For Brides and Grooms, choosing wedding invitations can be very overwhelming because you a have variety of styles and designs to choose from, but do not let that scare you off with your shopping mission. Here are some helpful tips to guide you through the land of wedding invitation shopping.
Create an A and B Guest List
The guest lists would consist of the wedding party, family, friends, co-workers, significant others, out of town guests, and children. The A guest list is priority guests that you want to invite to the wedding and the B guest list is of people you would like to invite to the wedding, but unfortunately, your budget does not allow it. However, if someone cancels from List A, then you may select from List B, so that individual can attend in his or her place.
Budget
Understand what your budget is and how many guests will be attending your wedding. The cost of wedding invitations is between 4-6 percent of your budget and when estimating this cost you need to include your invitations, save the date cards, wedding stationery, rsvp card, thank you notes, table tent cards, maps, reception cards, menus, wedding programs, and postage. Please make sure you also order at least an extra 20 invitations incase someone did not receive one or you invite those last minute guests.
Timeline
A suggestion is to start ordering your wedding invitations at least 5-6 months in advanced. This gives you plenty of time to mail out invitations, save the date cards, and receives the RSVP cards. If you are having calligrapher or hand addressed items, you will want to have order those items earlier because you need to proofread the text and make final decisions.
Individuals or Sets
Understand what you are purchasing with individuals or sets of wedding invitations and get an itemized breakdown of what you are receiving from the stationers.
Stationers
There are many stationers such as independents, online, mail order, department store, or do it yourself stationers. Independent stationers are small independent print shops who customize invitations and offers additional specialties like in engraving or other specialty methods. Online stationers are for couples who have a small budget, provide excellent sales and offer specials, and can order a bulk discount with wedding invitations. These companies are open 24/7 for your convenience. Mail Order Catalogs can be a great source because items are usually discounted supplies and orders are filled usually very quickly. Department stores offer packages and use of their gift registry. The advantage of shopping with the department store is because of the convenience factor. Departments stores usually have a limited stock, but it offers an up scaled, yet high quality designs. Most of the time, you receive a discounted price on stationery supplies and signing up with a department store provides the bride and groom a free gift registry. Do It Yourself invitations is an excellent option for smaller and tighter budgets. When ordering stock be sure you do not order glossy paper, because it does not feed through your printer well. For the do it yourselfer online shopping is a convenience, so if you are computer savvy individual this process should be fairly easy for you.
Wedding Style and Theme
What is your wedding style is it formal, information, casual, or traditional? Do you have a wedding theme? Match your invitations to reflect your wedding style.
Stationary Printing
Engraved, Thermography, Letterpress, Embossed, Offset, and those are not even all the terms for wedding invitations. If you do not know what the term means ask the stationer to provide you with a visual sample and an explanation of the wedding invitations. Here is frequently used stationary printing terms from About.com:
Engraved Wedding Invitations
Engraving is the most traditional form of wedding invitation printing, and one of the most expensive. The Queen herself would use engraving for a Royal wedding invitation. Text is etched onto a copper plate, which is then coated with ink and wiped clean, leaving the ink only in the indentations. Soft, high-quality paper is pressed hard against the plate, causing it to deform into the etchings. result is raised, crisp text. You can tell true engraving by the "bruise" or dent on the back of the paper (About, 2009).
Thermography
Thermography was developed as a less expensive alternative to engraving. The printer uses ink and a powder resin combined with heat to reproduce the raised lettering effect of engraving. The text has a shiny finish and is often said to not be as sharp as engraving (About, 2009).
Letterpress
This old-fashioned technique has become popular again. A letterpress printer presses inked letters or designs into a piece of paper, forming an indented surface. By repeating the process, he or she can create images with more than one color. Letterpress wedding invitations typically have a vintage or whimsical feel, but they can be designed in more formal styles as well. Many people appreciate the tactile nature of letterpress, although some dislike its lack of crispness (About, 2009).
Embossing or Blind Embossing
Most often used for small insignias, monograms, or return addresses, this process creates a raised impression on paper by running the paper through two metal sheets. When no ink is used, it is called "blind" embossing. Although a printer can perform this service for you, you can also buy a small embosser with your monogram or return address on the plate, allowing you to create custom stationery in a more affordable way(About, 2009).
Offset Printing
Most modern printing is offset printing, also known as lithography. From magazines to postcards, this flat style of printing is a familiar one, and appropriate for an informal wedding invitation. Traditionally, an inked image is transferred from an inked plate to a rubber "blanket", which is then passed over the paper. The quality of offset printing can vary greatly, so be sure to look for a printer who can deliver crisp quality and true colors (About, 2009).
Formal Wedding Invitation Wording Example
(QC Wedding Planning, 2009)
1. Proper names of wedding hosts, without abbreviations or nicknames
2. The request line (asking the guest to come to the wedding and/or reception)
3. The relationship of the bride to the host or hosts
4. Bride’s first and middle name
5. Groom’s First, Middle, and Last Name
6. Day of the Week (Saturday, Sunday)
7. Time of Wedding (six o’clock) and time of day (in the morning or evening)
8. Name of Wedding Location Site
9. City and State/Province where wedding will take place
10. Indication of reception (reception to follow with reception hall name, address, and phone number)
Wedding Planner or DIY Wedding Planning
Please make certain you have your wedding planner update wedding tracking guest list or if you are a do it yourself bride make sure there is a up to date wedding tracking guest list. You can either create one in excel or use inexpensive software to do this yourself. The software I recommend is on my website at http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/store/wedding.php.
Purchase a Sample Invitation and Please Proofread
Once you are finished with the invitation process one last and final suggestion is to order a SAMPLE product before placing your final order to make certain you like the style of the invitation. When submitting your final order, please proofread and print a copy of your order before submitting the order for print. Proofreading consists of check grammar, spelling, punctuation, and layout. Once you have given approval for the final submission of the proof, you have stated that your order is correct and if changes need to be made it will be at the cost of the customer.
Please make sure you do not get too overwhelmed with the wedding process and take occasion breaks to destress from wedding information overload. I hope this information on wedding invitations will guide you through your wedding invitations shopping experience.
Hand drawn maps are super expensive, so we found an inexpensive idea that you can experiment with for your wedding. All you need is beautiful paper and design your own custom-made labels and you are good to go! I just loved this idea when I found this idea on Style Me Pretty (Style Me Pretty, 2009). This would also be a great addition to an OOT Gift Basket (Out of Town Gift Basket). Creativity is endless with this do it yourself project because you could make your own stickers with the wedding ceremony and reception sites, as well as create a legend of all the local activities to visit during guests stay such as, hotel accommodations, restaurants, entertainment, shopping, and attractions. 
