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Invitations need to be mailed or emailed for the following occasions: birthday parties, anniversary parties, retirement parties, weddings, baby showers, wedding showers, holiday parties, home-decorating parties and jewelry parties. Invitations can be formal or informal. A formal invitation is more appropriate for a wedding, given that the wording will announce the bride and groom's parents as well as the location of the ceremony and the date and time of the wedding. Formal invitations have a certain etiquette about them, from their wording to how they are supposed to be addressed. Many wedding and professional-event planners can help you with formal invitations.
A party like a Halloween party would most likely call for an informal invitation decorated with pumpkins, witches and ghosts to make it look fun. As mentioned, many people make their own informal invitations, either in a word-processing program or with cardstock and scrapbook supplies like acid-free stickers, paper and stamps. The type of invitation type should match the occasion and purpose of the party. You don't need a formal invitation for your child's pirate-themed fourth-birthday party. -
The "W" questions should be answered when you are creating an invitation.
You need to tell the invitation recipients where the event is being held; include an address and even a phone number. If it is a wedding, retirement party or even a large birthday party, there may be a map included with the invitation.
Don't forget to tell the party guests when the party is going on by including the date and the time. Consider putting an ending time on the invitation if you don't want the party to last until the last guest decides it is time to go home.
Some invitations will even list why. Why is this party being thrown? To celebrate George's 40th birthday in style, or to wish Belinda good luck before she moves to Florida?
The "what" question may need to be answered if you are having a potluck party or want people to bring their own bottle. What should your guests bring? What are you celebrating? What will be provided? The more information you can include on an invitation, the better.
Don't forget the RSVP message. You want to know how many guests to expect, so you can plan properly. Make sure your invited guests can either call or email you to let you know if they will attend. You can also include a response card, which is popular for wedding invitations. Make sure you include a self-addressed stamped envelope so your guests don't have to pay to let you know if they are coming or not. - Invitations need to be sent out well before the event, especially in today's busy world. Wedding invitations should be sent at least 6 weeks before the date of the wedding. Eight weeks is better for your guests, as many of them will need to make travel arrangements and ask for time off from work. For birthday parties, wedding and baby showers, and even retirement celebrations, it is important to give people at least a month to get the date on their calendars. The 6-week rule works well with any party, but it is not as crucial to send a birthday-party invitation as early as a wedding invitation. What about a holiday party? Since there are so many parties around the end of the year, you may want to treat one of these like a wedding and send out announcements at the beginning of November.
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Invitations can get lost in the mail. This can lead to hurt feelings if a good friend or a close family member does not receive his invitation. If you haven't heard back from a person whom you know usually responds to invitations, just give him a call or write a quick email to see if he received the invitation in the mail. You can always write or say something like "I think a few people have not yet received their invitations in the mail for Julie's party, and I was just checking to see if you had gotten yours yet. I am really hoping you can come."
If you are having a wedding reception where a meal is served, or for which a reception hall has been rented, you probably need to know the number of people who are planning to attend. Though you may provide self-addressed stamped envelopes for your wedding reply cards, people do not always get around to mailing them. It is fine to call or email invited guests to see if they are planning to come to your wedding and/or reception. Be polite and use wording similar to that of the above example. - Invitations have been around for at least 300 years. They were often used by aristocrats in 18th-century France and England. Members of the royal family would invite guests to social events with handwritten notices. If you could write, it meant you were educated, so even after the printing press was invented, aristocrats still used handwritten invitations. Since there was no postal service, servants went around on horseback and hand-delivered the invitations in all sorts of weather. This is when the outer-envelope tradition started; many wedding invitations still use this tradition today. You will notice with formal wedding invitations that you have several pieces, including at least two envelopes. In the past, the outer envelope was used to protect the invitations from damage from bad weather.
