) which you can display on the tables or give one to each guest on their place setting.
Place cards - etiquette says that these should be handwritten but I have seen plenty that are printed. Traditionally a small folded card, creative brides have come to use pebbles, wedding favors & even cookies as alternatives. You can also present your name cards using small frames or pretty holders which you guests can take home with them afterwards.
Seating Plan - this is a large board displayed at the entrance to the reception room as an aid to helping guests find there tables & seats. You can make these yourself or have one custom made with your wedding colors in the design.
Table numbers - strictly speaking not stationery but an important consideration none the less. These are just cards which display your table numbers or names so your guests can find there tables. If you have table numbers then you will need to have some kind of seating plan on display.
Guest book - some online stationers will also offer a coordinating guest book to match your wedding stationery, you may also be able to purchase a matching wedding album too.
Author Resource:-
Georgina Clatworthy is a dedicated full time writer who composes informative articles related to wedding favors and wedding. She is connected with 1WeddingSource, today’s leading wedding social networking planning site.
