We addressed the outer envelope to reflect who was invited.
Mr. And Mrs. Friend Thumper
Suzy Thumper
Jon Thumper
20 Their Street
Their Town, USA
This wasn’t really an issue as no young children were invited…at all. We had a couple of nieces and nephews who were not out of college and were included on the parent invite. Everyone else got their own invite…even if they lived at the same house.
My daughter and her husband used “You are cordially invited to attend the wedding of…” Nobody minded.
D and FSIL are using bride and groom, together with their families, invite you… In-laws to be are newly divorced and groom doesn’t want it on the invite as separate lines.
Not sure about the response cards. I wish we could just order 20 for the elderly relatives and let everyone else do it online. They are having a buffet reception so no one needs to pick an entree. I think she is going with minted. We looked at several sites and liked their templates.
The invite will also state that no children are invited, as there are several families that expect to bring their children and we don’t want them.
The invitations D liked were very simple, and to be honest, they would have looked awful if they had too much text. She wrote it so it said just what needed to be said so guests knew what was what. Invitations are much less formal than they were decades ago when H & I got married.
Including our daughter, we were invited to five weddings. The invitations to all of them were really nice, personal to the couples, and unique. And really…a lot more fun.
We did mail in responses…but many folks we know did online responses. I will say, the nice thing about online is that you can customize to the events each person is invited to. So…rehearsal dinner, for example, can be included for those invited. In retrospect, we probably should have done online responses.
I am wondering about gifts delivered directly from the registry. How much of a problem is it to know who the gifts are from? I always thought the packing slip should say and if it doesn’t then the registry should say and if that doesn’t work, then calling the store should do it.
I sent a wedding gift from a registry almost a year ago and have not received a thank you yet. The bride’s mom claims the packing slips did not say and the stores can’t tell them who sent what.
The store I sent from was a common one (Target, I think but I may be remembering wrong)
We only had one gift that was unidentified…and it came from LLBean. It was easy to figure out because there was a blip in the address that only one family member does. What we didn’t know…was that the gift was from two but we got it all straightened out.
Another issue we had was with a couple of cards with cash…and signatures that were completely illegible.
So…if you send a card…please sign so that folks can read it.
I saw a funny comparison to weddings and the Super Bowl. People/teams spend a lot of time up to the event, worrying about every little detail, the food, the colors. In the end, all that matters (and all anyone remembers) is did they get married/ win the game?
My DIL saved all the packing slips. She noticed one of them listed three items and they had only received two. Last I heard she was working her way up the ladder apwith William Sonoma to get the issue resolved.
Regarding the wording- we have considered all the different options. My S and DIl didn’t list any parents and I felt like they should have at least mentioned us as we paid for the 90% of the wedding. I would not have been opposed to the brides Mom having equal billing.
For my D we are hosting the wedding but both the MOG and Dad of groom have contributed some money. I don’t want to insult them and not have their names on the invitation at all. My D and I will need to have a discussion when she is here.
Our wedding invitation was from my ex and I, even though he did not contribute, but I wanted to respect D1’s feeling.
There was a separate invite (in the same envelope) for the welcome party hosted by the groom’s parents.
Younger s’s fa in law is estranged from the family and they did not want his name on the invitation. So they did the “together with their families” wording. They didn’t want to embarrass her mom by making it look like we were hosting (though we were- we didn’t care) and they didn’t want her dad mentioned in the invitation. It worked fine.
As for gifts from registries, I can tell you that my S and DIL received multiple gifts from their registries at large retailers without packing slips indicating the giver’s name/address. They called and were able to identify some, but not all. I suspect there were guests who generously sent lovely gifts who were never thanked properly because my S and DIL were unable to identify who the gifts came from. As MOG, if this were one of my friends I would want them to ask me. At least then the kids could send a belated note once they knew who sent what.
I went to a wedding in early May…and I still have not received a thank you…wondering if they didn’t get a packing slip?? I need to check again.
In our SIL’s culture, it is traditional to have the bride’s family do the inviting (likely because they usually are the hosts) and have a “with warm regards from groom’s parents names” on the invitation. All here liked that approach. I think it is great that invitation wording is not so prescribed that individual situations are hard to finesse.
As far as invitations go, DD prioritized doing a custom one. While the end result was beautiful, neither of us were prepared for the amount of our time required to complete the designs (invite, rsvp card, rehearsal dinner invite, envelope and liner, rsvp envelope, card with wedding website), vet proofs, etc. There was a lot of back and forth with the designer over 6 weeks. Helpful to stir the reality of that process into decision making if considering the option. Though it may vary slightly by vendor, the process is quite complex.
D and her husband were registered at Target (it was a Minnesota wedding - I think Minnesotans are REQUIRED to register at Target!) Anyway, every single gift they received from Target included a packing slip/acknowledgement that contained the name of the person sending the gift.
I suspect most sites allow people to indicate who gifts are from, but not everyone realizes they should do that.
As I mentioned, MOG made our daughters invitations. They were really unique and special. Lots of back and forth on what they would look like, card stock weight and color, font, etc. Its really quite the process and gave us a big appreciation for what it takes to do these.
We needed about 100 invitations and response cards. This was a nice gift from MOG.
We looked at Minted, however, and found some very nice options there. Really…we had five wedding invitations on our fridge for a while…and it was fun seeing the variety. All were very nice, and so perfect for the couples who sent them.
We also enjoyed the Save the Date cards as those all included pictures of the couple. They were just fun to have. Most of them were postcards which worked just fine!
If you are having a wedding this year…go buy your stamps tomorrow before the cost inckreases 5 cents per stamp!
I like to make Christmas Ornaments out of the wedding invitation/Save the Date cards for the Bride and Groom. http://christyrobbins.blogspot.com/2011/07/wedding-invitation-ornament.html
Any thoughts about how to send shower invitations? Evite or mail?