Announcements

Wedding invitations not only set the tone of your celebration, but are the first joint statement you and your fiance make publicly after becoming engaged. Here are a few tips to consider.

• On the invite, there should be the name of whoever's hosting the wedding (usually the bride's parents) at the top. Remember, the bride's name should always come before the groom's.
• It's a good idea to order your entire stationery wardrobe from invites to thank-you notes from the same stationer to save time and money. It'll also ensure paper, design and color consistency.
• Invitations should be ordered no later than three months and sent out no later than six to eight weeks.
• Include an RSBVP card, a phone number or email address where guests can confirm their attendance by a certain date.
• Drawing up your guest list, requires on part realism (budget and logistics) and two parts hospitality and graciousness. Be as tolerant as possible tot he groom's as well as both sets of parents' requests. Don't forget being obstinate about the guest list may strain relations with your in-laws for eternity. And never make the mistake of sending invites to people you really don't want to come on the assumption they won't. They're normally the very first to accept! Also you don't have to get 500 invitations for 500 people. Some of these people are in couples, so you'll only need one per pair. But get extra envelopes just in case you mess up with the addresses.