Your getting married – congratulations!
Everyone wants their wedding to be unique and one that people will remember. Your wedding stationery is an intrinsic part of your overall wedding look and style. It can convey to your guests the kind of atmosphere you would like at your wedding whether it be a large formal affair or an intimate celebration with friends and even be an expression of your personalities. Your wedding stationery can give your guests their first impressions about your wedding, so make sure that their first impressions are good ones.

The style of wedding stationery you choose may be inspired by a certain colour or flower that you are planning to use on the day or the setting for your wedding may influence your choice of design of stationery. Whatever the inspiration, your chosen style can be conveyed to your guests from your first announcements, right through to the big day itself.

Once you have found a design you like, how do you know what types of wedding stationery you need and when will you need them:

SET A DATE
Save the date cards – send these out as soon as you have decided to tie the knot. Make sure that all you want to come can make it.

YOUR INVITES
Wedding invitations – Send these 7 – 12 weeks before your wedding, give your guests plenty of time to reply and for you to make the necessary arrangements.

Evening invitations – send these out at the same time as your main invitations.

HINT: if have wedding guests are invited both your wedding and reception, save money by including the reception details within the wedding invitation rather than send a separate evening invitation.

HINT: Order a few spares, you never know when you might need to invite a forgotten aunt or replace a guest who has had to drop out unexpectedly
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RSVP cards – These are sent out with the invitations. Convenient for guests, they ensure a speedy reply. You can also use these to find out important information like if any of your guests are vegetarian or have food allergies.

HINT: You can also use these to gather information that will help personalize the wedding for your guests. For instance you can ask your guests to choose their 3 favourite songs to dance to. Then they’ll have no excuses not to get up on that dance floor!

Guest information cards – these should also be sent out with the invitations. Make sure that all your guest have all the information they need at hand. These can include directions to the wedding and reception venues, details of hotels for your guests to stay in and even information on your wedding list.

HINT: Much nicer than your guests receiving beautifully designed invitations stuffed full of odd bits of paper with different bits of information on. Your guests are less likely to lose these too!

THE BIG DAY
Once you have sorted out all your invitations then you need to start thinking about what you will need on the big day itself!

The Ceremony
Order of Service or Order of Day – these are detailed programme for a church service or an outline of proceedings for a civil ceremony.

HINT: These are often kept as a momento of the day and should reflect what is important to you, make these personal to you.

The Reception
Table Plan – these are a good way to let your guests know where they will be seated for the reception, it should be clear and easy for your guests to read.

HINT: A large, clearly visible table plan at the entrance to the reception will let your guest know that they are in the right place if they have arrive from a ceremony held elsewhere.

Table numbers or names – Making it easy for the guests to find their tables, these can also add to your personalization of the venue.

HINT: You don’t just have to the tables identified by numbers, you can make things more personal by giving each table name. This could be names that mean something to you both eg. Places where you have been together. Keep it personal and make it fun, your guests will love it.

Name place cards – A hand written name place card lets your guests know where to sit and at the same time says that you care that they are there with you on your special day.

HINT: if you are worried about your hand writing being too messy to write these yourself you can always hire a calligrapher to do this for you.

Or, if you want a more fun and quirky feel you could get children to write them for you - a good way to involve any little ones and it looks cute too!

Menus – These enhance your table decoration whilst at the same time informing your guests of the courses and wine they are about to enjoy.

THE MARRIED COUPLE
You have enjoyed your special day and are surrounded by wedding presents from your lovely guests, there is just one thing left to do before you settle down to enjoy married life.

Thank you cards – These are a great way to say thank you and remind your guests of what a great day they had.

HINT: Why not enclose a picture of the bride and groom.

AND FINALLY
The team at The DOO are always happy to discuss your stationery plans and would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or would like to see our collection online you can find us at www.thedoo.co.uk

Happy Planning!
Avril O’shea
The Doo Ltd.

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