Invitations

[Kacie_bride]

Hey girls. My mom wants a very accurate guest list very soon because she says in the next few weeks we need to start shopping for invitations. I'm excited about shopping for invitations. I love to do anything that has to do with the wedding. I just wanted to know how far in advance you all got your invitations or at least decided on what invites you were going to order. And I also want to know if I am on track with my planning at this stage. I've looked at lists my I want your opinions. Below is a list of what all I have done so far.

Booked a site
Secured an officiate
selected colors and a theme
bought a dress
bought shoes (so now my dress can be altered)
picked bridesmaid dresses (but I haven't ordered them or anything)
looked at flower girl dress patterns (my aunt is making their dresses)
selected my attendants
started buying some decorations
found programs that I feel in love with
have played with the wording for the programs
Booked a honeymoon
Booked a photographer
Taken engagement photos

[brewsells]

Wow, Kacie, you have done more than I have, and you have longer than I do. Guess I need to get my butt into gear. :)

[CindySue]

Wow......all that and you still have 9 months to go? Youre going to finish quick like I did and then get bummed out because you have nothing to do. Im having to wait to finish my stuff and Im not handling it very well.

[WhiskeyGirl]

I think you are right on track! Depending on where you need to send your invites they usually say 6-8 weeks (don't quote me on that though!! IT coudl be sooner!!) before the wedding! Since we had guests coming from Germany and across the country we sent them out at two different times. The travelling guests recieved their invites with five months to spare! So they could book time off and figure out flights and such!! I wanted to be sure they had more then enough time to figure out their lives!! Closer to home I think we sent them out two months in advance!! I also wanted to give them enough time!

I think its always good to be on top of things!! If you find you are running out of wedding things to do as you get closer you can slow down and take your time!! Thats what I did!!

Oh and about the BMs dresses...have you checked to see how long they will take to order them?? We ordered them in January and we were married in July....the dresses arrived about the end of May beginning of June and I think that put unnecessary stress on me!! Its always better if these things come in earlier then late!! believe me I think I was about to die and I was getting really nervous when it was the beginning of June and the dresses still needed to be altered and one needed to be sent across Canada to one BM. Better to be safe then sorry!!!!

[LaceyinPgh]

Invites usually go out between 6 to 8 weeks. Lean towards the 8 week mark if you haven't sent out save the dates with travel info in them or if the majority of your guests are traveling in from far off. Go closer to the 6 week mark if you sent out detailed save the dates or if almost everyone is local.

I ordered my invites from www.elegantbrides.com. I ws very pleased with the product. I did have a small printing error but that was remedied the next day with a completely new set of invites that were over night shipped to me. I couldn't have been happier with their customer service. Their selection and prices were very nice too. I think they had the biggest discount on the Regency invites that we liked.

After the order was placed even with regular shipping it still only took about a week for them to get here. Heck, it took me longer to get them addressed, stuffed, and sealed than it did to get them designed, printed, and shipped to me.

[Jenn060306]

It sounds like you are doing really well for being on track.

I am planning on sending my invites 8 weeks before the wedding. possibly 9 just to play it safe. (i'm a little crazy about this i know)
I made my own invitations and got them printed 14 weeks before the wedding because i had to cut them all out myself. If you have a little more time i think is better rather then rushing it all at the last moment.
And if you can definatly order you're BM soooner then later in case there are any problems. I ordered mine in January and they won't be here till mid to end of April.

[Kacie_bride]

My mom just wants to start shopping for invites, but I am not sending them out until 10 weeks before hand. (We have several out of state guests.) I am also doing the thing where I have 2 lists because my first list was way to many people (over 300) and I am looking to have around 200. So I am going to send out the first wave and when I get rsvps declined I will send out more invites from the second list.

I also want everything in order by October probably because I am graduating in December and I have to deal with that and we all know December is Christmas. And I want to spread out the cost of decorations. When I say that I have bought some decorations I mean I only have a couple of things and I have huge room to decorate. The room is big enough for 500 people.

About the dresses. I am going to order them in July. They say it will take at the most 10 weeks for them to come in. That means at the latest they will be in by September and then they may have to be altered. That will allow enough time for my maids to be able to get that done.

[Kacie_bride]

Oh and about the early booking on the honeymoon...since we are in December and that is a big travel season we decided to book it early.

And to go along with graduating that means around August I plan to start the "real job" search. Then if I find a job away, which I hope I do, Justin has to find a job. (He told me to find a job somewhere away from here and he said he would find something there after I did.) Then we have to find a place to live. That's hard because I know we defiantely do not have the money saved up to actually buy a house, so we have to rent for a little while at least. Then we have to rent a place where we can have our dog (inside), my cats, and we both have a horse.

I am also going to summer school this summer and in the fall I am going to find a part time job and go to school. So my plate is going to be very full in the coming up months.