Wedding Stationery - A Breakdown
If you happen to be toward the start of your planning journey and in looking around, have seen things talking about wedding ‘stationery,’ but are confused as to what it’s referring to, essentially, it’s the paper goods you’ll be mailing to those you intend to invite to your wedding :)
Getting married, unless you and your partner are planning to elope and have a very private ceremony with just the two of you, often means selecting what types of stationery you’d like to send out to your prospective guests in the months leading up to the big day.
Two of the main and most popular forms of wedding stationery are Save the Dates and an invitation suite. We wanted to do a quick breakdown of what these are, what should be included in each, and when you should aim to send them out.
It’s always our hope that the more knowledge you gain about what all goes into a wedding, the more confidence you’ll have in your ability to cross that finish line and the less stressful the whole process will be :)
Save The Dates
A Save the Date, in simple terms, is usually a singular piece of stationery that can serve as both an announcement of your upcoming nuptials as well as a reminder, given that it’s typically sent out first, anywhere from 8 to 10 months before the wedding.
If you’ve ever gone over to the house of a friend or family member and have seen something on their fridge with a photo of a couple and a date on it, chances are pretty good that it was a Save the Date.
While each piece of your wedding stationery can really look however you’d like it to and include any information you deem necessary, what we like to recommend, for those who may be a little more indecisive or unsure of what’s important to share, is having:
Your names (can be first and last or just first)
At least one nice photo of you and your partner (can be from an engagement shoot or just any photo that you have and like)
The date of your wedding in easy-to-read font
The general location of your wedding (city and state)
The URL of your wedding website (if you’re using one)
Invitation Suites
At first glance, you may be thinking to yourself - ‘I know what an invitation is, but what do you mean by suite?’
Well, in contrast to a Save the Date, when you go to send out your main invitation around 3 to 4 months before the wedding day, there may be multiple pieces of stationery included in the envelope this time around, and because of that, it’s often referred to as a ‘suite,’ or, a set of items.
To first quickly list out the primary things to be included on your invitation itself:
The day of the week, calendar date, and time the ceremony will be occurring
Your names
The address of your venue
Outside of your invitation, some other things you can include in your suite are stationery pieces relating to:
Welcome/’Wedding Weekend’ activities
Your rehearsal dinner
Registry information (if not provided through your Save the Date - you can also just include it in both)
RSVP card (if you aren’t doing it digitally through your website - which we recommend doing by the way!)
Final Comments
Generally speaking, once you book your venue and decide on when during the day you want your wedding to take place, you’re in a good spot to start piecing everything together!
After the significant details are nailed down, you can then switch your attention a little more towards the look of the stationery (colors, design, packaging, etc.)
These days, there are so many online resources such as Zazzle, Truly Engaging, and Minted to help you create each item with ease!
