12 Tips For Wedding Invitations + Trends • Invitation Card for Wedding

While this post is sponsored by Basic Invite, the opinions expressed are our own.

Pop, fizz, clink!

Is there anything better than that immediate bliss following a romantic engagement? It truly is the most magical time and beginning the process of planning your wedding day feels like a dream come true. From choosing the venue to finding the perfect wedding dress, celebrating your love surrounded by friends and family is simply the best.

One of the first steps of wedding planning is booking the venue and sending Save the Dates. Choosing a Save the Date is one of the most exciting parts of the engagement process, and it makes everything feel so official!

TIPS FOR WEDDING INVITATIONS

Today we are excited to share everything you need to know about ordering wedding invitations, etiquette tips, how to find your personal style, and more. Keep reading for everything you need to know about choosing an invitation card for wedding:

1 – CHOOSE A THEME

Choosing a theme allows you to coordinate your invitations to set the tone for your wedding. Traditional, modern, trendy, acrylic, or a gorgeous photo of the couple – the options are endless.

Kevin and I had an elegant coastal wedding with classic white florals and a coastal feel, so we choose a photo of us on the beach for our Save the Date cards and timeless wedding invitations that fit the theme of our wedding.

What makes Basic Invite so amazing is the site offers over 900 wedding invitation sets to choose from, so you can coordinate your Save the Dates, wedding invitations, enclosure cards, wedding menus, wedding programs, and even add in matching thank you cards! We loved keeping a theme throughout our wedding to create a beautiful aesthetic.

Basic Invite is also one of the few websites that allows customers to choose from almost unlimited color options with instant previews online to see your designs. Any element on the card can be customized from over 180 color options, allowing you to have full customization down to the smallest detail. This is what sets Basic Invite apart from other online stationary companies, and it is one of the reasons we love this site so much!

2 – SEND YOUR SAVE THE DATES UP TO 12 MONTHS BEFORE YOUR WEDDING

The more time you allow your guests to plan, the more likely everyone will be able to attend! If you’re planning a destination wedding, this will also help your guests plan their travel/work schedule, budget, etc.

With Basic Invite’s online save the date maker, you have endless choices to design and preview your Save the Dates. Whether you choose to do a personal Save the Date with an engagement photo, a themed card for a destination wedding, or a timeless and classic design, you will have so much fun making your Save the Dates on BasicInvite.com!

3 – WEDDING INVITATIONS SHOULD GO OUT AROUND 3 MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING

However, this is flexible if you’ve already sent the Save the Date and your guests have marked their calendar! We set the RSVP deadline for 4 weeks before the wedding since it was domestic, and Ellen set hers for 6 weeks since it was international. You just want to allow enough time for your guests to commit and plan, as well as enough time for you to finalize your head count!

4 – CREATE A WEDDING WEBSITE WITH EVERYTHING YOUR GUESTS NEED TO KNOW

A wedding website is absolutely the best resource for your guests attending your wedding. Include information about events and locations, which events are invite-only, hotel and travel information, registry links, photos, and a story of how you met. If you’re planning a destination wedding, including a travel guide with recommendations on what to do, where to eat, and more is so fun for guests.

Basic Invite offers fully-customizable wedding websites that are mobile-friendly and super easy to use. Best of all, you can coordinate your website to match your wedding invitations with their design themes and endless color options, keeping on trend with your overall aesthetic.

Have fun with this, take your time, and make the weekend as easy for your guests as possible – plus it will cut back on the amount of questions you will receive during your wedding week! You’ll be super busy, so having everything covered will make the weekend stress-free for you too!

5 – INCLUDE A DRESS CODE ON THE INVITATION

Yes, this isn’t traditional etiquette, but it makes it easier for the guests to know if the wedding is Cocktail, Beach Formal, Black Tie, Black Tie Optional, etc. If you choose to leave this out and stick to traditional etiquette, including the dress code on your wedding website is super helpful!

6 – ORDER YOUR WEDDING STATIONARY AHEAD OF TIME

You will have so, SO many thank you notes to write from showers to wedding gifts and more. I was amazed how many thank you notes I wrote, and I kept ordering more stationary.

Choose a set from Basic Invite before your wedding and get ahead on these notes, so you can relax and enjoy the newlywed bliss without a huge stack of cards to write to all of your loved ones! Plus, guests always love receiving thank you notes because they don’t have to worry if your gift was lost in the mail!

7 – BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHO IS INVITED ON THE INVITATION

How the envelope is addressed is how your guests will know who is officially invited to the wedding. If you’re inviting children, include “family” on the outer envelope or the children’s names on the inside envelope. If you are including a plus one, be sure write the guest’s significant other’s name or “and guest”.

To avoid any awkwardness when you receive the RSVP from a guest including a plus one without including them in your head count or children’s names for an adults-only wedding, pay attention to how you address the envelope to make it easier on everyone!

8 – ORDER A PROOF BEFORE ORDERING ALL OF YOUR INVITATIONS

When you’re ordering wedding invitations and Save the Dates, you will want to proof, proof, and proof again. Not only do you want to check to make sure you have all of the details correct, making sure you’re pleased with the look and feel of the cards is just as important!

Basic Invite allows customers the ability to order a printed sample of their invitation, so they can see the card’s paper quality and how it will print before they have to place their final order. This will guarantee you are absolutely in love with your invitations before ordering in bulk.

9 – SAVE TIME BY ORDERING CUSTOM PRINTED ENVELOPES TO COORDINATE WITH YOUR INVITATIONS

With Basic Invite, you can upload all of your addresses to have the envelopes printed before shipping. Highly recommend this! Addressing your envelopes by hand is time consuming, and unless you plan to hire a calligrapher, having your envelopes printed not only saves time – but it also looks so much prettier!

Not only do you have almost unlimited color options with your invitations, Basic Invite offers over 40 different colors of envelopes to choose from, so you can make your invite stand out before it’s even opened. All of their envelopes are peel and seal, so the envelopes can be closed quickly and easily!

10 – CONSIDER POSTAGE COSTS BEFORE ORDERING

The size and weight of your card will affect postage costs, so be sure to calculate this when making your budget. Swing by your local post office for wedding-themed stamps as well. After all, you’ve ordered a gorgeous invitation, so you may as well have the postage stamp coordinate!

11 – ORDER EXTRA INVITATIONS

Planning a wedding can be busy, and along the way you may realize you forgot to invite someone you really want there OR you decide to increase the size of the wedding as you dive into planning. Having extras is always helpful, plus you will love having a few to hold onto following the wedding as a keepsake.

12 – ADDRESS AN ENVELOPE TO YOURSELF

This is one thing we almost forgot, but you will want an invitation with your name on it for beautiful flat-lay photos! Plus seeing your new married name on the envelope is such an exciting experience!

2021 WEDDING TRENDS WE’RE LOVING

Now that we’ve covered all of the basics for planning and ordering wedding invitations, it’s time to dive into the really fun part – trends! Your wedding invitation should not only be a reflection of your wedding day, but also your personal style.

Whether you choose timeless calligraphy, a colorful theme for a destination wedding, or a chic and minimalist design, your wedding invitation is a reflection of your special day! Keep scrolling to see some of our favorite trends from Basic Invite for 2021 to inspire your wedding day:

TRADITIONAL ELEGANCE

My sisters and I all chose a timeless ecru invitation with elegant black calligraphy, and we loved the way they turned out! This style is forever classic and is perfect for a formal wedding!

classic navy wedding calligraphy invitation

traditional calligraphy wedding invitation

ACRYLIC

When Ellen was planning her colorful wedding in Mexico (before switching to a classic black and white theme in Banff), she ordered these as her original save the dates. They are fun, modern, and make a unique statement!

METALLIC FOIL

Love the look of glitz and glam? Adding a metallic foil to your invitation is a chic yet elegant way to dress up a classic invitation. You can use gold foil on so many Basic Invite styles, whether you choose classic, modern, whimsical, or more.

MODERN MINIMALISM

If you love the look of chic simplicity, this is one trend to love! These are such a clean and modern twist on the classic calligraphy invitations, and we love the minimalist look.

PRETTY PASTELS

If you love the look of a traditional invitation, but want to spruce it up a tad, pastel wedding invitation suites are so elegant. These pastel blue invites are so sophisticated and a great way to tie in your wedding colors.

FEMININE FLORALS

From pastel watercolors to vibrant florals, this trend is so feminine and fun. We love the look of the soft watercolor florals for a traditional wedding, and bright colorful hues are perfect for a tropical destination wedding.

VIBRANT COLOR PALETTES

If a pop of color is your style, we can’t get enough of these gorgeous vibrant invitations! Since traditional invitations are our favorite, this photo below is giving us all the feels – and keeping the classic look with a fun color is just a dream!

We hope these tips help you on your wedding planning journey! We had so much fun choosing our wedding invitations, and we hope you do too! Be sure to check out all of the gorgeous wedding invitations on Basic Invite, and we know you will love their selections as much as we do! For more information and to explore their collections, click here.

Looking for more inspiration? Follow Basic Invite on social media to see more!

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12 Tips For Wedding Invitations + Our Favorite Trends