How to make your own wedding invitations

Do it yourself, wedding invitations have never been more popular and everyone understands why. If you are one of the smartest brides on the budget, you may want to make your own wedding invitations. You can easily save several hundred dollars by creating your own wedding stationery.

Your first decision will be to determine who is the host and therefore who is extending the invitation. The following are common options you can choose from:

• Invitation for the bride and groom
• Invitation from the parents of the bride and groom
• The bride’s parents inviting
• Groom’s parents inviting
• Children inviting
• Engagement ceremony
• Deceased parents
• Second matrimony
• Divorced parents
• Destination wedding – Las Vegas
• Destination Wedding – Tropical
• Destination wedding: winery / vineyard
• Winter / Holiday Wedding

Wedding invitations are a must. You must send something in writing so that your guests know the details of this important day. You will also need to know how many guests are planning to attend and you will receive this information from your wedding responses. Wedding response cards are mailed to you with the number of guests planning to attend or their regrets.

If you have graphic design skills, they will come in handy when designing your invitations. If you’re not a designer, there are plenty of great wedding invitation kit templates available that you can simply download, type in your information, print, and mail. It is entirely up to you how you approach the design aspect.

You should include the essential wedding information very clearly:

• Who is getting married
• Who is the host of the wedding
• Where is the wedding
• What date is the wedding
• What time is the wedding
• Post-wedding activities (reception, dance, etc.)

Below is an example of a wedding invitation with the bride’s parents as hosts:

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Alexander
request the honor of your presence
in his daughter’s marriage
Jasmine grace
Y
Jason thomas jackson
his of
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher jackson
Saturday the seventeenth of July
at four p.m
Two thousand and ten
Catholic Church of Santa Ana
621 Sicard Street
San Diego, California

You will have to decide on the wording of your response cards. If you have special menu selections available, you can ask your guests to choose. An example would be the choice between salmon and steak. You will also need to receive a tally of the number of people who will be attending. This will be included on your response card. Finally, you must request a response before a certain date. This is normally at least 3-4 weeks before your wedding.

Please reply by June 17, 2010
M ________________________
__ Gladly accept
__ Refuse with regret

A receipt insert card is also a consideration.

If your invitation includes both sets of parents’ names, plus yours, and a lengthy description of the location, you may want to include a separate card. Here is an example of a wedding invitation reception insert:

Reception at six o’clock
Large ballroom
Marriott Hotel
8757 Rio San Diego Drive
San Diego, California