The invitation is your guests’ first peek at your wedding day style. From this card, they’ll be able to tell these things about your wedding:

1. Your style! Are you romantic? Old fashioned? Bookish? Quirky? Of Scottish descent? An Ole Miss fan? Are the bridesmaids wearing blush and bashful? This is the part where your guests will get excited about being invited to such a cool wedding by such cool friends.
2. The level of formality. Whether it’s black tie or a potluck at the lake, the style of the invitation should explain it before they even read it.
3. The nitty gritty. Who, what, where, and when? Give your guests the important information however you like. It can be traditional, sweet, funny, whatever; but there are certain things you should leave off of the invitation card, too. *Read on to avoid a faux pas!

Are you getting married? Do you want people to be there? If yes, you need an invitation! If no, you need an announcement! It’s the same thing, but with slightly different wording. You really ought to tell them about it even if they weren’t invited. It’ll make Aunt Ruby happy.

Unsure about how to word your invitation? Click here to view our wording etiquette guide!

If you need to know how many guests to expect, it’s best not to rely on intuition. Our couples tell us that around 75% of guests return their reply cards which is incredibly helpful.

If you’re having a plated dinner reception, you absolutely need a reply card. If  you’re having a more casual reception, it’s still an excellent way to estimate  how much food your caterer should prepare. Our postcards are a unique  non-traditional way for guests to reply, though lots of folks tend to keep  them for souvenirs and phone in their reply.

A reception card is small and gives the details of the location and time of the reception. This is most commonly used if the wedding ceremony is early in the day with a reception later that evening at a different location.

If you are inviting all wedding guests to the reception at the ceremony location immediately following, a reception card isn’t necessary. If you want a small crowd for the wedding ceremony with a big party including extended friends and family afterward (or vice versa), you will definitely want a reception card.

Your wedding invitation is no place for a website URL. Aunt Ruby wouldn’t understand what it was for and would end up calling your mama to ask.

If you would like to give your guests all the details on your wedding weekend itinerary, accommodations, directions, registry, and how you met the love of your life at your roommate’s art school thesis, you can direct them to your website easily and inexpensively with this one little card. If you’re on a tight budget but have lots to tell your friends and family, this card is the very thing.

This small card gives select guests information about where, when and who is hosting the rehearsal dinner. Generally, you’ll invite only a small group to this dinner.

If you’re having a rehearsal dinner, the hosting party will need a way to tell your guests. Since they’re already getting an invitation, you might as well drop this card in there too for the folks you especially love (and any out-of-town guests, too).

Genteel Southerners and couples with old-fashioned sensibilities maintain that if you’re going to invite people to your wedding, you need to be specific. The outer envelope is for the family’s mailing address, and the inner envelope should be addressed to the exact guests who are invited: ‘Dr. and Mrs. Weber, Mary Beth and Jonathan’.

If your wedding is very formal, we recommend it. If you’re a Southerner having an outdoor afternoon wedding on a farm near Athens or a black tie soiree in a ballroom in Jackson, you’ll probably want them, too. It’s just one of those things.

The envelope liner is a decorative way to make sure your invitation has maximum mailing privacy. It can be a solid color or a pattern that coordinates with your invitation.

The envelope liner is a great place to add an unexpected color. If it’s in your budget, this is a great little luxury to add on.

If you’re ordering lots of enclosure cards, this is a beautiful way to keep the pieces bound together. If it’s in your budget, this is a a great luxury add-on and the first cousin of the envelope liner.

The belly band is a decorative folded paper band that wraps around the invitation and enclosure cards to secure it all in place within the envelope.

While your guests are watching your groomsmen walk down the aisle, they can read the program to learn who’s who and what’s next.

For a short ceremony with no wedding party but a starry-eyed bride and groom, you can forego the ceremony program. If you’ll want your guests to sing, stand or particpate in the ceremony, they’ll need instruction. This is also the best place to honor your best friends standing at the altar beside you and the loved ones who couldn’t be there.

At a reception, the place cards are on the tables at each seat so your guests know which seat is reserved for them.

Place cards are an interesting way to help your family and friends get to know people they’ve never met before by seating them together. It’s most common to use place cards at a plated dinner reception where guests made a meal selection on their reply cards. Our place cards do not come with your guests’ names on them (sorry!) but they do have a beautiful ornamental frame or design that coordinates with your invitation wardrobe. We recommend hiring a calligrapher to write in your guest names.

At the entrance to the reception, a tented table card would have the guest’s name on the front with their table number inside. This would lead them to the place card at their correct seat.

If you’re having a very large reception with many tables that would make it difficult for your guests to find their place card, table cards are helpful. Like our place cards, table cards come with a beautiful ornamental frame or design on the front of the fold that coordinates with your invitation wardrobe. We recommend hiring a calligrapher to write in your guest names and table numbers.

The menu card sits at each seat at a plated dinner reception.

If your guests will be choosing a plated meal at the reception, a menu card is important to have. It’s also possible for the menu to serve as a place card, with space left for calligraphing the name on the card.

You’ll be together forever, and it’s a sweet tradition to have ‘thank you’ stationery that will last long beyond the bridal showers.

Every Southern woman knows the importance of the thank you’ note. It’s the classic way to express sincere thanks, and it just feels good to pick up a pen and put ink to paper rather than click it out on a keyboard. Yes, we think you need personal stationery these days more than ever.