Wedding Invitation Packages and
What They Include

Below are the items that are most often included in the entire package along with the wedding invitations, depending on the type and size of your event.

Not all of these items is actually mailed to your guests with the invitations, but they are still a part of the ensemble of printed materials that you should order when you order your invitations. You can use this as a guide or a checklist to customize your wedding invitation packages.

Wedding Announcements:
If you have people that won't be invited to your wedding, but you still want them to hear about the great news, mail them an announcement card. You can have these printed on the same paper as your invitation or choose a similar design. Announcements are mailed on the day of your wedding or immediately after annoucing that your wedding has taken place. These are optional items in wedding invitation packages if everyone you really want to know about your wedding is receiving an invitation.

Reception Cards:
Reception cards are used when you either don't have enough room on your invitation to announce the details of the reception-the location, time and directions-or if not all of the guests will be invited, reception cards will be enclosed with the invitations of those guests that will be invited.

The cards are normally printed to match your invitations and keep in mind that because reception cards are mailed with the invitations, it increases the weight of the envelope mailing, thereby adding addition postage costs to your budget.

If your ceremony and reception are being held at the same location, there is no need to have reception cards because obviously everyone who is invited to the ceremony is automatically invited to the reception. Your invitation can simply state at the bottom, "Reception immediately following ceremony" and you save money too.

Response Cards (or RSVPs):
Essential to all wedding invitation packages and key to planning your catering needs, response cards provide a more accurate guest attendance count for food and seating preparations. The response card and its prestamped and preaddressed mailing envelope are inserted with your wedding invitation. Make sure you provide a deadline for the response card to be mailed back to you, and that it's plenty of time to provide the final guest count to your caterer.

Map or Direction Cards:
Direction cards are included as a convenience for any guests who might not be familiar with the location of the church and/or reception. Even with the increased use of GPS systems, direction cards are essential when you have guests from outside the area.

Accommodations Cards:
Along with direction cards, accommodations cards are a thoughtful way to let your out-of-town guests know that you did some research to find the closest and more affordable accommodations for them for their stay. These accommodations can be a local hotel or even a cozy bed and breakfast close to the wedding and reception.

If you can, try to print the accommodations information on the back of the direction cards. This will save you printing materials and postage by not adding additional weight to the final mailing piece.

If you're doing your invitations yourself, I would suggest printing labels on clear adhesive address labels and affixing them to the flap yourself. In addition, having your return address on your envelope gives an address to guests who might not be able to attend but still want to send you a card or gift.

Envelope Seals:
Add the right finishing touch to wedding invitation packages with envelope seals! There are a lot of different styles available but the most popular I've seen are round gold or silver seals with doves or rings embossed inside. They give your envelopes a very classy look and it appears that the seal is holding the envelope flap down, although it's already been sealed.

Including gold or silver foil seals with wedding invitation packages just adds a little extra sparkle to your entire ensemble.

Thank You Notes:
Thank you notes can be ordered with the wedding invitations order since they are usually printed on paper matching your invitations and come with blank mailing envelopes. Ordering them at the same time will save on shipping costs too. They can be personalized with either your names or monogram on the front with the inside blank for writing your thank yous.

And if you're making your own wedding invitations, you can make your own thank you notes too by simply printing out your invitations and leaving the inside blank for a hand written thank you note.

Again, wedding invitation packages can include all or some of the items above depending on the type of wedding event. And you may think of other things you'd like to include as well that aren't listed here. And nothing is written in stone either. So just consider this a nice handy guide on what you can include when you put together all of your printed wedding material.

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