The Wedding Invitations and Wedding Announcements

Wedding announcements and wedding invitations provide distinct purposes and a few thought should go into figuring out who receives which. There is a great deal to undertake when preparing a wedding and here are a few useful suggestions to use when determining who to include on each of your mailing lists.

Wedding Invitations are mailed to friends and family members you wish to invite to go to the actual wedding ceremony. When planning your wedding ceremony, it is a good plan to at first determine a list of those friends, family members and business associates you want at the wedding ceremony itself. Make sure you remember to include your wedding reception party as well in your head count. This number will allow you to determine the venue for your ceremony. Perhaps the chapel is a more sensible choice than the huge main sanctuary, for instance, should you be considering a church wedding. Or, maybe the main ballroom is not required if a more compact room will do.

When making the order for those wedding invitations, make sure to add a few additional for unexpected inclusions in your list or in case you mistakenly address a few.

Wedding Announcements are sent to tell family and friends of your marriage if they did not get wedding invitations. Announcements don't include the details of the wedding ceremony itself and are generally mailed on the day of the occasion. They are used for announcing your wedding to people you may not know very well to invite to the wedding ceremony or who may live very far away to be present at the wedding. They are ideal for work associates or to let people be aware of your name change. They can also be sent to announce a wedding if you have eloped or if only an extremely small group was included in a destination wedding.

Just like formal as wedding invitations, wedding announcements enable those important people to you, to realize that you have made it official and are usually ordered at the same time as your wedding invitations, and are printed in similar fashion. As with wedding invitations, ordering a few extra is a must.

Wedding Reception Invitations offer a 3rd option for celebrating your wedding and usually demand separate forms of notification. Reception cards are more popular to invite guests and share information of the reception and are part of the wedding invitation. Normally all attendees invited to the wedding ceremony are also invited to the following wedding reception. However, for more intimate events, it is possible that a bigger group is invited to the reception separately. For this, a formal wedding reception invitation is suitable. These too are printed and ordered at the same time as the wedding invitations and announcements.

Regardless of whether someone is on your wedding invitation, wedding announcement or wedding reception list, make sure to keep all 3 lists updated. Avoid total embarrassment by failing to include a person or by sending them an incorrect invitation. And, keep a number of each on hand for memory books.

Wedding Invitation Frequently Asked Questions

The etiquette concerning wedding invitations is very precise. Every phrase expresses a certain meaning, which is why it is extremely essential to get the wording correctly.  These are the FAQ’s about wedding invitations.

Question: What is the Difference Between "The Pleasure of Your Company" and "The Honour of Your Presence"?

Answer: This is actually a very easy one: use the phrase "The honour of your presence" on an invitation to a wedding in a house of worship, and use "The pleasure of your company" for a wedding ceremony held anywhere else. It is customary to use the British spelling of the word "honour", particularly for a formal wedding. Be sure to be consistent, so if you spell honor as "honour", also use the British spelling "favour" for favor, as in "The favour of a reply is requested".

Question: When Should Invitations Be Mailed?

Answer: You need to give your guests adequate notice, so that they have sufficient time to buy plane tickets, find the perfect dress and wedding jewelry, and schedule time off from work. Six to eight weeks before the wedding is the usual time frame for mailing out invitations. That also allows guests enough time to send in their R.S.V.P. so that you can get an accurate head count. If you feel the need to notify guests about your upcoming nuptials more than two months in advance, do so with a save the date card.

Question: What is the Difference between Engraving and Thermography?

Answer: Engraving is the most conventional form of printing a wedding invitation. A copper plate is etched with the invitation wording, and then the paper is run through a press over the copper plate. The result is that the words are raised on the surface of the paper in a very elegant fashion. Thermography is a far less expensive method in which powder is combined with ink to print letters which are slightly raised. The easiest way to tell the two apart is that when an invitation has been engraved, the paper will be slightly indented on the back. The ink will also be less shiny than in the case of thermography. While thermography is popular because of its lower price point, there are some who find it to be in poor taste; it is often called "fake engraving". If the wedding is to be formal, either in terms of a fancy venue or an opulent bridal gown and wedding jewelry, stick with traditional engraving.

Question: How Should the Invitation Be Worded When the Bride's Parents Are Divorced?

Answer: The one thing that should be avoided is giving the appearance that the parents of the bride and groom are still a couple, no matter how much the bride wishes for a "perfect" family for her wedding. The names of the bride's parents should be on two separate lines, starting with her mother's name. Step-parents are sometimes, but not always, included on the invitation, depending on family dynamics. If the parents' names are to appear alone, the invitation would be worded: Mrs. Margaret Smith Green / Mr. Richard John Green. The format for the bride's mother's name is: First, Maiden, Last (assuming she still uses her former married name; if she has reverted to her maiden name, the format would be Mrs. First, Middle, Maiden). Note that the correct title for a divorced mother of the bride is still "Mrs.". The form "Ms." is not used on formal social occasions, and once married, a woman can never revert to being a "Miss".

An elegant wedding invitation helps to set the tone for a wedding, so it is worth the effort to get it right. This will establish positive mood, when your wedding invitations arrive in the mail, your guests will truly understand the message you are trying to send, and they will be excited to attend your wedding.