posted
Inspired by the tangent in the Married thread, there's something I need to know from all of you experienced Hatrackers who have been invited to multiple weddings.
My wedding is August 7th, and it promises to be fun, informal, cheap, and a little quirky. We're inviting basically everyone we know, and lots of people will need to travel a long way if they're going to come.
So I guess the actual invitations are usually sent out 6 weeks or so from the actual date, right? Which means there wouldn't be enough time to book tickets and stuff. So when/how should I inform guests who don't already know they're coming? Call them up and let them know? I've heard about "save the date" cards, but for 130 guests, that could get really expensive if we have to mail out things twice for this.
Any ideas?
And also, what's the coolest/quirkiest wedding invitation you've ever received? What would be great for our picnic-in-the-park type wedding?
Posts: 2220 | Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
quirky... I've heard of this somewhere but haven't seen it. Fold Paper plates, and write your invitations on them.. I think I'd at least fold them in half and try to cut two semirectangular cards per plate. Or if you don't wish to write your invitations print the blurb out on labels and stick them on the plate.
AJ (the cheap paper plates that are lousy for holding food with the scallops at the edges are the ones I was thinking of)
posted
Since your wedding is not going to be "conventional", I see no reason why you should have to abide by the "conventional" restraints of wedding invitation mailing. How much notice do you think would be good for the people that you want to invite? Two months? Ten weeks? Twelve weeks? If the majority of the people you are inviting are internet users, you could send them an email invitation a couple months ahead of time (so that they can make plans) and then send out the mail invitation 6 weeks before the wedding.
I'll have to think about coming up with ideas for the actual design of the invitations and let you know if I have any flashes of brilliance. Maybe invitations that look like a picnic basket?
posted
I made mine for cheap. I used some purple swirly cardstock with vellum on top of it. The vellum had a cool design that kind of threw off the pattern under it. The info was printed on the vellum using my computer, then the vellum was gluesticked to the cardstock. and they were tied together with ribbon. It sounds alot girlier than it was. Like I said it was pretty cheap and you can be really creative.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
No matter how cheaply you make the invitations themselves, the postage for 130 would be almost $50.
Posts: 1794 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
My boyfriend's brother and his fiancee sent an e-mail out to all their friends/family to let them know to keep the date free. It was also an announcement of their engagement, though, at least to some people (most people knew by then, and I have to admit that I laughed out loud when I got the e-mail as I'd spent the whole morning talking to him and his family about wedding plans).
Posts: 1550 | Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
This is great. I'll be the maid of honor for my best friend's wedding in a year (3/19/05). It's going to be difficult since my friend is already stressing out and I'm going to be halfway across the country for a good portion of the planning time.
At least I know where to come when we've got any questions Posts: 959 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I always thought 6 weeks was the minimum. No reason I can see that you can't send 'em 10-12 weeks beforehand. (Much more than that and you might have to worry about people misplacing it and/or forgeting the date.)
I love AJ's paper plate idea. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Our wedding invitations were handmade paper with roses that Tom had given me ground up into the paper. We put vellum on top a la PSI Teleport. It was very cool and sentimental, but it took us months to hand make all that paper! They cost us about $15 total to make (ribbon, vellum and envelopes were all we had to buy, the paper was recycled).
I agree with everyone else...send them out earlier.
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I made our wedding announcements. I decided to do the vellum thing a little differently. I printed our photo on the vellum and placed it over a piece of cardstock (with the information) attaching the two together with a small heart-shaped brad. I can't remember how much they cost altogether, but it was considerably less than we would have spent ordering them from somewhere.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
aargh, my cutesy, cheesy craftiness is coming out. For maybe $10 you can buy a magnetic strip roll at your local hobby lobby. These magnet strips can be easily cut with scissors to the desired size and have adhesive on the back. All you have to do is peel off the paper and stick the adhesive side to whatever. Put these magnets on the back of the invitations (paper plate or not) and then they can stick it on their refrigerators so they don't forget the date.
posted
Save the Date "cards" are appropriate for notifaction for people who have to travel.
"Save the Date"s can be just about anything. Some write a news letter to friends/family with information about how they are and their plans on getting married on X date and X place.
Some people send quirky postcards with silly pictures and a "Just to let you know, we're getting married on X date at X place, the invitations are coming, but we just wanted to let you know early".
Some people make little magnents (related to the theme of the wedding usually) with the date. Or with a picture of the bride and groom with the date.
Some people send all the females in the family (and friends) a single carnation with a little note telling of the upcoming wedding.
You get the idea
There is a website somewhere out there with different little phrases and whatnot... I'll see if I can find it.
posted
I found this at one website. "Out of town guests should be sent a "Save the Date" card, preferably with hotel suggestions, in time for them to make travel accommodations (usually 8-10 weeks in advance)."
Could you send them to "just" the out of town guests? It would be much cheaper, I would think, unless most of your wedding guests are going to be from out of town.
This was at another site. "Invitations should be sent out six to eight weeks before your wedding date. If you have a large number of out of town guests, we suggest eight weeks to give your guests the courtesy of making reservations and securing travel arrangements more economically."
When it put in "wedding informal quirky" I found a website that talked about "themes" for weddings. One of them was "fancy dress" described as "for a quirky wedding that breaks all traditions, come up with a fancy dress theme and get everyone into it … including the celebrant, the entire bridal party and all the guests too … 60’s Hippies, 70’s Disco, 80’s Retro or your favourite TV show! Imagine what fun you could have – and the photos would be hilarious!"
I like this invitaion. Apparently, a couple decided to go with a "Ransom" note with cut-out letters that read "This is your last chance to see 'em single."
Anyway, I'd think about sending out the invitations to the out of town guests 8-10 before the wedding and then the rest at 6 weeks.
Posts: 171 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
For our wedding, since we were inviting a number of out of state guests, I made up a packet of information on the area and mailed copies of it a few days after I sent the invitation out. The invitations went out 9 weeks or so before the wedding.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh boy, I come home from work, and well, there's the same stuff waiting for me on Hatrack.
Okay, save the date cards are truly a waste of money and time. If the people are going to make the effort to travel outside of their home country to come visit you, then they deserve the full invitation with a short personal letter inside. They also need all of the conceivable time possible to make their travel arrangements. Just go ahead and send out those invitations.
For the rest (those who have a short plane ride or who can drive to the event), the rule of thumb is based on the time between your RSVP date and the date of the wedding. If your caterer needs three weeks notice, double that amount of time and send out the invites 6 weeks before the event. If they need 4 weeks notice, then send them out 8 weeks ahead of time.
Never send them out less than six weeks ahead of time. You need one week (or more) for the invitations to arrive at your guest's home and about the same time for their response to be mailed back to you. The week in between is the minimum time for them to make their decision to come and to make travel arrangements.
Eight weeks is generally the best, or so I've seen so far.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
How much notice do you think would be good for the people that you want to invite? Two months? Ten weeks? Twelve weeks? If the majority of the people you are inviting are internet users, you could send them an email invitation a couple months ahead of time (so that they can make plans) and then send out the mail invitation 6 weeks before the wedding.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
*
