Tag Archives: invite

The Wedding Diary: Invites

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First, I have to apologise for not updating my Wedding Diary as often as I should. I assure you the wedding is being planned but I underestimated how hard it would be to run a magazine, publish a book while writing another one, be a freelance writer, act and go to auditions, finish two scripts and plan a wedding all at once. I am also sure I missed something out there. To top it all off: we are also moving a couple of days after our wedding. That won’t be stressful at all….

weddinginvitationsSo for my first of many catch-up entries I am going to start with the invites. Now a lot of wedding invites are incredibly expensive. You are talking hundreds of pounds for a piece of cardboard. We were shocked at the prices. If you add in save the date cards and thank you cards, it would be easy to rack up a thousand pounds if you include postage. So what is a frugal girl to do? Ebay. Obviously.

We got beautiful, personalised invitations for a very reasonable price. I won’t show the exact ones at the moment because I haven’t sent them out yet and we don’t want to ruin the surprise of people getting them (or have stalkers turn up at our wedding. I have had a few bad experiences in the past). The invitations are beautiful, come with envelopes and are well made and high quality. Just put ‘wedding invitations’ into the search function of Ebay and you can get some amazing ones for under £50.

We didn’t send out save the date cards because of environmental reasons, and also cost. We emailed and called people instead. The wedding industry is a £10 billion industry in the UK so don’t buy something just because you feel you have to.

When it came to the design of our invitations, we wanted something that reflected us and who we are. Family members will probably try and pull you in a certain way, but we wanted ours to be fresh and fun. Our invites are white, with a multicoloured tree. We are in our twenties so we wanted something to reflect that: nothing stuffy. They also came in a very handy, protective plastic case.

If you want to spend more on your invitations then John Lewis do some beautiful ones, and so do Marks and Spencers and VistaPrint. If you are good at DIY you can also make your own.

What to put on your invites

Your names (we included our surnames as we weren’t sure people would know who we were!)

Date and time of the wedding

RSVP details. Include a non-email option for the older guests. Include a deadline for the RSVP. Needed for the catering and seating.

The venue address and the reception address too if it is different.

Your wedding gift list number. We went with John Lewis and Prezola.com

Other options

Parents details. We decided not to do this but you can include either parents or both.  As in: ‘Mr and Mrs Smith invite *guest name*  to the marriage of their daughter, Chloe, to Matt Fox.’

Dress code. We didn’t put one on as everyone knows weddings are formal. I would only include a dress code if it is anything other than formal. For instance: a themed wedding or black tie.

You can, of course, put whatever you want on your invitations. It is your wedding.

What will you put?

 

My wedding book is out now. If you are getting married then check out my book The Wedding Survival Guide: How To Plan Your Big Day Without Losing Your Sanity, it has everything you need to know about planning your dream wedding.

 

 

How To Throw A Successful Dinner Party

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Julia Dowling, Managing Director of Snapdragon Parties, shares her tips on dinner parties

People don’t come to a dinner party for the quality of food, they come for the company and to be entertained. Many hosts make the mistake of putting too much time into the food and not enough time into other things.

1. Invite: set the tone, first off by the way that you invite people. While it’s old fashioned and highly unusual, hand written invites, particularly on ‘at home cards’ are classy and a great way to invite people to a dinner party.

2. Connect: a good host thinks about the connections between people – a successful dinner party is one where people get on. When you think about who to invite, think about who you believe will genuinely get on together, particularly if they don’t know each other.

3. Plan: plan the flow of your evening and inject some pieces of originality into the way you do things. Decorate your home, try to serve your guests something a little unusual during the course of the evening, such as an unusual dry sherry as a pre-dinner aperitif, or for an injection of entertainment, get in a mixologist.

4. Embellish: find a way to use candles and flowers intelligently without breaking the bank. A beautifully laid table helps the food taste better!

5. Breathe: as a general rule, red wine should be served at room temperature, opened in advance and poured into a decanter to let it ‘breathe’ – allowing the oxygen to bring out its flavour. However, with particularly mature red wine (15 years old or more), you should be careful about opening it too long in advance as old wine can ‘deteriorate’ relatively quickly.

6. Match: give consideration to food and wine pairings – there are many good examples on the web. Take people a little off piste to introduce them to something new and get them talking.

7. Eat: Although it might open up a whole can of worms, make sure you are aware of any intolerances or allergies and look after your vegetarian guests every bit as much as the others!

8. Listen: make sure there is a good flow of conversation (each guest should be involved) and be careful with your music choices. If you have music playing whilst you eat make sure it doesn’t make it difficult to talk.

9. Sit: really think about the seating plan and don’t leave it to chance. Don’t worry about the boy-girl thing too much and if people are having a ball don’t insist everyone moves.

10. Relax: Remember that this is a dinner party in your home. Relax and entertain, don’t feel like you need to be on parade. If you aren’t enjoying yourself, your guests won’t be either. If something goes wrong make a joke of it and don’t worry. Line up some taxis to arrive at midnight to ensure your guests get home in comfort.