Once we have decided who to invite to our wedding, we will need
to get ready to send the invitations. In order to ensure that
everyone gets their invitation, you should make a list in alphabetical
order which contains the following details of our guests: name,
address, number of invitations and confirmation. You may wish to do
this in the traditional pen and paper method of drawing up the list,
but in these modern times, if you know how to use one, you can may want to utilize a spreadsheet like Openoffice calc
which comes as part of the free Openoffice package (similar to
Microsoft's "Office" program suite). Using a spreadsheet will
enable you to carry out this task in an organised and efficient
way, You can quickly and easily copy the details to additional
spreadsheets or documents, for example when organising tables at the
reception, and can easily remove guests if necessary, rather then
scribbling and scratching the list on pieces of paper.
If the invitation is directed to several members of a same family,
that is to say parents and children, the phrase "and family" should be
added after the name of the head of household. The invitations enclosed
are then for all that family's direct relatives.
It is advisable to order more invitation cards than you actually
need, just in case you make mistakes when sending them or you decided
to invite somebody at the last minute.
The invitations must be sent at least a month and a half before the
date of the wedding and even earlier if the date coincides with the
vacation season, when your intended guests may spend days or
weeks away from their home and therefore will not be around to check
their post. This advanced notice allows the guests to organize
themselves and will also ensure that the bride and groom receive the
confirmations and cancellations in ample time for the big day.
If the wedding invitation is sent to a family with small children,
it should be indicated specifically whether the children are also
invited. For an invitation which is sent to an unmarried
person, where we know that he or she may wish to come accompanied, we
can add to that persons name the phrase “and companion” on the
invitation.
The best way of writing the wedding invitation is by hand and with
pen. Always make sure that you have an up to date address for all of
the guests so that the invitations go to the right place - you don't
want the new owner of aunty Hilda's old house to come crashing the
wedding!.
