I thought I hadn’t shared my save the dates, but I realized today I had already shared them and the envelopes, how I addressed them, etc! So for today’s post, I decided to share our invitations and the detail photos our photographer captured.
If you haven’t read my save the date post yet, take a look back to see who I used for my invitation set, how I addressed the envelopes, what stamps I used and more. I absolutely loved my invitations, and addressing each one gave me so much joy. In my invitations, I also included an rsvp slip for guests to fill out.
Wedding Invitation Tips
1. Keep Your Addresses Digitally, or Print a Special List
I received an address book with my new, married name during the engagement season, but I chose to not use it for my official invitation list. I found it much more efficient to keep a separate guest list with the relevant addresses, then highlight or mark off the people as I addressed.
This really helped keep me organized and prevented me from leaving someone out or filling out an envelope for someone twice.
2. Number Your RSVPs + Create a Coordinating Spreadsheet
The first piece of advice I give every bride I come in contact with is— number your RSVPs! I had a surprisingly high number of RSVPs returned with no name and just an rsvp yes or no. This made it difficult to make my table arrangements and know for certain who was coming and who wasn’t. If I had thought to write tiny numbers on the back of the cards and make an excel document with the family or person attached to that number, that would have saved me so much time!
3. Google is Your Best Friend
I had so, so many questions about the proper naming process for various family arrangements when it came time to address my envelopes. The only way I could nail down the correct (or close enough to correct) naming situation, was to google the heck out of my question or specific situation until I could find the answer. At the time, this process was annoying. Now though, I know so much more about addressing etiquette off the top of my head, which honestly comes in handy more often than I thought.
This guide from the knot has clear answers for the most common questions, but otherwise I just found it best to google my specific question with as much detail as possible.
4. Be Specific About Those Invited
It might be easier to put “The Rogers Family” on the envelope, but if you’re planning a wedding with no kids or you’re on a tight guest list count, make sure to specifically incorporate who is invited on the invitation. There are some tips in the knot guide I linked above, but I can tell you from experience, this makes things much less awkward for you and your invitees.
5. Digitally Record RSVPs
Keeping a random pile of returned RSVP cards is just asking for trouble. I found it best to digitally record RSVPs as soon as they came in, or in batches once I had accrued a few at a time. This will make it much easier when you go to make your seating chart (I definitely recommend the wedding wire digital seating chart tool!) or upload anything concerning your confirmed guests.
I was so thrilled when my photographers said they could do detail shots like this! I have always loved looking at these. The box is from The Mrs. Box, and it was a big splurge for how tiny it is, but it was really important to me to buy from this seller and not buy an imitation one. I am a big proponent for supporting small businesses with original, great ideas! I got the emerald green one with a gold ‘p’! My MIL gifted me the handkerchiefs, and I think she got them online-so cute!
My something old, borrowed, blue and new were so difficult to figure out. I just never seemed to put it on a high priority level, and I don’t think I decided on it all the way until a few days before the wedding. My something blue was easy- my seamstress embroidered our names and date into my dress. My new was obviously the dress, shoes, veil, etc. My borrowed and old were both in the necklace my dad gave my mom for their wedding. I thought it was so nice to have that with me all day!
These are the notebooks we used for our first look words! They were very short and sweet, but I knew having it to look back on and in the video would be perfect. I just linked the search page because there are so many options, and you can choose which one fits the theme of your wedding best.
Thank you so much for getting to the end of this random compilation post! Another piece of advice I have- when saving wedding photos, label them in little folders like “the details,” “the venue,” “first look.” This helps me so much when finding pictures for posts, to show friends, etc.
