Wedding Stationary – What You Need

Your wedding stationery is an essential part of your wedding. Careful planning and perfect execution will ensure that your wedding guests are informed of all vital wedding details in style!

Apart from wedding invitations, there is other stationery that is vital to ensure your wedding day runs smoothly. We have compiled a list of stationery must-haves and those oh so tempting nice-to-haves.

Pre-Wedding Stationery

Save the Date

These are cards or magnets that are sent to your guests prior to the sending of your invitations to inform them of your wedding date and location. Thesedays with the hustle and bustle of life, people need a little extra warning, so it’s a good idea to send these out a year before your wedding to let your guests know that they are invited and have them save the date.

Invitations

Wedding invitations give guests the first glimpse of your wedding – what is your theme, what are your colours… make the first impression last! You can choose to design and make your own invitations, or go to a stationary company to do it all for you.

Envelopes

When sending out invitations, especially ones that you post, you will need envelopes. Gone are the days where a plain white envelope will do the trick. Envelopes have to match your invitations, and some brides even go as far as to get the guests names printed on them.

Wedding Ceremony Stationery

Programmes/Hymn Sheets

Not all couples include ceremony programmes or hymn sheets in their wedding. Especially if their ceremony is less formal and they aren’t signing at the ceremony. If you do decide to include a wedding programme, typical information to include would be the names of the bridal couple, the wedding date and venue and a list of the names of those in your wedding party. It’s a good idea to include words to hymns being sung during the ceremony to help guests to sing along.

Reserved Signs

If you have a large guest list and you are worried about seating in the ceremony, place reserved signs for your close family in the front two rows pews or rows of seating. This mainly depends on your guests and ceremony location size.

Wedding Reception Stationery

Seating Chart or Seating Cards

In order for your guests to know where they will be seated, you’ll need to display a seating chart or have seating cards. You can get creative when displaying these – perhaps string up seating cards with crystals and hang them in a nearby tree.

Place Cards

These are quite old-fashioned, but some couples still designate seating to their guests. Place cards are merely name cards placed at a seating, giving guests an indication of where they should sit.

Table Numbers

If your venue doesn’t have table numbers to hire, then you can choose to have them printed. A-frame table numbers are very popular, and often the menu is included on the back of the table number (this saves you the extra cost of menus!) Some couples choose to name their tables, instead of numbering them. The best way to eliminate confusion is to try and name the tables and sort them in alphabetical order. For example, if tables are named after emothions, then the table “adore” should be closer to the main table, whilst the table “love” would be further away.

Menus

These are seen as an extra, except if you are serving a buffet whereby it’s nice for guests to know beforehand what their choices will be. As mentioned above, the table numbers are often paired with the menus.

Favour Tags

If you are giving favours, it’s a nice idea to attach a “thank you” tag to the favour. You can even personalise these tags with each couples name, or you can keep them generic, just with the thank you message.

Other Stationary

Other stationary you may require at your reception can include signage to guide guests to food stations (such as a sweets buffet) or to a photobooth (Include instructions). Ensure you make a list of all the extra stationary you may need so you don’t miss anything out.

Post-Wedding Stationery

Thank You Cards: Show guests how much you appreciate them coming to your wedding or thank them for the wedding gift. It’s popular to also send thank you cards to your service providers thanking them for their wonderful service on your wedding day.