General guide to ordering your wedding stationery
When should I order my wedding invitations?
When it comes to your wedding, first impressions are all important.
You will want to choose your wedding stationery with care so that it anticipates the style, elegance and romance that will be the hallmark of the special day itself.
You may have very definite ideas as to the colour scheme and theme of your wedding or you may need a little inspiration. Click here to view current designs
Occasionally, it may be necessary to use slightly different materials to the ones shown on the website, but we will do our best to match as closely as we can.
When should I order my wedding invitations?
It is customary to send invitations approximately 8 - 12 weeks before your wedding day. We usually ask for 28 days from sign off of proofs to completion of your order. It can take around 2 weeks for proofs to be finalised.
Therefore, you should be looking to order your invitations around 4 months before your wedding date. There is, of course, no problem in ordering well before this time if you have all the information you need.
Please get in touch if you have a tight deadline and we will do our best to accommodate you.
You will need 1 per household/couple and it is often a good idea to order a few extra for last minute (or forgotten) guests.
It is quite usual to place an order in two stages: you may want to concentrate on the invitations first of all as these need to be sent out up to three months in advance of the wedding. You may prefer to wait until you have received your guests' replies and have a firmer idea of numbers before ordering the 'on the day' stationery such as orders of service, menus and favours.
We would encourage you to order a sample, before placing your full order, in order to appreciate the quality and feel of the craftmanship. We do charge for samples but the P&P is free and the price of the sample is redeemable against your main stationery order if your stationery order is over £100 (limited to refund of 1 sample of each type of stationery ordered). Simply place an order for an item filling in your personalisation details (as far as possible). Samples are usually dispatched within 1 week.
Standard wedding invitation wording is as follows (square brackets surround required information):
[Wedding hosts]
request the pleasure of the company of
[leave blank]/[guest's name]
at the marriage of [their daughter]
[Bride's name]
to
[Groom's name]
at
[Wedding venue, location]
on
[Date]
at
[Time]
and afterwards at
[Reception venue]
[RSVP date] [RSVP details]
The standard wording for a civil partnership invitation is slightly different and usually takes the form as follows
[Partner no. 1]
and
[Partner no. 2]
request the pleasure of the company of
[leave blank]/[guest's name]
at their [civil partnership ceremony]/[commitment ceremony]
at
[Ceremony venue, location]
on
[Date]
at
[Time]
and afterwards at
[Reception venue]
[RSVP date] [RSVP details]
You may choose your own wording - simply state that you wish to do so at the time of ordering then attach your wording to an email and send to us quoting your order number.
Simply order the required invitation filling in the required personalisation information and indicating the number of invitations you require at checkout. You will need to fill in the required information:
Wedding hosts: Invitations are traditionally sent by the hosts of the day. Depending on your personal circumstances, this is usually the Bride's parents but can be anyone nominated by the couple and is usually the person paying for the wedding. In the case of civil partnerships it is usual for the invitation to be sent by the couple. If you would like some help with the wording of your invitation for your particular circumstances (i.e. divorced parents, widowed mother etc) please do not hesitate to contact us.
Invitee(s): You have the option of leaving this blank so that you handwrite your guest's names. This option has several advantages - you needn't have your guest list absolutely finalised before ordering your invitations, it feels more personal to handwrite your guests' names and this will also save you money! If you would prefer your guests' names to be individually printed on each invitation together with their addresses printed on each envelope this will cost an additional 50p per item and you will need to provide, under separate email, your guest list along the following lines:
35 Windsor Gardens 35 Windsor Gardens
Guest name in invitation
Name on envelope
Address on envelope
Michael, Alison, Paul & Lucy
Mr. & Mrs. M. Peters
Berkshire
SL2 1NT
Mr. & Mrs. M. Peters, Paul and Lucy
Mrs. M. Peters
Berkshire
SL2 1NT
The first option shows an informal style using first names for your guests. The second option is more traditional using guests' titles and addressing the envelope to the 'lady of the house'. It is, of course, entirely your choice how you wish to address your guests.
Relationship of hosts: As discussed above this would usually be "bride's parents" although this depends on your circumstances - this will help us to word your invitations correctly and also lets your guests know who the hosts are in relation to the bride and groom.
Bride's name: Please enter this exactly how you would like it to appear on the invitation. Traditionally the bride's name is shown as first name and middle name(s) only if her surname has already been used with her parents as hosts. In the cases of, for example, divorced and remarried parents as hosts where the hosts' surname is different from that of the bride, the bride's full name can, of course, be used.
Groom's name: Traditionally full name including title (e.g. Mr. Timothy Michael Smith)
Wedding venue name and location: Traditionally, the venue name (e.g. 'St. Francis Church' or 'Applegate Manor House Hotel') is followed by the town or village name and possibly county - not the full address. However, in the age of satellite navigation, it is acceptable to include the postcode.
Date: The date of your wedding usually written in full (e.g. 10th May 2008) - but please type it in exactly how you wish it to appear in the invitation.
Time: Standard format is used, e.g. 2.00pm.
Reception venue: Name of venue usually followed by the town or village name only but postcode can be included if necessary. If the reception is being held in the same location as the wedding ceremony you may like to enter the name of the suite or room the reception will be held in if this differs from the ceremony location.
RSVP date: You may want to add an RSVP date as you cannot finalise the catering or seating arrangements until all guests have replied.
RSVP address, phone number or email: You decide how you would like to receive the replies - you may like to offer all three.
This is a very important stage of the process. Once you have placed your order for stationery you will be sent a proof via email (usually within one week). You will want to make sure that you are entirely happy with the wording and layout of your stationery before 'signing off'.
If you do have amendments, reply by email giving clear amendment instructions. You will then be sent a further proof by email - this process will continue at no additional charge until you are 100% happy with the wording and layout of your stationery.
Order of Service
The order of service usually contains details of entrance music; wording of hymns, address and prayers by minister, readings, the marriage itself and the exit music.
Whoever is conducting your marriage ceremony will give you this information.
When submitting your order of service wording, please supply full wording to hymns as there are different versions to most hymns.
The copyright on most hymns has expired but certain popular modern hymns (e.g. Morning Has Broken) require a licence to print the words (additional £30). We can check this for you - please ask if in doubt.
Photo albums, guest books and keepsake boxes
These are normally dispatched by first class recorded post within one week of order being placed.
Wedding favours
Each wedding invitation design has at least one matching wedding favour design. In addition we have a separate wedding favours gallery which showcases some alternative designs which would complement your wedding stationery.
Perfect day has a wide range of wedding stationery designs to suit most tastes. Some designs will have the option to choose the colour of the card stock and other colour choices to suit your wedding colour scheme. Each design carries the full range of stationery: save the date card, wedding invitation, evening invitation, reply card, order of service, menu, placecard, favours, table plan, table numbers, cake box, guest book, photo album, thank you card and keepsake box.
Click here to view 2009 wedding stationery designs
Click here to view 2009 civil partnership stationery designs
Standard evening invitation wording is as follows (square brackets surround required information):
[Wedding hosts]
request the pleasure of the company of
[leave blank]/[guest's name]
at an evening reception
to celebrate the marriage
of [their daughter]
[Bride's name]
to
[Groom's name]
at
[Reception venue, location]
on
[Date]
at
[Time]
[RSVP date] [RSVP details]
You may choose your own wording - simply state that you wish to do so at the time of ordering then attach your wording to an email and send to us quoting your order number.
PLEASE NOTE: Our products are handmade using small embellishments and wire - they are, therefore, unsuitable for children
