#1

OVER-THEMING YOUR INVITATIONS

 

Coming up with the theme of your wedding is a daunting task, so once you’ve figured it out, you can’t help but want to incorporate that theme into every aspect of your planning. Themes can vary from just a basic color palette to an all-out, very specific theme. It’s the specific themes that you have to watch out for when it comes to designing your wedding invitations. When you get too wrapped up in your theme, design mistakes can happen by wanting every aspect of your theme in your invites. It’s best to keep it simple or else the important information can be overlooked because it will get overshadowed. It’s best to leave the majority of the theme to the wedding day itself.

 

#2

UNDER-THEMING YOUR INVITATIONS

 

The other side to incorporating too much theme is not incorporating enough. If you don’t have a set theme for your invitations, it won’t match any of the other aspects of your wedding. Believe it or not, black and white invitations typically still have a theme, which may be that color palette itself or a basic version of the how the wedding will look. What you want to avoid is picking out an invitation design just because it’s pretty, without setting a specific color theme. Colors are the easiest way to match your theme without being too matchy-matchy. But if you, for example, decide on a red and yellow floral invitation, but your wedding colors end up being blue and green, the cohesive look will essentially be ruined.

 

#3

NOT PROOFREADING

 

Not proofreading 2, 3, even 4 times can be a HUGE mistake. Most printers will not double check spelling and grammar before printing, and designers will check some spelling and grammar, but there are some things you provide that they won’t know, like names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. If guests receive an invitation with errors, the illusion of professionalism will be ruined and it could lead to confusion if the event information is wrong. If you’re worried, give the information to a few different people to check the information instead of doing it all yourself. Having a fresh pair of eyes will always help.

 

 

#4:

FOCUSING ALL YOUR ENERGY ON THE INSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE & NONE ON THE OUTSIDE

 

This is a really important one for me. So many people spend all their time and money perfecting the physical Invitation suite, they forget that the envelope is just as important. Why ruin a beautiful invitation with a boring or unprofessional outer envelope? The envelope is the very first thing a guest will see, and if no effort has been made on the outside, or if it doesn’t match, it can have a negative effect on how the invitation is received. I’m a big advocate of hand addressing or printing on envelopes, and trying to avoid labels or using cheap pens to do the addressing. You don’t have to be a professional calligrapher to have a beautiful envelope. Invest in a more professional pen, like a brush pen, and maybe even a custom stamp for your return address. Simple changes like that that don’t cost that much more can make all the difference with how your invitation as a whole is viewed.

 

#5

NOT PUTTING POSTAGE ON REPLY

 

This one is really simple but many couples tend to forget this. If you expect your guests to send a response back to RSVP or not, you need to provide the postage so they can easily send it back to you. Making your guests pay for postage back is bad manners, and would reflect poorly on you. Remember when you’re creating a budget that an invitation use at least two stamps, maybe more depending on how heavy the whole invitation is (see below).

 

#6

NOT WEIGHING A SAMPLE BEFORE BUYING POSTAGE

 

Postage weights are very specific, and if you have three or more cards in your invitation suite, plus something wrapped around them, odds are you aren’t going to be able to use just one stamp. Instead of estimating how much postage you will need, make sure you put one whole invitation together (exactly how you will be sending it out) and take it to your local post office to be weighed. Not only will this save you from the headache that is getting your invitations returned for insufficient postage, but it will also save you money. Postage is very expensive, and over-estimating how much you’ll need and putting too many stamps on your invitation can be a waste of money. You’ll thank yourself later for planning ahead!

 

#7:

LEAVING DAY-OF STATIONERY & THANK YOU CARDS UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE

 

Don’t get me wrong, invitations are definitely the most important piece of paper you will order through your wedding process (besides your marriage license), but forgetting about the stuff after is a huge mistake. Designers still need adequate time, if not the same amount of time they had for doing your invitations, for completing the rest of your printed items (aka programs, menus, place cards, thank you cards, etc.). Leaving it until the last minute can leave you scrambling to come up with something yourself or paying rush fees from designers and printers for waiting so long. Thank You cards are especially easy to forget, as you don’t need them until after your wedding, but guests expect thank you cards fairly soon after the wedding, and it’ll take a while to hand-write the cards so having them right away will leave you more time to complete them.

 

#8

MISCOUNTING INVITATION NUMBERS

 

When you order invitations and save the dates, it’s a good idea to already have a list of people you plan to invite to the wedding. If you send save the dates, expect to send the same amount of invitations. A big mistake people make is counting wrong when figuring out the number they are sending. Remember that you send one invitation per couple or household, not one invitation per person on your guest list. This can cut the number you need in half sometimes, and ordering double the invitations is a waste of your budget. But you also want to be as accurate as possible in your counting so you don’t accidentally buy too little number of invitations. Keep in mind that you want to order 10-15 extra invites and envelopes just in case something happens, you forgot about someone, or you mess up the addressing of the envelopes.

 

#9

NOT NUMBERING YOUR RSVP CARDS

 

This is a controversial topic in the wedding world, but I believe that numbering your RSVP cards and keeping track of what number goes with what invitations can save you a lot of trouble in the future. Invisible ink pens can be used so you don’t disrupt the vibe of your invitations. This is extremely beneficial for wedding planning because you can not only keep track of who hasn’t sent a response back so you can reach out to them, but also if someone has poor handwriting, you can tell who wrote which card.

 

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