A timeline of when to order your important wedding stationery items

You’re engaged! Hooray! The excitement is still fresh, you’re on cloud nine…. and I’m sure by now approximately 739574 people have asked you “So, when’s the big day?”. If you are anything like me when I got engaged, you probably jumped into overdrive planing mode if for no other reason than to not have to continue to dodge that question for the 739575th time. Are you wondering when to order and send out invitations?

If so, keep reading!

One of the biggest questions I get asked, as a wedding stationer, is about when to order and send out the important wedding invitation and stationery items. When do I send out my save the dates? What if it’s a destination wedding? What about shower invitations? Or Rehearsal dinner invites? But what if my Great Aunt Suzy won’t stop asking me when she is going to get her invitation even though the wedding isn’t for another year? Can I just send them now?… okay that last one might not be a common question, but you can all probably relate to that, am I right?

I’m here to help answer some questions about when you should get started working on your wedding stationery items and when to mail everything. Most custom stationery designers, like myself, will book out weddings in advance. The reason for this is because the design process takes time. The amount of time it takes to create custom invitations will vary with every stationer. So it’s always best to ask them up front when you should order. But in my experience this guide is a good estimate of what is pretty common among wedding stationers.

Of course, not everyone is going to feel the need to have a completely custom design. There are a lot of great collection designs out there that can be personalized and printed more quickly. So in those cases just count backwards from the “send” recommendation to get your “start” time. 

Check out Feathered Heart Prints collection designs here

WHEN TO ORDER AND MAIL YOUR WEDDING STATIONERY

Let me start with a little disclaimer *Starting earlier is always better in my book* The reason for this is because starting later might limit what can be added or done with your invitations. Also rushing the designer can sometimes limit creativity. So if you know your wedding details, such as the date, location, time etc… what are you waiting for? Get started now.

When to Order Engagement Party Invitations

You should start on engagement party designs right away. You should plan to mail them to your guests at least 2 weeks before your party. If you plan on doing a formal engagement party where you will be doing a dinner or meal for your guests, then you will want to mail them at least 4 weeks in advance to allow time for replies. 

When to Order Save the Dates

Let’s break this down into two categories, in town weddings and destination weddings. For weddings that will be in town, or local to most of the guests, you should plan on sending those out about 4 to 6 months before the wedding. Which means you should start working with your stationer about 6 to 8 months before the wedding on the design. If you are planning a destination wedding, save the dates should be sent to your guests at least 6 to 8 months before the wedding, which would mean you should start working on the design at least 8 to 10 months before, even longer if you are able to. 

When to Order Wedding Invitations

You should send out wedding invitations 6 to 8 weeks before the wedding. I see some people suggest you should send them sooner with destination weddings, but if you have sent a save the date that really isn’t completely necessary. For local weddings I do not recommend sending them any sooner than 8 weeks before the wedding. Why, you ask? Simply because people tend to forget to send the RSVPs back at a higher rate when you send your invitations out too soon. Similarly, for destination weddings, I wouldn’t recommend sending out your invitations any sooner than 12 weeks prior.

So this means you should start working on your custom invitations at least 6 to 7 months before your wedding. I would say even sooner if you know you want to add some bells and whistles like foil stamping, vellum wraps, custom envelope liners etc. *Pro Tip* – If you are worrying about giving people enough time to book their travel plans, make a wedding website and put accommodation information on there. This way people can start making their travel plans when they get their save the dates. 

If you want some inspiration for custom wedding invitations visit our instagram here.

When to Order Shower Invitations

It’s best to send shower invitations about 6 to 8 weeks before the shower whenever possible. This means you should start working on your shower invitations about 3 months before the shower. 

Download your timeline chart now

When to Order Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

Rehearsal Invites can be sent with the wedding invitations to the people who are being invited to the rehearsal dinner. Because the grooms family traditionally hosts the rehearsal dinner, you can do this two ways. You can coordinate with the grooms family to make sure the invitation is worded to show the hosts and include it in mailing with the wedding invitations. Or the grooms family can handle everything on their own. It is up to you and your partner and the best way to handle that. If the rehearsal dinner invitations are mailing separately, it’s best to have those mailed out about 3 to 6 weeks prior to the dinner. This would mean starting the design about 2 to 3 months before the dinner. 

When to Order Day of Stationery Items

This is another big question I get a lot: “When should I order my menus, programs, place cards, signage etc?” The short answer is at least 1 month before the wedding. The longer answer is to start with the day of stationery items at the same time as your wedding invitations. What I mean by this is to let your stationer know what items you will be wanting and then they can create those designs (minus the last minute details) ahead of time. This way, when you have your details finalized, that information will be easier to finish up quickly, causing less stress for you and your stationer. 

When to Order Thank You Cards

I also recommend designing these at the same time as your invitations. This way when your RSVPs start to roll in you can use those to address your thank you card envelopes ahead of time. This will save you SO much time after the wedding and help you get those thank yous out quickly! The accepted timeframe for sending out thank you cards for gifts received before and after the wedding is within 2 to 3 weeks. For gifts received at the wedding, no longer than 3 months. The sooner the better though.

Whew! That was a long one. If you are still with me please give yourself a pat on the back for hanging tough. High fives all around.  Just as a reminder, the downloads are free for personal use only.