Your bridal shower is an opportunity to celebrate your upcoming wedding, and your bridal shower invitations set the tone for the whole day. You want to get them right! Paperlust is sharing their best advice on making them perfect.
Who to invite First of all, make sure that whoever is invited to the bridal shower also has an invitation to the wedding. It saves both you and your guest from an awkward situation. However, you don’t have to include your whole wedding guest list. As well as your bridesmaids, close family and friends, don’t forget the future in-laws and close friends/family of your fiancé. After this preliminary list is done, think about the size you’d like your shower to be (taking into account aspects such as venue, theme and budget). If you want to invite other people, you can extend the party to include work colleagues or other acquaintances who you think would add to the day. In some cases there may be family members who you don’t wish to invite for various reasons. While this issue is not black and white, remember to think of shower invitations in light of the wedding as a whole, and how each choice will affect your relationship with your friends and family members. If you’re a maid of honour organising the shower, a good idea is asking the bride for a guest list, even if you don’t give her any details of the shower. Do you give her an invitation? You can, but if it’s a surprise, which is not uncommon, you can save one to give her later (as a keepsake).
Details to include Make sure you have all the essential information. There is no point having a beautiful invitation that confuses people or has your phone ringing off the hook (and I don’t mean for RSVPs). Here are a list of things that should have you covered: Activity or theme Date Time Place What to bring Dress code Cost (if any) RSVP date and details Registry or gift information (if relevant) Design Your design should be in keeping with your theme. Having an elegant high tea? A country garden themed invitation will set your guests’ expectations in the right direction. You can go with colours, pictures and even fonts that relate to your theme. This is usually the most fun part of the invitation process. Just make sure the information is clear and readable, and that the invite doesn’t have too much going on.
When to send them out? It is generally recommended that you send out your invitations roughly six weeks before your shower, but if you are inviting out of town or out of state guests, two months should give them sufficient time to prepare. Also make an RSVP date far enough in advance of the shower to give you time to organise things relating to guest numbers. Some guests almost inevitably RSVP late so make sure you give at least a few extra days so that you won’t have any last minute surprises. As long as the invitation suits the general theme, and your guests have all the relevant information, you can’t really go wrong!
This post is sponsored by Paperlust and written by Lil Williams. As always, all opinions are our own.
