The Complete Wedding Stationery Guide - Part 4
Finally! The Mailing!
Before sending your invitations, take a sample to the post office with all pieces to confirm that you're applying the proper postage before mailing! If you have international addresses, it is important to ask for postage for each individual country to which an invitation is being sent. These measures will ensure prompt delivery of your invitations.
Once everything is properly stamped, you will want to adhere to the following timelines for mailing your invitations:
Four to six weeks before the event is the general rule for mailing your invitations to ensure your guests receive their invitations and are able to respond in sufficient time. If you have guests traveling from outside the regional area, it is courteous to mail their invitations 6-8 weeks ahead of your wedding date so that they can make travel arrangements. As well, if you are planning your wedding around a holiday weekend, it is a good idea to get your invitations out 6-8 weeks prior so that your guests are sure to make your wedding the focus of the holiday.
Regardless of when the invitations are sent, they should all be mailed at the same time.
Now, sit back and relax - and start thinking about other paper planning! Your wedding reception will allow you to further personalize your affair and carry the theme of your invitations right through the day of your wedding. These stationery pieces can include invitations to the rehearsal dinner, the wedding program, placecards or escort cards, menus, and table numbers. I can help you put together a comprehensive plan of coordinating papers that will help create a lasting impression.
Personally For You also carries papers for wedding-related occasions such as bridal showers, teas, and engagement parties.
The Thoughtful and the Tasteful
Other printed stationery that is both useful and appropriate:
The Ceremony Card
If you are planning an intimate wedding with a small group of family and friends, but are then going to have a bash to
celebrate, enclose a ceremony card along with the reception card.
Wedding Announcements
Send these out the day of your wedding to friends who you did not invite to your wedding, but to whom you would
like to announce your marriage! The traditional announcement would look like your invitation, in ecru or white paper
with black ink - engraved or thermographed in the style of your wedding invitations. Mail in double envelopes.
Gift Received Cards
A gift received card is a helpful and tactful way of acknowledging the gift of your guest without delay, especially
if you are having a large wedding or an extended honeymoon. The card acknowledges a gift and notes that a personal
thank-you will soon follow.
Personalized Stationery
Traditionally, the bride took on the role of thanking the couple's guests for wedding gifts. Nowadays, however,
the groom is more likely to lend a hand or shoulder the burden. When he does, his monogram should be on cards
he is writing, hers on the notes she will write.
Notecards with the married couple's name, e.g., "Mr. and Mrs. Johnson," are used by husband and wife for replying to formal invitations, sending thank-you's, personal notes, or an invitation.
