Planning a wedding? First, congratulations! Second, better you than me ;) Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed all the creative parts, but not fun are all of the must-do parts that are unavoidable when it comes to having 100+ people in one place for no other reason than because of your request. I plan parties all the time, as I’m like the “mom” of our friend group, but weddings are like no other party!
That being said, I can help at least with the paper pretties. Here’s a few things to keep in mind.
• Think about it early. – There’s no harm in having things checked off the list early. Your stationery should be one of the fun parts of your planning. It’s where you get to set the tone for your event, and truly express yourself. Also, and this would be terrible, leaving this to the last minute could result in rush fees, or design compromises.
• Order extra paper pretties, start to finish. – What’s worse than your out of town cousin feeling like they are not invited to your wedding because their invitation got lost in snail mail land? Or worse, you spaced and actually forgot to put them on the list. Eek! Not to fret, you’ve ordered extras! One more thing – there’s no shame in a B list. So you have lots of friends, so what! You’ve gotten a lot of people’s rsvps that can’t make it, and now you’ve got room for your best friend from second grade. Do it. You’ve got extras. Ordering extras at the last minute can be very costly, so take these things into account early on.
• Wedding stationery is more than just invitations. - There are tons of budget calculators out there to help you figure out what you’d like to spend on your paper pretties. Just don’t forget about your day-of things. Here’s the main stuff: save the dates, invitations, ceremony programs, reception signage, escort/place cards, table numbers/names, menus, favors, and thank you cards. Don’t blow your whole budget on your save the dates and invitations – decide what things you need a professional for, and go from there. And last but not least, don’t forget about that pesky postage!
• Don’t cut corners on the big stuff. – Trying to save a few dollars is great, and I’m right there with you, but don’t do it on the things that you want to keep around and look great. There’s really something to be said for a professionally designed invitation. There’s plenty of stuff throughout the wedding planning that a DIY bride can do super effectively! Talk to your stationer about what you’d like to take on yourself, and I’m sure they’ll work with you.
Just some general advice (which you can take or leave), your wedding is yours. I promise there will come a time in this whole process where it DOES NOT feel that way, but don’t do anything because it’s what you “should” do. Go ahead, wear a colored wedding dress, go green and make your guest rsvp online, skip the whole wedding party business, whatever! The thing I say daily to brides: There are no rules!
Hopefully you read to the end of this blog post. Here you go 
