Happy Wednesday Lover-Doodles! I’m hoping everyone had a wonderful and romantic Valentine’s Day with their sweetie! Phillip and I made homemade pizza (it’s a Valentine’s tradition of ours!), I made Phillip  watched ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, and we sipped on champagne mimosas all night! It was great and nothing super out of the ordinary for us! Ok, so we don’t make pizzas and sip champagne every night (although that would be awesome!) but we do enjoy being at home, being homebodies, and relaxing on our couch.  It’s pretty much our favorite date night when it involves the couch, movies, and relaxing!

Anyway! Today I’m not here to gab about our Valentine’s Day plans! I’m wanting to explain WHY a great invitation IS SO IMPORTANT when making your wedding day plans!  So for today’s Wedding Wednesday post, I’m talking about all things Invitation and WHY invitations MATTER! So! All my Brides-To-Be & Emma Loo Brides…LISTEN UP!!! When I was planning my own wedding,  I would tell you that my three most important aspects of the wedding day (besides getting MARRIED, of course!) was the 1.) Photography 2.) The Table Centerpieces and 3.) The Invitations!!

Everyone kept asking me why were the invitations so important and why waste time and money on something “that they will just throw away”? Hearing that, I cringed. First of all, invitations and stationery are all part of my life — you can always catch me in the paper and stationery aisle at TJ Maxx or Target just perusing all of the pretty! I love it! Second of all, of course you can expect your wedding guests to “simply throw it away” if YOU don’t even care about your wedding invitation yourself! If it looks like you put no effort into it, it will definitely end up in the trash.

Invitations are essential when planning your wedding day because they SET THE TONE for your guests and MAKE THEM CARE about your wedding and PREPARE for your wedding! When you choose a great invitation, your guests will keep them out of the trash and hang on to a memory from your wedding for a lifetime!

Here’s a little bit about WHY Your Wedding Invitation is SO IMPORTANT!

1.) Your invitation is your wedding guests FIRST IMPRESSION about your wedding!! It SETS THE TONE! 

Ever since he popped the question, you’ve been busily making all of your wedding plans! And if you’re anything like me, you’ve already bought your wedding binder, chosen some color swatches, and have picked out an overall theme for your big day! I don’t blame you! You’ve been dreaming of this day ever since you were a little girl and there’s nothing wrong with knowing what you want!

Have you ever received an invitation to anything and could tell what it would be like just from the invitation? An invitation to any event should properly set the tone to the event.  If it’s a laid back backyard BBQ engagement party, then the invitation should match that overall casual feeling.  If the wedding is an extravagant and lush, black tie affair…then the invitation that goes along with it should exude that same sort of elegance and appeal.  Since we’re in awards seasons (one of my favorite seasons!) Could you imagine what the invitation to the Oscars looks like? It’s not just some piece of white paper tucked inside an envelope! It’s elegant, classic, and glamorous…no wonder why it’s the most sought after awards show to get an invitation to!

Your wedding invitation should set the tone of your wedding day to your guests! It’s your guests FIRST IMPRESSION of your wedding day and it sets any expectations of your wedding day.  If you quickly sent out something you did not care about and looks thrown together, your guests may wonder if your celebration is even worth attending or they may not RSVP right away (which is ALWAYS stressful to the planning bride!)  On the other hand, if you send them something that looks like you carefully curated the invitation and made it an important aspect of your wedding planning, then they will be more excited to celebrate with you and know to expect that your wedding is important!

2.) Your invitation PROVIDES IMPERATIVE INFORMATION to your guests!

Obviously, your invitation also provides information to your wedding guests.  Your wedding invitations will certainly be kept and cherished, especially if it’s full of useful details of the wedding day! Here are some pieces of information you’ll definitely want to include on your invitation:

+Who-This may seem like a big “DUH”, but it’s always important to include your names (and perhaps any personalizations or nicknames!) along with who is hosting the event.  Traditionally, the Bride’s parents are the hosts, but if the Groom’s parents are helping out, they too should be included.

+When-This may be another “DUH” moment, but it’s always important to add when.  Not only the date of your wedding, but also the TIME! Make sure the time that the wedding ceremony will actually begin is listed on the invitation, not the time the music will start.  The time listed on your invitation should be the time when your Grandmothers, Mothers, or Bridal Party is walking down the aisle.  Your guests should always plan to arrive 15 minutes before the time listed.  You may also want to include what time your cocktail hour and reception begins and ends, and even dinner! You don’t want hungry guests! Sometimes dinner isn’t always at the beginning of the reception!

+Where- Your wedding invitation should include the full street address and city.  Since everyone really has GPS or Smartphones nowadays, there’s really no need for zip codes or directions.  If you are planning on leaving directions or using a custom map, you should include it on another smaller, but matching card.

+Dress Code- If you plan for your guests to wear formal wear and suit and tie…TELL THEM! You may also want to include if it’s an outdoor ceremony or reception, since the outdoors will require a different dress code, especially for ladies! You may also want to include your weather plans on the invitation just incase the weather does not cooperate! You won’t believe how many RSVP’ed YES wedding guests actually DON’T come when the weather is bad because they don’t know what to expect since there was no information on the invitation about this!

+Accommodation Information- A separate, but matching card should explain the accommodations.  It’s always a fail-safe practice to reserve a block of rooms at a hotel or two within a couple of miles from the venue.  You should also include shuttle service information if you have a shuttle transporting your guests to and from the hotel.  You don’t always need accommodations, but if you have more than 10 guests attending your wedding from out of town, you should definitely do this!

+Wedding Website- Your wedding website is a personal site and an extension of your wedding invitation AND wedding day! Make sure to include your wedding website on your invitation as well! This gives your wedding guests a chance to visit the site, read about your relationship, get to know your bridal party, find links to your wedding registries, and find more important information you may have left off your invitation! Use a site like bit.ly or weebly.com to create your own personal site!3.) You will CHERISH your invitation for YEARS to come!

Can you imagine years from now…your great-grandchildren flipping the pages of your wedding keepsake album. They will flip through those old and yellowing pages, skim their fingers above the pictures, and stop to look at the invitation.  An open envelope with the invitation, RSVP card, detail cards, and tissue paper tucked away.  All the elements of a beautiful wedding invitation to hold in their hands and look at.  You probably won’t think about this piece of paper for years and years, but once you find it amongst your wedding keepsakes, all of the memories will come flooding back to you! Although, I can’t promise you’ll look at this piece of paper every day, when you do see it you’ll cherish it and love that it’s there.4.) Your invitation becomes a BEAUTIFUL KEEPSAKE! 

That’s right! Framing your wedding invitation alone or beside one of your favorite photos from your wedding day makes for an amazing memory to hang up! We have our wedding invitation in a shadow box that hung up in our hallway gallery wall.  We love looking inside the shadow box that holds our invitation! It reminds us day in and day out when we walk past it of all the love and anticipation we had for our special day! 5.) Your wedding invitation should DELIGHT YOUR GUESTS! 

Who gets “snail mail” nowadays!? Our mailbox is filled with junk mail and bills! Who likes that?! And whenever we get invited to things, it’s usually via FaceBook Invites…how lame is that?! Think about how excited you’d be if you opened up your mailbox and took out a beautifully crafted envelope with an invitation inside that was absolutely beautiful! It would make you more excited about attending the event, wouldn’t it?! That’s EXACTLY how your guests will see YOUR wedding invitation when they receive something that you took the time to choose and create for your wedding day!

I ALWAYS use your wedding invitation when shooting the wedding day details! ALL of my Emma Loo Brides know why having their wedding invitation with them on wedding day is ALMOST as important as having your dress and marriage license! If you want more information on WHY that is, take a look at THIS blog post.  

SO! After ALL of this information on WHY your wedding invitation is SO IMPORTANT, now it’s time for you to go out and actually CHOOSE your wedding invitation! There are SO many places to find invitations, but only a few invitation and stationery companies I’d recommend for my own Emma Loo Brides! One of my absolute FAVORITE invitation companies to work with is BASIC INVITE!! They are such a fabulous company to work with and provide my Emma Loo Brides with SO MANY choices for their wedding invites and stationery! Here’s a few things I just adore about Basic Invite!

For starters, they have EVERYTHING under the sun when it comes to invitations! For ALL life events! If you’re planning a wedding, a baby shower, or just in need of personal stationery or recipe cards…they do it all! Plus, when you’re looking for your invitation or stationery, they have unlimited colors that will match literally ANY theme and an INSTANT preview so you can see what it’ll look like online! If that’s not good enough, they also offer samples that will give you the opportunity to print out and actually SEE and FEEL what the quality would be like. Oh yeah, and you can receive these samples BEFORE ever even placing your order! HOW AMAZING!! That’s definitely a highlight for me! I want to see and feel and quality of what I’m buying, don’t you?!

What’s also great, is unlike some companies that just provide a white or cream color envelope, Basic Invite has over FORTY color envelopes to choose from! …FORTY, y’all! And you can put those tongues to rest, because their envelopes will seal themselves.

If you’re stuck on guest book ideas…Basic Invite also makes these great guestbooks that allow your guests to sign and leave a note for the happy couple! I always suggest a traditional guest book at the ceremony AND a fun guestbook like a picture or guestbook album to sign at the reception! It makes for TWO wonderful keepsakes from your wedding day! You will cherish the guest books forever!

With Basic Invite, there’s over 200+ Wedding Invitation Sets to choose from, so the options are out there! From casual to elegant, there’s an invitation out there for ANY Bride and Groom! With matching invitation sets, menus, programs, and RSVP cards, everything will match and stay consistent throughout your invitation suite! Believe me, that not only makes a great impression on your wedding guests, but also makes your wedding day images look great and consistent as well!

After all this wedding invitation talk, now I want to re-do Phillip and I’s wedding invitation! Although, at the time, I LOVED our invitation suite, it was A LOT of work! So much time and effort was put into making my DIY wedding invitations and I definitely wouldn’t want to put that sort of work on ANY of my Emma Loo Brides! Had I’d known something like Basic Invite was available, I would’ve definitely used it! Plus, it would’ve saved me SO much time (AND MONEY!) and I would’ve actually ENJOYED one of my most important parts of our wedding planning even more!!

Happy Wednesday Friends & as always…Happy Planning! XOXO!

{All photos in this post were provided by Basic Invite! This was a sponsored post by Basic Invite…and I absolutely LOVED teaming up with them! Look for more Basic Invite posts soon!) 

To Visit Basic Invite, Click Here! 

Read More Wedding Wednesday Posts Here! 

Read About Why Your Wedding Invitation Makes Your Detail Photos Better Here! 

View Our Wedding Day Recap Here!