This entry is from our Expert Guest series where wedding and honeymoon professionals share their best tips on creating memories that last a lifetime.

So, you’ve finally popped the question, and you’re starting to plan your special day. It’s an exciting time as you begin to start the new chapter of your life. However, all the things you have to think about can get a little overwhelming, so much so that mistakes can be made.

Let’s scale things down. One of the first things you’re going to do is send out invitations, and it’s important to get these right because they’re the first impression many of your family and friends are going to have of your big day.

So you get things right the first time, here are 8 of the most common etiquette mistakes made in wedding invitations, all so you can avoid them!

Avoid Wedding Invitation Mistakes

#1 – Sending the Invites in Good Time

The absolute latest you should be sending for a wedding is eight weeks. Any later, or closer to the date, than this and this, can cause serious problems with people not being able to get the time off work or being able to get everything they need.

This is even more important if you’re having the wedding away from home, or in another country, and you need to make sure there’s enough time to get everything prepared. Be timely.

#2 – Keeping Things Nice and Visual

It’s easy to go overboard with the color palette of your wedding invitation while trying to make it stand out and eye-catching. However, it’s always best from an aesthetic standpoint to keep things nice and neutral and balance your nice bright colors with more neutral colors to keep things balanced and looking great!

#3 – Not Getting the Start Time Right

“It can be really tempting to put an earlier start time on your wedding invitation because you want people to get there early and on time, but people know to get there early, and you putting an earlier time will mean everyone is waiting around a lot longer than needed, and this can cause people to get irritated!” shares Mark Harris, an event manager for Ox Essays and State of Writing.

#4 – Buying Postage without Weighing the Invitation

For most weddings, this won’t be a problem, but sending off a lot of invitations can be expensive, especially if you don’t get it right the first time. It’s so important to make sure you’re weighing your invitation sample, especially if it’s made from card or comes with extras before you pay for postage.

If you get it wrong, you’ll need to pay for postage all over again, and this can be a costly mistake that could have been spent on other things.

#5 – Not Checking for Typos

This is a point that should go without saying, but we still see so many wedding invitations being sent with typos and mistakes, and this just ruins the overall feel of the invitation. Even if you’re not a professional writer, here are some online tools to help you get it right.

My Writing Way /  Academadvisor – Use these tools to check and correct the grammar used in your wedding invitations.

Boom Essays – use this website to edit and perfect the written content of your wedding invitation, as mentioned by Revieweal.

Studydemic – Use this website for copywriting tips to help you plan and write out the content of your wedding invitation.

Essay Roo / UK Writings – These are two online proofreading tools to help you spot and correct any mistakes or typos in your content.

Via Writing – As mentioned by UK Top Writers, use this tool to generate captivating headers and titles for your invitations.

Academized / Paper Fellows – These are two online formatting tools to help you structure and layout your wedding invitation content.

#6 – Include Pre-Paid RSVPs

It’s considered rude for people to pay for their own RVSP to your wedding, so make sure you’re including a stamped and addressed envelope so they can simply reply and pop it in the mail without having to think about it too much.

Of course, this doesn’t matter so much if people are replying by hand!

#7 – Not Writing the Exact People

When inviting someone, it’s very easy to slip up by writing; we cordially invite the ‘Johnson Family’ to our special day or something along those lines. However, this is a huge risk because who you consider being the Johnson family might not be who they think is the Johnson family, and may have just invited dozens of people without even realizing.

For this reason, it’s vital to make sure you’re inviting exactly who you want to invite, and you’re specific with your invites, so there’s no room for miscommunication.

#8 – Include All Essential Details!

There’s nothing worse than sending out an invitation that hasn’t got all the information you need it to have on there. From dates, times and addresses, to dress codes and special wishes, make sure you’re sending out invitations with everything, so you don’t need to send out two or make calls to everyone!

Conclusion

As you can see, there are lots of common mistakes that people make when it comes to their wedding invitations, which is why it’s so important you’re aware of them and can avoid yourself! Enjoy your big day!

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Bio: Freddie Tubbs is a lifestyle and relationships blogger at Big Assignments and Australian help blogs. He regularly attends psychology and blogging events and contributes post to online magazines and blogs, such as Eliteassignmenthelp.com.