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Emma's Wedding Diary: Wedding Stationery

I never thought I could get so excited about wedding stationery design, but it really is important! It's the first hint of the wedding theme for the guests, so it needs to be chosen well and effectively set the scene for the day.

Mum was quite relieved that she and Dad are no longer expected to send out the wedding invitations. As we don't live near them any more it seemed silly to send them all those names and addresses and then have all the RSVPs sent to them only for us to have to collect them. I found some handy wedding invitation wording variations in my Wedding Organizer Book that really helped.

There are thousands of designs out there to choose from. Specialist wedding stationers have huge catalogues full of them and can give lots of advice. Some have people that can come to your house and let you look through samples over a cup of tea. There's also the option of having the wedding invitiations handmade which I really like the sound of as then I'll know that ours will be really individual. There are lots of companies that offer this in my Wedding Organizer that I'm going to call later. I'm also tempted to get a calligrapher to make the invitations particularly striking.

Timing for wedding invitations is key...

Seeing as our wedding is slap bang in the middle of the summer I'm going to order them way in advance and send them at least four months before the day. It will also give us time to go over the proofs of the wedding invitation wording thoroughly. I'm going to order separate evening invitation versions too as we are inviting quite a lot of people to the reception only. Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to order a few extra just in case I make a mistake or three!

I'm going to send them all at the same time so no-one feels unnecessarily left out - I know my aunts will be on the phone to each other as soon as they get theirs! There are all kinds of things I need to include with them so I've made a list and stuck it on the fridge as my sanity check. Thank goodness for home computers and printers!

When a wedding invitation means more than an invite...

I must not forget to send invites to the minister and his wife, our parents and the attendants. Seems a bit strange as they all know it's happening but it's the done thing apparently.

Even though there's no chance Aunt Betty will be able to make it, due to her health, I'll send one to her anyway so she isn't left out and just not include her in the final numbers.

Wedding guest worries

There's been a minor baby boom amongst our friends over the last couple of years and we simply can't fit all of the kids in during the ceremony and meal. Joe rightly pointed out that most parents will just assume that small children are included when they read the wedding invitation, thinking they don't take up much room I guess. I'm a bit worried about offending them by asking people not to bring their children, but Joe is keen to put a brief explanation on the invite to make sure everyone knows where they stand. If there aren't too many, I may just phone them in advance. We'll need to be careful to be specific on the invitations - "Bob, Nelly and family" means that all kinds of girlfriends and boyfriends may turn up with various teenage cousins.

For the close family who can bring children I'm going to include details on the childcare arrangements for the day and if we do get that bouncy castle I think they should know so they can bring clothes and socks that are suitable.

Wedding stationery includes all kinds of things...

It's not just the wedding invitations that need to be arranged, but all kinds of other things that would be good to order at the same time. Then it'll all match and also some companies offer discounts for bulk orders. I need to decide whether to have our 'thank you' cards printed with the same design too. One thing that will be handy is a stack of printed 'save the date' cards so people can stick it on their fridge or in their diary and not plan to go abroad on the same day by accident.

The Order of Service sheets are going to be worth the effort as they're not only easier for the guests to use but also make nice souvenirs of the day. I'm not going to write out the contents until we've finalised everything with the vicar, especially the music.

For the reception venue one of the most important things to co-ordinate with the theme will be the place cards as everyone will look at them! They can include a miniature version of the motif used on the invitations, so can little cake boxes for both the guests and friends who won't be able to make it. The venue is providing linen napkins, but if they weren't we could even have matching serviettes! One thing I do want to get is a really smart guest book for everyone to write in during the reception and many stationery companies sell those too.

Right, better get on that phone!