Wedding invitations are one of the first things you need to decide on when planning your wedding. You should get your invitations out in good time so everyone can make it on your big day and they also have time to reply. Everybody loves to receive a personal wedding invitation and the style and wording you choose has to be carefully thought out.

Will you choose the more personal approach and design and make your own invitations or perhaps you will opt for a local printer to make them. The choice is all yours. Aswell as making them more personal and unique, making your own invitations also keeps the cost down which could be important if you are on a small budget.

You could choose to use colours and fabrics that are the same as in your theme for the wedding. You could even write a small poem on the invitation or on the envelope. Your style of invitation reflects you and your partner’s personalities.

The wording of your invitation - Will you address it from ‘the families of … ‘ or maybe ‘the bride and groom hereby request the pleasure of’. So much to think about here Getting the wording right is important so decide carefully how you would like to word it. The first line of the wedding invitation should always tell who is hosting the event.

Some styles of wording are as follows:

Mr & Mrs ……. request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter ….. to …… Saturday the 11th June 2008 at one o’clock in the afternoon at …….(address)

Mr & Mrs …. and Mr & Mrs ….. request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of their children Miss ….. and Mr ….. on Saturday 11th June 2008 at 1.00 pm and afterwards at ……..

Our happiness will be great if you can share in the celebration of the marriage of ……. to …… on Saturday 11th June 2008 at one o’clock at ……. The reception will be held afterwards at ……

You have shared in our lives through your friendship and we invite you to share in the beginning of our life together, as we exchange marriage vows showing our commitment to each other, Saturday 11th June 2008 at 1pm at …………

Always make some extra copies as you might be surprised at how many people you did not think of at first. Extra copies also help in case you make a mistake with names or addresses - it can happen.

Once you have chosen and written out all your invitations, send them out to your guests and sit back and wait for all those replies to come flying in!