A wedding invitation sets the tone for the entire day ~ it signals the formality and style of the event, reflects the personalities of the couple, and has the potential to make the invited guests very excited to be included in the celebration.

Before you order your wedding invitations, here are 12 things that you need to know and do.

1. Get a clear picture in your mind of your dream wedding and of your personal taste and style.

Close your eyes and envision your wedding day. What do you see? Is it a black-tie affair, a less formal garden or beach wedding, or something in between? Is the event during the day or in the evening? Is it in your hometown or a destination wedding? Write down at least five adjectives that best describe how you want your wedding day to look and feel. For example: traditional, romantic, lavish, minimalist, sophisticated, elegant, fun, casual, party, etc. In your fashion, decor, and lifestyle do your tastes tend more toward traditional or more contemporary? More subtle and understated or more bold and colorful? Classic elegance with an updated twist? It’s OK to be a mix of styles, just try to hone in on the types of things you are usually drawn to and your own personal style.

2. There won't be a second chance to make a first impression

We cringe a little when we hear "I don't want to waste a lot of money on invitations because people just throw them away." We agree, people will toss a crappy invitation in the trash. But think about what the invitation does. Not only does it tell your guests when and where, most importantly, it sets the tone for the event. This tone will help form their decision on everything from what they will wear, to what kind of gift they will buy you. Besides, what will happen to those flowers and that left over cake? They will get thrown away too.

3. Determine if your wedding will have a theme or a symbol that is significant

Is your wedding in the mountains or at the beach? Do you share a love of sailing? Did you meet on a train? Are there any items of significance that you want to incorporate into your wedding and possibly your invitations or accessories? Do you want to create a custom duogram (first letters of your first names) for your invitations and/or a custom monogram. This custom duogram or monogram can serve as a “logo” for your wedding that can be carried through as few or as many pieces as you’d like.

4. Know your color palette for your wedding

While you don't have to use your wedding colors in your wedding invitation, most couples choose too. It's another way to keep a cohesive look with all your wedding details. If the wedding in a particular season that you’d like to incorporate: the Fall (think browns, greens and orange), in the Spring (think bright pinks or greens), in the Summer (think colors of the sun or of sailing like navy and pink), or in the Winter (think silver and light blue)? If you have specific colors that you’d like to include in your invitations or accessories, it would be great to bring in any samples or swatches with you to the appointment.

5. Start early

We suggest meeting at least six months before the wedding to start invitations. We can work with shorter timelines, but this will make the invitation process easier on you. In fact, most clients prefer to start a year before their date and we begin with their save the dates.

6. Determine the number of invitations you will need to send.

This number is not an invite for every guest, but the number of invitations per household. For example: if you are inviting 200 people and the majority is married or families, then you will probably only need to order 125-150 invitations. However, you should always order extra invitations, about 10%, since there are almost always additions to the guest list (and you'll want to keep one for yourself as a keepsake!) Remember, it is always less expensive to order more at one time than it is to place a second order for additional invitations.

7. Have a rough idea of your budget

The cost of an invitation can vary greatly. While we will be happy to explain different options and how they will affect the bottom line, it is important to do some research ahead of time. This will allow you to pick your priorities and have reasonable expectations of what will work within your budget.

8. Decide what other cards and features to include with your invitation

This often goes hand in hand with the last question, since the more inserts you add, the more the invitation will cost. However, many clients want to make sure their guests are fully informed about their wedding and its subsequent events.

9. Who will put them together?

If you are looking for an invitation with layers, it will need to be assembled. Don't have the time or the OCD skills to make sure it is straight? We would be happy to assemble them for you, at an additional cost.

10. Who will address them?

An important detail many brides do not think about is who will address the invitations. Will you or your family or friends be hand-addressing the envelopes? If not, you may want to pay for a calligrapher to address your envelopes. However that can be expensive. Another option we offer is printed calligraphy that will match your invite and (our favorite) wrap around labels, that will bring your design to the front of your envelope. Always order extra envelopes (typically 15% extra) for any errors in hand-addressing.

11. Determine who will be issuing the wedding invitation

Does your family situation fit the traditional mode in which the bride’s parents issue the invitation? Or does your family situation look like many these days in which varying circumstances dictate wording that is different from the traditional? For example, are your parents divorced? remarried? one or both parents deceased? Are the grooms’parents equally involved and contributing to the wedding financially? Are you paying for the majority of the wedding expenses yourselves?

We will be able to navigate with you the wording of your invitations as may be dictated by any complexities in your family situations and etiquette guidelines. Believe it or not, there are guidelines for just about any situation and it’s best that you are fully aware of how to properly word your wedding invitation so as to avoid offending anyone or causing any embarrassment or hard feelings. That being said, the role of ours is to inform you of the guidelines and make recommendations; your job is to make an informed decision about what feels comfortable for you and your family situation.

You will need to decide whose address to put on the outer envelope flap. Typically, this is the address of the person{s} who are issuing the invitations.

12. Make your decision.

Making your final decision doesn’t have to be stressful. Trust your own instincts. There will likely be one invitation style that you continue to come back to over and over ~ that is generally 'the one'.

Ask yourself three questions about each of the invitation options that you are seriously considering:

1) Which invitation reflects the tone and spirit of our wedding day?

2) Which invitation most fits our personality and style? and

 3) Which invitation do I see my guests getting really excited by when they find it in their mailbox?

Once you’ve found an invitation that fits all of these criteria, smile and relax – you’ve done it!

Instagram: @ang_creatives

Website: www.angbyaangishah.com