Tips from Gail for ordering invitations

How Many?
If you write your guest list as couples or families you can work out how many invitations, save the date cards and Order of Service you will need.
Top Tip: Remember to order the amount of invites per address you are sending to, not for the total amount of guests.

If you are handwriting your guests' names on the invitations, it may be worth ordering a couple spare in case you make a mistake. Practice with the pen you will use on a spare piece of paper before starting on your real invitations. If you don't like your handwriting or don't want the hassle of getting it perfect, you can have your guests' names printed inside the invitations.

You may want to order a spare for your wedding album as a momento.

Timing
It is entirely up to you when you send out your invitations.
Most magazines and wedding planners recommend ordering invitations 6 months before your wedding date to send
out 2-3 months before your wedding. But everybody is different; there can be a lot of reasons for ordering earlier and later.

Earlier:
• If you are getting married abroad
• If you have guests who will be travelling a long distance and need accommodation
• If you are getting married in the peak wedding months June - early September
I have started designs for brides as early as a year in advance.

Later:
• Last minute wedding package deals
There are a lot of good deals out there at the moment, but they can be only 6 weeks notice.
Check with your wedding stationery company in advance to check they can turn invitations around quickly.
I can turn around invitations in a couple of weeks, sometimes less.

You can always send out a save the date card if you are nervous about your key guests not making it to your big day.
Watch this space for future blogs about save the date cards.

Budgets
There is a huge variety of prices in wedding invitations, you can buy invitations with your wedding details from High Street retailers for as little as 50p each. These invitations say little about you as a couple or your big day. Alternatively you can look at letterpress specialists offering a bespoke design service, these invitations can be as much as £7.00 for the invitation alone. There are some middle of the range companies offering a bespoke design service without the expensive printing service. This is the category that Entwine fits into. It is up to you to decide how much you want to show personal touches, you can imagine that the more details, the higher the budget.

Think carefully about all the elements you need, you may be able to make some yourself. It also may work out cheaper to stick with one company if you add all there elements together.

Watch the details
All stationery companies have different terms and conditions, check all the details.
Some companies charge for envelopes or VAT on top of the prices you see.
Some wedding stationery companies charge for samples, others are free, I don't charge for samples as it is a way for you to get to know what I do.
Some companies charge for postage seperately, others hide the costs by increasing the cost of the stationery.
I charge what the stationery packaged up costs for the weight.

Wording
I have come across so many wording variations, with every bride there is usually something a little different. On my website are some of the standard wordings I use. I have created loads of different variants and added notes at the bottom to add dress or venue etiquette, notes about the ceremony or gift requests.
Watch this space for future blogs about wording for weddings abroad and information notes.