Often times wedding couples ask, What stationery will I need for my wedding? In this article, I am sharing the stationery cards you may need when planning a wedding.
Personal Stationery
You will want personal stationery to write thank you notes as soon as you receive a gift or want to give thanks in a note to a friend or family member that has been there for you during the wedding planning stages.
Be My Bridesmaid / Groomsman Cards
These personal greeting cards are super sweet way of asking your friend or family member to join your wedding party. Given along with a gift or gift bag is a thoughtful way to celebrate them.
Save the Date Cards
You can include your names (first and last are important), your wedding date, city and state you will marry in and the words “Invitation to follow.” This will allow your guests to mark their calendars and plan ahead if travel arrangements are needed. Think about your color scheme, theme, and personal style when working with an invitation designer. Pinterest is a great place to gather visual details. You will pull together your favorite ideas and see a pattern for designing stationery. You can make your board private so your guests don’t see all of your wedding day details before your big day.Save the dates should be mailed out 6 to 12 months before your wedding day. It is not recommended you mail your save the date cards out less than 4 months in advance. At that point, just mail out your wedding invitations.
Bridal Shower Invitations
Most times your bridal shower planner will ask you about your theme and color scheme for your wedding. They may want to incorporate the design and visual feel of your wedding into the shower invite design. Party invitations are mailed out 4 weeks before the event.
Rehearsal Dinner Invitations
Invitations to your wedding rehearsal and dinner are used when you are inviting your relatives, and bridal party to your rehearsal and dinner. Mailed out 4 weeks in advance.
Wedding Invitations
Your wedding invitation invites your guests to your wedding ceremony. Be sure to give a hint to your wedding color scheme, theme, and formality on your invitation design. Your invitation designer will work closely with you to ensure you visually communicate your personal wedding style through a custom design. The wording on the wedding invitation can be tricky. See our many ideas for wording your invite. You will want to mail out wedding invitations 6 to 8 weeks before your wedding. This will give your guests plenty of time to plan on attending.
Response Cards
Reply cards are used to get an accurate count of guests who will attend your wedding. The response date is normally around 2-4 weeks before your wedding day. Normally the caterer will have a set date the final count is needed. Work with them closely to ensure you meet this deadline. On the card you will have “Kindly respond by…” or similar sentence. Then a “M_______” or “Name(s)_______” to indicate the guest to write who will be attending. In some cases you will add “____# of seats are reserved in your name” to indicate to the guest you have save them 2 seats. I see this done often today with our wedding couples. This way if a family of 7 wants to come and sees you have reserved 2 seats for them, then they will understand only the adults are invited. You will have ___ will attend ___ unable to attend or a similar line of text also. Next, you may need a specific count for food. You are welcome to add this to your reply card. The address and name on the front of your reply card envelope should be the person in charge of getting the
Map / Direction Cards
You will want to include a map and or direction card if your guests are traveling in an area they are not familiar with. A fancy watercolor map can be created by an illustrator to add whimsy to your stationery. You can have your illustrator add places of importance and where they can visit during their stay. Otherwise a card with simple directions or addresses is perfectly great.
Ceremony Programs
Wedding programs are used to show your guests who your wedding party is and the sequence of events during your ceremony. This program can be a folder card with details of each person in the wedding party or a simple 5 x 7″ card with just the sequence. Having an illustrator illustrate each person in the wedding party is super cute also. “In memory of” is often included on the back of the program.
Menus
Menus for your wedding reception dinner are a perfect way to let your guests know what they will be enjoying. You can address each menu with the guests names to show they guests where they are seated at the table. Most times the wedding couples names are at the top of the page with the wedding date. The design is created to match your color scheme and wedding style.
Place Cards
Small seating cards with your guests names on them with the table number they will be seated at.
Favor Tags
You may want favor tags with your guests names on them to double as place cards / escort cards also. Or you can just have “Thank You…” or your names printed on them. A fun place to match your theme and color scheme again to pull together your wedding look.
Table Number Cards
You will want to use table numbers to indicate to your guests what table they will be seated at. You can have place cards or escort cards at the entrance of your reception to help your guests find their table in an organized manner. Another option is to for go the place cards and have one seating chart at the entrance. This way guests will find their name and table number and be seated easily.
Thank You Cards
Have a nice stack of thank you cards that match your color scheme and personal style ready at hand to give thanks. You will want to mail thank you cards out as soon as you receive the gift. If you wait, you will have a huge stack to write all at once. It is important to write and mail your thank you cards out as soon as possible. Don’t wait 1 month to do it. The sooner the better.
Announcements
You will want to mail out wedding announcements if there are people who were not able to make it to your wedding or was not invited. If they went to your wedding, you do not have to mail them a wedding announcement.
Serving wedding couples and event planners since 1998.
Being highly experienced invitation designers, we realize just how important it is to customize your invitations to express your personal style. We have excellent design ideas to offer you so that your invites will stand out among the others and get more fabulous responses from your guests!