There are many things that you need to bear in mind when it comes to planning your wedding, but amongst the most important is your wedding invitations.  This is often the first notification that many people will have of your wedding so you want to make your wedding invitations stand out.

Handmade wedding invitations are a great way of adding that personal touch when it comes to inviting your friends and family to share in your celebrations.  This doesn’t mean that you have to do it all by yourself though, and having professionals make your hand crafted wedding invitations means that they will be of the highest quality possible in terms of the layout and printing.

The Card Gallery is an online stationers who specialise in such personalised stationery, including wedding invitations, Christening stationery, new baby announcements, and so much more.  With the bonus of the facility to help design your own wedding invitations online, they are the perfect one-stop-shop for your special occasion needs.

Many people forget that your wedding invitation is often the first time that your guests will be aware of your planned wedding.  So, you should start with a bang and send out wedding invitations which knock their socks off!  And, the theme and design that you choose for your wedding invitations, you can also have running through all of your other wedding stationery such as evening invites, thank you cards and photo albums.

Bearing this in mind, it’s vital that you take your time to choose your wedding invitations and find a design that you absolutely adore.  You should try to choose a style which reflects how you want your wedding day to be and include the things which are important you you both as a couple.  Incorporate favourite colours, animals, shapes and text to make your wedding invitations truly bespoke to you both.

If you are organised enough, it’s a really good idea if you can order all of your wedding stationery at the same time so that you can get matching designs across all of your stationery.  It is also advisable to order everything as soon as possible – earlier rather than later.

Depending on the type of wedding that you are planning, you may very well need several different types of wedding invitations.  You may need evening invites separately, or perhaps different invites for different people if you are planning on taking close friends and family abroad for a beach wedding and then having a reception back home (and not anywhere near a beach!)

There is a certain etiquette when it comes to wedding invitations and these may seem a bit daunting when you approach sending out your wedding invites.  But, really, there are just a few simple rules to follow and we have jotted them down here to give you a bit of a guide.

Firstly, your guest’s names should always be handwritten on each invite.  As tempting as it is to word-process each one for efficiency, all this does is make it more impersonal.  Write your full guest’s names and remember to add ‘and Guest’ for any singletons you may be inviting and wish for them to bring someone of their choosing.

Traditionally, if the bride’s parents are acting as hosts for the marriage, this should be stated on your wedding invitations (for example ‘Mr & Mrs Andrew Hamilton request the pleasure of your company at their daughter’s marriage….’).  Your should always try to have a host if possible, even if this is yourselves (Clare and David invite you to their wedding…), or even children of the couple (Alfie and Scarlet would love you to attend their mummy and daddy’s wedding…)

Sending out your wedding invitations is the one time that you need to be organised and punctual – late invites are a no-no as you want to give people the time to plan for attending your special day.  If you are very organised you may have already sent save the date cards out in preparation but this doesn;t mean you can leave the actual invites til the last minute!

Hand-delivered invitations are a lovely touch but this isn’t always possible.  If you have moved away from home but still have family living near other guests, try to get a responsible family member to deliver the invites on your behalf.  This will also save you some money on posting the invites.