I’ve learned that there are very few things that have a “right” or “wrong” way to be done in wedding planning. It’s your day, so you choose what you love. Invitation etiquette is one thing, I’ve learned, has a right way - or at least a couple of right ways. I was unaware of some of these guidelines so I wanted to share some of those, particularly those related to a destination wedding, with you.
- Who should you invite to your wedding events? With destination weddings, this can get a little tricky. You should not invite guests to your bridal shower and bachelorette party who will not be invited to the wedding abroad (the same rule that applies to local weddings). Since we are having a reception after the destination wedding we applied this rule to those who would be invited to the reception in Omaha.
- When do you have the small parties? When do you send out all of these invitations?
- Save the dates should be sent six months to 1 year ahead of the wedding - depending on the travel that will be required of some guests. We sent a save-the-date for our Mexico wedding about 9 months in advance and did not send one for our reception because most family asked as we planned for our wedding and most of our guests live in town.
- Bridal shower and bachelorette party invites should be sent 1-2 months in advance - again, depending on any arrangements the guests may need to know. The bridal shower is typically held 2-4 months before the wedding and the bachelorette party, within a month before the wedding day.
- What is the proper wording for these invitations? Wording for all of these invitations can be challenging and having a destination wedding adds a little twist to all of it. I found several great references about how to choose wording and what to consider including: the formality of the event, who is hosting, the order of information and much more. For our destination wedding, we altered what we felt was necessary. For our reception, we plan to keep it simple and notify people that we were married abroad. For example, it might say “Brittney & Drew got married in Paradise…help us celebrate!"
images via Pinterest
