Guest list and stationery

Print after the names are real. A card that goes out while you are still bargaining over a cousin is a card you may have to walk back. Finding the Perfect Wedding Guest List: Who Makes the Cut? is the cut itself: the must-haves, plus-ones, coworkers, and the per-head math that forces a smaller room. Catering and the bar move with every name you add. The essay sends you to the budget quiz for that arithmetic. Do the cut before you order envelopes.

When to Send Save-the-Dates is the clock once the list would be painful to shrink. For a local wedding, mail them 6 to 8 months ahead. A destination, a holiday weekend, or peak season stretches that to 8 to 12 months, because flights and days off are the reason the card exists. Invitations follow later, about 6 to 8 weeks out for most weddings in the U.S., a little earlier when guests are flying. If you are already inside four months, skip the save-the-date and send the invitation. A late save-the-date only delays the information people need.

What belongs on the card is shorter than people fear. The date, with the year, and the city or region. The venue name and the ceremony time can wait for the invitation. A plus-one is a name. Write that name on the envelope once you have decided the person is coming, and leave the line off while you are still deciding. A guessed city is how you end up mailing a correction.

The narrower essays below assume those three things are settled: the date, the place, and the names. Seating paper, escort cards and place cards, lives with the reception guides. It does its work at the door of dinner, after the mailbox is done.

A destination that already has a city can carry the invitation as a small passport booklet. The Allure of Passport Wedding Invitations: Your Ticket to a Unique Celebration is that suite, printed or digital. A hashtag is shorter work. Creative Wedding Hashtag Ideas for Your Big Day: Make It Memorable! wants it under 15 characters, checked in a search so the tag belongs to this wedding, and printed on the site and the invitation. The Role of Social Media in Modern Weddings is the wider version: what you post before the day, and the guests who would rather stay out of the photos. Ask for that in the same note as the hashtag.