Now that you have finalized your guest list, booked your venues, put deposits down on all of your vendors, and taken care of any rentals needed, the fun stuff can begin. At the top of the list are the Save the Dates and the Invitations.
When you start looking for the materials you want to send your guests, you may want to send Save the Date cards. I am sending ours out now for our wedding next summer because many of our friends and family have children so they will be planning family vacations or camps and summer sports that their children may be involved in; many employers want their employees to request their days off in advance as well, so you want to make sure if they would really like to attend and be a part of your special day, they will know about it enough in advance to plan the day (or days, in our case) off ahead of time.
With this in mind, this would be the time that you as a couple need to consider whether you want your day to include or exclude children. Some couples, especially those who will be hiring a videographer, may not want small children to take part in their event for fear of screaming, crying babies drowning out the words of their ceremony. We are including children in our special day because we want all of our family and friends to celebrate and enjoy the day with us.
When choosing the announcements you will be sending out, you need to take into consideration the theme of your day. If you are having a more family-oriented day, you may want to go with a not so formal looking Save the Date and Invitation. Depending on where you shop for these items online, you can have a matching motif for your Save the Dates, Invitations, RSVPs, and Thank You cards. Other couples may choose to have a different Save the Date, but have their Invitations and RSVPs match because they will be sent together in the same envelope.
The RSVPs are the true key to being organized for your day. Since our celebration will actually span an entire weekend and our venue includes a camping area and cabins that guests can stay in, it is imperative to include all of this information and also get the answers to all of these questions back on the RSVPs. I will be including places for our guests to check each separate day that they plan to attend, how many people will be attending the reception, how many people will be staying at the grounds for the weekend, if they will be in need of a cabin, and what choices they will want for the buffet dinner. As long as all of the guests answer these questions on the RSVP, I will know exactly how many people to expect each day, who will be staying when, and what they will be eating. But, as people know with any event, nothing is set in stone and there will most likely be some changes during the actual weekend, but at least I will have an approximate idea ahead of time. Also, make sure to put a small number on the back of each RSVP that coincides with the guests on your list so that when you receive your RSVPs back, you will know who has replied and who hasn’t.
Most wedding checklists want you to send the actual Invitations out approximately two months before your wedding, but I am planning to send mine out three to four months ahead of time. With being a school and trying to juggle wedding planning, I don’t want to wait until what I feel is the last minute to find out exactly how many people will be attending. This will also allow me to get a final number to the caterer sooner and make any changes that need to be made as a whole much sooner than the stressful last lap. Besides, I want to have a clear head for Finals Week and Graduation.
