Save the dates have become pretty popular throughout the years. Although they are not necessary, it is nice to give guests a heads up (especially for a summer wedding) so they can plan trips accordingly. Plus, let’s be real here, we are so excited to marry the love of our life that we want to announce it to those we care about – and we want to use one of the hundred engagement pictures that were taken…We used one of our engagement pictures for our low cost post card version that was created by my talented sister in law. In addition to our wedding date and city, ours had website information for guests to learn more about us and our wedding.
Have you ever received a wedding invite where about 10 pieces of paper fall out with glitter, gems or ribbons? I have, they sure look expensive and I typically lose half of the pieces before the week ends. After the wedding, I toss it in the trash…
Is there something wrong with spending a fortune to have a different piece of glammed up paper for every tiny little aspect of the wedding? No. A lot of people do – including most of my relatives. I would personally rather put my money and energy into something else, so I did. When it came to wording I looked up all sorts of wedding invite etiquette, but in the end, there truly are no rules. My sister in law designed our wedding invites that had all of the necessary info on one piece of paper:
Front:
- Names of parents
- Our names
- The date and time
- Ceremony location
Back:
- Reception location
- Link to our website
Along with the invite we had a pre-stamped return envelope for the RSVP. If you really want to save money you could always do a post card RSVP as the stamps are cheaper and you don’t have to buy additional envelopes. I have the handwriting of a five year old boy so the thought of writing out addresses for our 350 invited guests was not even an option. My sister in law designed labels from a spreadsheet of names and addresses I gave her and she had the return address printed right on the envelopes (she is a rock star).
As mentioned previously, we created a free website where we shared the whole scoop about the big day-and more. This way, our guests could find out more about our special day without waiting for the invitation. There was also a lot of information that could not be found on our simple save the dates and wedding invites. On our website we shared:
- The story of how we met and a little info on or lives
- Directions to the ceremony and reception
- Registry information
- Accomidation Information
- A little snippet about our families
- Reception music request page
- Guest book
- Engagement pictures
Everybody has their own style and opinion about what is classy, tacky, ugly or beautiful – that will never change. All that matters is that you are happy with the final product – and of course that your guests are able to make it to the wedding based on the information that is provided. You can link to our wedding invites, RSVP and website for ideas below. Cheers!
Tidbits 