In this day and age, wedding invitations have moved on in leaps and bounds and the possibilities are endless in terms of the direction and theme you want to adopt when inviting people to the big day. However, this process also represents an early relationship tester.
The first bone of contention in what should be the happiest day of your life is just who to invite. Deciding on numbers and the split between day to night guests is always a sticking point. As we all know, the more people you invite, the more expensive the day becomes.
Long lost family (we hardly see), relatives (we don’t actually like), the wife’s family is bigger than the groom’s or vice versa and we must try for equal numbers. These are all considerations we have to take into account before deciding on the numbers.
Pub friends, work mates, invite friend A and, all of a sudden, friends B, C, D and E have to be invited. How often is it we hear the words “we have to invite them all, or none of them”?
Then comes the massive grey area – children or no children. Traditionally, weddings are no children affairs. They were always time for the adults to have a relaxing weekend without their nippers crying, screaming and running amok. That is all well and good until a close family member of the bride or groom has children and then where do you draw the line?
Anyway – less of the doom and gloom. Invitations have moved on so much in recent times that once you have decided on the numbers along with just who to invite, it’s plain sailing.
“Save the dates” cards are available in many shapes and sizes, themes and colours. Why not personalise them with messages and pictures? Also, have you thought about magnets for individuality and safe keeping? After all, we all have a fridge to pin them on and they can be sent as soon as the date has been confirmed. Just so long as you know who you want to save the date.
The actual invites can follow the original theme with ease and evening invites are also available to send separately for the relaxed guests who turn up sociably late and don’t do smart or formal.
It’s impossible to make the invitation process any easier in terms of working out who should come to the wedding and at what stage of proceedings. However, the invitations themselves are much easier to organise – although you may find you’re spoilt for choice.
Dan Fingle is writing on behalf of www.weddinginvitationsonline.ie, supplier of an extensive range of quality wedding invitations