Your invitation tells a story

Your wedding requires a printed invitation on good quality paper, sent by mail. Some couples are using old printing methods such as a calligraphy look which can be letter-pressed on heavy stock. You can even buy vintage stamps. Wax seals are reappearing but use them on the interior – not on envelopes where they can be ruined by the post office. If you do use them on the envelope, take your invitations to the post office to have them hand-stamped. Mind you, these special techniques such as letterpress and calligraphy can more than double the price.

Ordering

Order extra invitations. The cost for a few more is very little but will be much more costly if you have to go back and re-order. Orders will probably be in quantities of 25, so round up rather than rounding down. And yes, send invitations to your wedding party and family. It’s a keepsake for them.

Response cards

You require a total number of guests to give the caterer. Some couples include an entrée option in their invitation. For both of these, you need a "reply by" date. If your caterer requires a fi rm number for, say, two weeks before the wedding, your "reply by" date for your guests should be for three weeks before the wedding.

Name backup

Number each name on your mailing list. Then, discreetly put that number on the back of each reply card. Often a person mails the acceptance and forgets to insert their name. It’s generous to allow singles to bring a guest, but even nicer to enquire who they will bring and include their name on the envelope.

No short forms

Everything gets written in full, such as city, street and province – even apartment. The exceptions are Dr., Mr., Mrs. and Ms. and numbers (such as Apartment 325).

Postage

Postage adds up and even a little extra weight can require substantially more postage. Put one of your envelopes together, with all the extras, and make a trip to the post offi ce to have it weighed.