How to Organize Wedding Invitations

You will start working on your wedding invitation details as soon as you’re engaged. Wedding invitations have many pieces – from cards that inform your guests to design elements that set a romantic tone for your wedding. A well-organized invitation will delight your guests and ensure your wedding day goes smoothly.

Shine Wedding Invitations brings years of experience to the process with our tips on how to organize wedding invitations and invitation etiquette. You can use our advice to organize timeless traditional invitation suites.

Key Takeaways:

• Start planning your invitations 12 months before your wedding date.
• Invitation suites include an invitation card, response card, large insert, small insert, and belly band.
• Organize your invitation pieces by size and place them in an inner envelope or directly in the outer envelope.

Wedding Invitation Timeline

Time can quickly get away from you during wedding planning. So many exciting details are pulling you in different directions, like cake tastings and wedding dress shopping.

Wedding invitation planning starts pretty early, so you’ll want to add these key dates to your planner. Adding these dates to your calendar ensures each piece arrives on time and you send out the invitations with plenty of time for guests to respond.

• 12 months before: Settle your invitation details like venue, date, and time
• 10 months before: Make your guest list
• 9 months before: Choose an invitation vendor
• 8 months before: Explore designs
• 7 months before: Settle on a design
• 6 months before: Order your invitations
• 3 months before: Send out the invitations

This schedule allows you to take your time during each step. For example, you can order wedding invitation samples and try different designs before choosing the ideal wedding invitation.

Are you planning an exotic getaway wedding or destination ceremony? Then you might want to add a few weeks to the timeline. Destination weddings require more notice, and you’ll have more items to organize, like inserts detailing activities and accommodations.

What Goes in a Wedding Invitation Suite?

You will have several pieces that go into your traditional wedding invitation to ensure your guests have all the information they need to plan and enjoy the wedding.

1. Invitation Card

The invitation card has the essential information about your wedding. When designing the invitation card, you can select fonts, print, paper type, and embellishments like a floral print.

Use the invitation card to announce your wedding, name, location, and time.

2. Response Card

The RSVP card is just as important to include as the invitation card since it gives you your final headcount. You’ll also use it to ask any catering questions like dietary restrictions or meal choices.

Couples usually request an RSVP response four to six weeks before the wedding.

The response card comes with a pre-addressed envelope. You’ll also want to add a stamp so your guests can conveniently mail it back.

3. Large Enclosure

Because you want to keep your invitation centered around your main event, you use enclosures for additional details.

A large enclosure provides extra room for helpful travel, accommodation, and activity information. You’ll want to consider a large enclosure if you’re planning a destination wedding so your guests can fully enjoy the weekend.

4. Small Enclosure

Small enclosures are for bite-sized information, like sharing your new address or wedding website with guests. The small size is convenient for guests to keep or hang on their fridge and reference leading up to your wedding.

If your reception is at a different location from the ceremony, you can use a small enclosure to briefly give the address and start time of the reception.

5. Invitation Band

After selecting your invitation pieces, you’ll choose a finishing touch to tie the entire suite together. For example, a belly band or ribbon works well as an invitation band.

Invitation bands are necessary to keep the pieces together, so your guests don’t lose any essential information. However, they’re also an elegant touch to unify the entire appearance.

If you opt for a traditional belly band, you can finish the look with a wax seal. However, if you prefer the softer appearance of a silk ribbon, you can choose from several colors to coordinate with the invitation design or your wedding colors.

How to Assemble Wedding Invitations

You’ve ordered your pieces, now you’re wondering, “How do I organize my invitations?”

You’ll receive everything you need to assemble the suite yourself. The invitations arrive flat and in a neat stack to preserve their pristine condition. If you also ordered ribbon, it would come on a spool to protect the soft fabric.

The assembly process is relatively simple and is best done with friends and your favorite music.

How to Put Invitations in the Envelope

You’ll organize your invitation items by size. So, naturally, the invitation card goes at the back of the pile since it’s the most important and largest piece of the suite.

After the invitation card, you’ll place any large inserts, the RSVP card with its envelope, and end with any small inserts.

Place each item with the information side up so your guests are greeted with the details immediately when they pull the elegant suite out of the envelope.

How to Address Wedding Invitations

If you order envelopes along with the invitations, you can also choose to get pre-addressed envelopes. These will save you a huge amount of time since each envelope will have a beautifully written address, and it’s one less item to organize. Shine Wedding Invitations will also pre-address the return card envelope.

The address includes the guest’s name and mailing address. However, you can add more details with an inner envelope. For example, the inner envelope can list everyone from each family you want to invite to avoid any confusion about plus ones or children.

Envelope liners add another eye-catching element to your suite. You attach these with a simple yet quality peel-and-seal adhesive strip. The envelope liner provides an attractive pop of color or subtle background design as guests open the invitation suite.

Organize Wedding Invitations with the Help of Experts

Shine Wedding Invitations makes organizing your wedding invitations simple. We provide everything you need, from fully addressed envelopes to ribbons or bands to tie the invitations together. Each piece comes carefully stacked and protected until you’re ready to put them together.

Are you ready to start designing your invitation suite?

Our design experts will help you every step of the way, with design and wording to resources for properly organizing and sending invitations.

Browse our collection to see our stunning wedding invitation designs.