So You’re Ready To Invite Your Guests…
Who will make the cut? Plus ones? First Cousins? College Friends? New Work Colleagues? The Dog Sitter? Dental Hygienist? Mail Carrier? Your mother’s sixth grade bestie? After agonizing rounds with your fiance and immediate family, you finally know*1 who has made the pre-nuptial hunger games. So now what? It’s time to let them know they’re invited! We’ve accumulated our favorite ways of letting your guests know their presence is requested and a few tips to keep your sanity intact.
Traditional Invitations Are Timeless
We’ll never tire of the excitement of opening a wedding invitation and finding your lovingly selected design and wording. Our favorite invitations are a combination of the traditional elements with the couple’s unique touch.
Consider creating a crest or logo that is incorporated throughout your event. Check out the fun logo we recently designed for a creative couple who wanted anything but the traditional for their wedding. Not only was it part of their invitation suite, the couple had it incorporated into stickers, signage, and custom sugar cookies.
Wedding Pro Tip
Before you seal those envelopes with a kiss and wish once more for a timely répondez, s’il vous plaît… remember we are all only human. We’ve seen enough BLANK RSVPs to say never send them out without uniquely watermarking them. You’ll feel like a super spy with this fun pen.
Digital Invitations
Couples are ditching physical invitations more than ever, and we don’t hate it! If you’ve already been tracking your guests on a spreadsheet, you’re an import and a click away from spreading the word. We love how quickly your guests can be notified, not only of the invitation but of any last minute changes. Even better, online RSVPs allow you to enhance your guest management. For starters, you set a limit on the number of attendees (we love this feature so much we’ll be blogging about it soon!) You aren’t limited in the questions you can ask of your guests. After the traditional attendance and meal preference question, the sky’s the limit. Our favorite add-on questions include:
- Inviting them to a welcome gathering the night before
- Ask if they will be taking advantage of the hotel block
- Inquire about transportation needs in the hopes of facilitating guest carpooling
- Ask who they want to sit with or near (or not)
Check out some of our favorite companies that are making it even easier to go digital
- Greenenvelope – A true one stop shop for any milestone with powerful features that will make guest management a breeze. We’re obsessed with the Romantic Wonderland set and how beautiful the animation comes through. It’s like you can reach through your screen and touch it.
- Etsy – we love supporting small businesses and Etsy has a great selection of artists who make beautiful and affordable invitations. We love PaperLoveEvent’s collection of floral designs.
- Paperless Post – Not only do they offer designer digital invitations you can also print a few invitations for keepsakes and sentimental guests.
Wedding Pro Tip
Calling guests who may question the authenticity of an emailed invitation is a great idea to make sure a great aunt won’t send her invite to spam.
The Hybrid
If you’re a lover of tradition, but love modern day convenience (we see you elder millenials!) we highly recommend sending out a traditional invitation with a digital twist. Rather than providing guests an RSVP to complete and return, direct them to your website to RSVP. Share your website information simply with the URL or make a QR code. Here’s our favorite site for making QR codes that don’t expire.
Wedding Pro Tip
For guests who are technologically challenged designate an “techy steward” who will help those guests with RSVPing online.
We hope we’ve given you enough information to choose the best way for you to invite your guests to your amazing wedding.
*1 Still making decisions about your guest list? We’re developing a Guide to The Guest List to help you navigate the tricky waters of your final guest management. Check back soon for when it is published
