Wedding Invitation Information to Include

The big day is on its way and it's time to start thinking about your wedding invitations.  As a rule of thumb, your wedding invitations should be sent out about two months before your wedding date to give folks a chance to prepare and respond in time for you, the bride, to make all of the final arrangements.

You'll need to include a few important things along with your beautiful invitation to make it easier for both you, and the guest, to make ready for the wedding and to insure that everyone has a good time. 

Depending on your personal wedding choices, and how formal the event will be, you may not need to include everything listed here, and you might even be able to get away with including some of the following information right on the back of your invitation.  This list is simply intended as a guide to help you decide.

A quick checklist of wedding invitation information to include:

Accomodations - If you're expecting out-of-town guests, or anticipate making the reception last way into the night, you should include a list of nearby accomodations where your guests can make reservations to comfortably crash for the night.  Many hotels and motels will reserve a block of rooms in your name and offer your guests a discounted rate if they reserve a room in advance. 

If possible, it's a good idea to include a couple of different accomodation options so your guests can choose what's best for their pocketbooks, and their backs as many of the better hotels will list what type of mattresses they supply.

Directions -  Even though everyone you know has a GPS, and a smart phone, and knows how to find MapQuest on their computer, you should still include a set of directions and a map to the location of your wedding and reception. 

Reception Card - If your wedding is being held somewhere other than where you are actually taking your vows, you'll need to include a separate card that contains all of the information about the location of your reception.

RSVP Card - Unless you're having a super casual wedding you'll need to include an RSVP card.  RSVP which is short for, "repondez, s'il vous plait," meaning "please reply" in French, is your wedding response card.  It lets you know how many guests to expect.  These cards are also helpful when setting up your table arrangements.

Web Sites - It's becoming more and more popular for the bride and groom to create their own website with detals about their wedding.  If you've created a wedding website you should include a link to it with your wedding invitation, even if you've already given it to your intended guests with your "Save the Date" card.

A wedding web site should include all of the wedding information listed above and in some cases can even replace the need to include things like RSVP cards and maps but you need to be sure that everyone you've invited has access to, and knows how to use, a computer if you plan to do that. 

Including all of the necessary items from this list with your wedding invitations should help make your special day run smoothly and successfully.