So you are getting married, are you? Do you yet realize how much you have to get done before the Big Day? Has it all sunk in yet? Putting on a wedding is a major event . . . that’s why there is such a profession, a real profession, called a Wedding Planner.
But you are not using a wedding planner. You are on a budget, and you have to make sure everything you decide upon for your dream wedding fits into that budget, so you are going to do it all yourself. Well, you along with your mother, your sister, your soon-to-be-mother-in-law, and your best friend. Your groom will do a few tasks here and there but he has made it abundantly clear that he’s up for anything you choose, as long as it’s within that budget. No problem. You are sure you can do it.
First on your list is wedding stationery. There are so many different types of wedding stationery these days, and make it your starter task to wade through each and every one of the various pieces and pick and choose which you will need, and which pieces are unnecessary. Certainly, you can’t use every single piece of wedding stationery available.
You are rather taken with the idea of Save the Date magnets, and think they could be quite useful in seeing to it that your wedding date—nearly a year away right now—stays in the forefront of all of the calendars of folks you absolutely must have there. Other Save the Date items aren’t as impressive—cards and bookmarks and a variety of other pieces which serve the same purpose but aren’t as utilitarian. You like the magnets because they are useful, and you know people will tack them up on their fridge, thinking of you and your fiancé each time . . . and remembering your wedding date in the process. Save the Date magnets will probably be “must have” pieces of wedding stationery for your event.
Invitations are non-negotiable, of course. They are parts of the wedding stationery repertoire that have to be figured into your budget. It won’t be “if” you have invitations, it will be what kind of invitations you will have. This particular item of wedding stationery gets a big red star next to it because it is a must-have. You will consider later on how you want your wedding invitations designed, going over styles and colors and papers. Right now, though, you are simply wading through the wedding stationery list to see to it that you have all that you need, and you will work the rest out from there.
You are quite ambivalent about RSVP Cards. While they certainly make a beautiful invitation even more elegant, you see them as somewhat unnecessary. If you put together a nice invitation, you could probably include the RSVP information at the bottom of the invitation without giving up any of its attractiveness. RSVP cards are part of the wedding stationery repertoire that will go on your questionable list until you can figure out exactly how you want to put together the invitation.
This brings you next to envelopes for RSVP cards. Of course the envelopes will be a moot point if you do not use RSVP cards. You are certainly not going to add pieces of wedding stationery just to add it, so the envelopes for the RSVP cards will go right next to the cards on your “questionable” list.
On to other types of wedding stationery. There are the wedding programs, which will be needed, and which can be created through the same print company used for all the other pieces of wedding stationery. Programs will be put on the “definite” list and as you get closer to planning the actual ceremony, you will be better able to decide how to build on that program.
For the reception, there will be a need for cake napkins. While this could only loosely be considered wedding stationery, it will be a printed item and, as such, can easily be included on this list for this purpose. Categorizing cake napkins as wedding stationery will work for right now, since it is, after all, your list. Who cares otherwise, eh? Into the “yes” column goes cake napkins for your wedding stationery needs.
Oh, yes! How could you forget Thank You cards? Indeed, most definitely, thank you cards will be absolutely required as part of your wedding stationery repertoire. They will need to match your invitations and your programs, so they can be placed in that “must have” column; right up there with the other needed wedding stationery pieces.
You decide to do an overall review of all your wedding stationery “definite” must-haves. There are the Save the Date magnets, the invitations, programs, cake napkins, and Thank You cards. One follows the other, and then the other. You see a pattern, and realize that if you get one print company—and you plan to do this all online to save even more money—to take care of all your wedding stationery needs, you can design the one pattern and have that pattern utilized on all your wedding stationery pieces.
It’s a plan. You nix the idea of RSVP cards right then and there, all together, certain that you can put together an attractive invitation and include the RSVP details on it without sacrificing anything. That will save you a considerable amount of money, especially since it will also take any need for RSVP envelopes off your list, and you can use those savings for other important parts of your wedding planning—say, the reception or the honeymoon, maybe.
You take your wedding stationery planning list to your ad hoc helper committee and everyone is quite impressed with your organization and level-headedness in the midst of such an emotional time. Your future mother-in-law declares you the perfect wife for her son, and your fiancé agrees . . . he is thoroughly happy to see you have no problem sticking to a budget, as well as leaving him out of the planning process for excess details that, no matter how they may land, will be just fine with him.
And your mother, sister, and best friend? Well, they always knew you were a smart cookie. Not one of them needed your wedding stationery planning list to prove that to them!