Wedding Invitations and Wedding Stationery Online by mini Moko

A Wedding Invitation Timeline ~ when to start?

It’s a question often asked, how long do we need to allow for buying our wedding invitations? Inevitably it’s also a really hard one to answer. After all anything is do-able it just depends on a number of factors, such as what type of person are you – highly organised and hate stress or a fly by the seat of your pants kinda girl that loves the adrenaline rush. That aside there is of course the quality of the final product to consider and let’s face it, if you leave things last minute you’ll probably be compromising considerably on the quality of your wedding stationery and hugely regret it in the long run.

So to prevent this, I have put together a timeline for you! It’s not the be all and end all but it’s certainly a good guide to work towards. It’ll keep you on the straight and narrow!!

12 months before your wedding

Start putting together your guest list to get a ball park figure for the number of invitations you’ll need to purchase.
If you are having a destination wedding and/or are inviting many guests from overseas, now is the time to start considering what type and style of Save the Date invites you would like to send out. Do you want them to match your wedding invitation theme or do you want something different?

9-12 months before your wedding

Buy your Save the Date invites and send them out. This is particularly important if your wedding is during summer time or a destination wedding as you’ll need to give your guests as much time to prepare as possible so they can attend your wedding day.
The fun starts!! Gather photos, paint swatches, fabric swatches, anything inspiring to you that will help you to form an idea and clarify in your mind the vision of your wedding day.
Start to look at wedding invitation types and styles to determine what you like and don’t like.

6-9 months before your wedding

Now is the time to start thinking about what information you need to get across to your guests and in what format you’d like that to be. For example, RSVP cards, Information cards with accommodation/maps/directions etc. an itinerary, wishing well etc.
Also what stationery items will you require on your wedding day? For the church will you want Order of Service Covers and at the reception you’ll need to think about place cards, menus, bon bon tags, table number and seating charts etc.
If you think you’d like to have custom designed wedding stationery, now is the time to research a designer you’d like to use and book them in.

3-4 months before your wedding

Now is the time to finalise your guest list which will involve getting the correct full name and addresses for everyone on your list.
If you haven’t decided to have your stationery custom designed, now is the time to stop procrastinating over what type and style of wedding invitations you like and take the plunge by placing your order.
Please please don’t forget to proof read, you will kick yourself if they come back with spelling mistakes. Get someone close to you to double check if need be.

8-12 weeks before your wedding

If you haven’t opted for getting address labels printed for you invitation envelopes, now is the time to start hand writing your envelopes or send them out to a calligrapher.
Assemble all components of the invitation such as the invite, rsvp, wishing well, information card etc. and begin inserting them into the envelopes leaving them unsealed at this stage just in case you need to change anything.
Place an order for any other stationery you require for the wedding day if you haven’t already done so.

6-8 weeks before your wedding

Take one complete invitation set in its envelope to be weighed at the post office.
Decide on what type of postage stamps you want for your envelopes. Auspost have a number of stamp services you may want to consider such as the personalised stamps or the souvenirs stamp collections.
Seal the envelopes, apply postage stamp and take to the post office to be mailed out. Do not put in a post box, you’ll be thankful that you handed them over to someone in a post office rather than placing them in a random post box!

3-4 weeks before your wedding

Keep track of the yes and no replies from your RSVP cards as they come in so that you know how many are outstanding.
Do you have any additional events surrounding your wedding day such as rehearsal dinners or day after bbq? Time to mail out invitations for these.

2-3 weeks before your wedding

Chase up any guests who have not yet replied to your invitation so that you can pass on an accurate figure to the reception venue.

Final week before your wedding

Ensure you have all other stationery ready to go for your actual wedding day and allocate someone to be responsible for that. Such as who will be giving out the Order of Service Covers etc.

1-2 months after your wedding