Wedding Invitations

You’re almost there! Only two weeks to go and a few more
details to wrap up:

• Confirm final details with
  all wedding professionals you have hired. Confirm wedding night hotel
  reservation.
• Give caterer your guest count
• Finalize seating chart for
  reception.
• Submit names for place cards
  to calligrapher or write out yourself.
• Give a wedding day schedule
  to all attendants.
• Finish addressing your
  wedding announcements.
• Pick up your wedding dress.
• Have your bridal portrait
  taken.
• Break in your wedding shoes.
• Fill out a change-of-address
  form at the post office.

Be sure to keep an eye out for any wedding invitations that
may have been returned due to a bad address.

Well, your wedding day is fast approaching and there are
still a lot of things to take care of, but if you continue to follow our list
and guidelines, you’ll have everything covered.

• AT this point you should mail
  your wedding invitations. (6 weeks is customary, but 8 is becoming more
  common). It is not uncommon for guests to mail their responses without
  writing their name. Here is a trick to help you identify them even if they
  have forgotten to include their name. Assign each guest a number Write
  this number very small on the back of their response card before you
  enclose it with your wedding invitations. An incomplete response card can
  now be matched with a guest.
• There are a couple of ways
  that you can track your guests’ responses. One is to take index cards (one
  for each guest) and track it that way. We recommend using our "Guest
  List Spreadsheet" that we have created just for that and offer it as
  a free gift to you. Just click on this link and it will take you to a
  download page for that spreadsheet as well as our "Free Bride’s
  Planning Guide" which we have created for you complete with weekly
  checklists to help you get through all this planning.
• Order wedding programs and
  reception accessories such as napkins, cake boxes, etc. if you haven’t
  already done so.
• Make final menu decisions.
• Set rehearsal time and verify
  will all participants.
• Continue to write thank you
  notes.

More next time

During these preliminary months there are at least 8 more
things to try to get accomplished and they are as follows:

• Interview caterers, florists,
  photographers, videographers, musicians, etc. Be sure to taste food
  options, see the work of florists, photographers and videographers. Listen
  to or watch recordings of musicians or DJs. Ask for references and discuss
  deposit requirements and the cancellation policy. Hire as soon as
  possible.
• Create a preliminary guest
  list, including addresses. Ask all parents to do the same. Include the
  relationship (friend, uncle). This helps if the list needs to be
  shortened.
• Begin planning the wedding
  ceremony and reception.
• Write out directions and or a
  map to be included on a separate card with your wedding invitations.
• Shop for a wedding gown and
  accessories. If at all possible, order your dress at least 6-8 months in
  advance.
• Choose and order attire and
  accessories for bridesmaids. Keep in mind the time of year and style of
  wedding.
• Start planning the honeymoon.
  If you are leaving the country, make sure your passport is up to date and
  verify any visa requirements.
• Register for wedding gifts.
  Develop a system for recording gifts as they arrive and for recording when
  you wrote the thank-you note. Our free guest list spreadsheet was created
  just for that purpose.

Be sure to start checking out our unique wedding invitations
online so that when it is time to order, you have a pretty good idea of which
of our affordable wedding invitations you will want to buy.

Over the next several weeks we will discuss all the various tasks associated with planning your wedding pretty much the A-Z variety of
elements that are important to consider. The next couple of posts will list
things you should try to accomplish during the first 6-12 months.

• After announcing your
  engagement you will need to select a wedding date and time
• Decide what size and style of
  wedding you want (formal, informal, special theme).
• Set a preliminary budget
• Schedule a meeting with both
  sets of parents (if they are going to be involved) to openly discuss
  wedding expectations, costs and responsibilities.
• Hire a wedding coordinator at
  this time if you are going to use one.
• Buy a wedding planner or
  notebook, or use our free brides planning manual to remain organized and
  record decisions.
• Invite attendants to be in
  your wedding.
• Reserve the church or
  facility location for the wedding.
• Choose the officiant for the
  ceremony.

• Reserve the reception site
  and find out what services are available.

More next time. These are some of the most important things
to handle first in planning your wedding. Next time we will include more 6-12
month items to tackle. In the meantime be sure to check out our unique wedding
invitations at www.BeautifulWeddingInvitations.com

It says in your guarantee that you don’t charge our credit card
until we have received our wedding invitation cards. Is that true and why is that? And if
that is true, why do you need my credit card information up front?

Yes
is it true, that we want to be sure that you are totally satisfied with
your wedding invitations before we charge you for them. We are confident that
you will be more than pleased. It’s rare but occasionally something
might go wrong with your order and we want to be sure that feel that we
have given you the best service possible even if it means redoing your wedding invitations for you. We want you to feel that we have been completely
fair and that we are taking care of you.

The reason we like to get the
payment information up front is that #1 it is easier for you just to
take care of that all at once, and sometimes we have found it difficult
to get hold of our clients after the fact to get the information.
Sometimes with spam filters and all, emails are lost and with busy
schedules, we often get voicemail when we call. It’s just much easier
this way. As you might understand, we also like to authorize a credit
card from an overseas address ahead of time just to make sure that it
is valid. We do this for our own protection.

What type of payment methods do you accept for your wedding inviations?

We accept MasterCard, Visa, Amex and Discover as well as personal checks from a US Bank.

I’m a bit hesitant to order my wedding invitations online. Is your website secure?

You
bet, we use a secure order form using SSL encryption for credit card
entry, and purge that information as soon as we retrieve it. Once your
select an invitation you are taken to our secure server. You can tell
that your order is being directed to a secure server because up in the
address bar where is says, "http://…" it changes to https://…The
"s" means secure. Also there is a small, yellow padlock that shows up
down in the bottom right of that screen that is locked. If it was open,
it would mean that it was not secure. If
you still feel uncomfortable about putting your credit card information
online, you have the option of calling that information in to one of
our customer service representatives. We don’t mind at all.

What shipping method do you use for your wedding invitations?

By default we
use UPS to ship our Wedding Invitations. You get to choose which method you prefer. We offer anything
from ground to overnight shipping. Upon request, we can also ship
FedEX, however they pick up rather early in the day and sometimes
orders are not ready until later in the day which would delay your
order by a day going out.

Do you accept international orders?

Yes,to most
places, if you pay by credit card but we will have to determine the
cost after we receive your order so we know your shipping address and
the weight of all the items you need. We will not process anything
until you have selected and approved the shipping method and cost. When
shipping overseas, we usually ship UPS with a couple of choices or
global express. You, the customer are responsible for any customs,
taxes or brokerage fees when your wedding invitations arrive in customs.

I am quite nervous about this since I have never done this before.
How can I be sure that I’m not leaving out something important out of my wedding invitations or
that I’m making a big mistake?

First of all, please feel free to
call us with any questions or concerns you may have. We have helpd hundreds of brides over the years and are here to help you. Second of
all, your wedding invitation order goes through at least two proofing processes before
anything is printed.

First of all we carefully look over every order
when it comes in for accuracy: spelling, grammer, and check to be sure
that no pertinent informationis left out. We will contact you if we
have any questions or recommendations. Once we have checked your order
out thoroughly on our end, we send it to the editing department where
your invitations will be printed. They proof it there as well and call
us if they have any questions or recommendatons which we then pass on
to you.
As the #2 national dealer (in volume) for our national
supplier, we enjoy the privilege of special treatment and oversite of
all our wedding invitation orders.

With all this screening, you can rest assured that your finished product is something you will be very proud of.

If there is a mistake or problem of any kind, we will do them over for you by the next business day. Now do you feel better?

If your wedding date is within eight weeks, and if there are no questions
regarding your wedding invitation order, we should be able to get them in the mail
the next business day. If your wedding is scheduled after that it usually take
a day or two longer. If you are requesting a proof, of course that will add
another couple of days to process your order. 

Wedding invitation orders are processed in the order in which they are received, but another
factor that is entered in is that two orders coming in at the same time
are handled a bit differently in that the order with the closest wedding date
is processed first.

Please keep in mind that the shipping time for all wedding invitations is additional and that
we offer anything from ground to overnight with UPS.

Weddings to be performed in the Catholic Church are to be publicly
announced three times either from the pulpit or the church bulletin
before the wedding. Theses are called banns.

Catholics can be married in a simple wedding service but most
choose to include a Nuptial Mass (or service). If the wedding ceremony
will include a Nuptial Mass, that needs to be indicated on the
invitation because the mass itself will be around an hour long and your
guests need to be aware of that.

It used to be that Nuptial Masses were only performed before noon,
but now are performed in the afternoon as well. Unless the bishop has
granted special permission, Nuptial Masses may not be performed during
Lent or Advent.

The bride and groom “are joined together in holy matrimony” so “and” is used instead of “to.”

All of the above should be observed when setting the time and thinking about how to word your wedding invitations.