When to send your wedding invitations? The Artifact Uprising DIY guide

How To DIY Your Wedding Stationery – The Handy Artifact Uprising Guide 16

You set a date! Now, how and when do you invite everyone to the big shebang?! If you’re DIYing your wedding invitation suite, you may feel a bit on your own for answers. With help from pretty paper experts Artifact Uprising, we’ve got the general guide and timeline of when and how to send out the word about your fabulous event.

Artifact Uprising believes invitations set the tone and expectations of your wedding (and we do too!) Their simple, clean, and timeless designs are perfect for the modern bride or groom who may not be drawn to the traditional bells and whistles of more extravagant invitation suite. Find bold typefaces, modern sensibility and chic design elements like gold-foil and hand lettering, customizable with all of the details of your big day.

Not only are their invitations gorgeous, but the papers are environmentally friendly, sending a big message with a small footprint. With invitations starting at $2 per invite, and $1.25 per Save The Date, you may find yourself making a major wedding budget win in the stationery department.

Once you’ve saved our checklists and timelines, head on over to Artifact Uprising’s website with our special Bridal Musings exclusive discount code you’ll find at the end of our post.

The Stationery Suite Checklist

New to the wedding world, you may be asking what exactly is “a wedding stationery suite”? Well, the modern couple has more fun paper goods options to send out beyond the old-school invite. The suite includes any and all of the following:

Save The Date – announcing your engagement, and upcoming wedding date
The Invitation – the “who, what, where, when” of your wedding
The RSVP Card – with its own ready-to-mail envelope, for your invitee to return to you
Detail Cards – maps, a timeline of events and accommodation information often included on separate cards within the invitation suite
Extra Event Invites – welcome parties, rehearsal dinners, bacherlor(ette) parties & other event invitations
Thank You Cards – Have ready to send asap after the wedding

What information should you include in your invites? Whether you spread it out across multiple papers or write it all on your invite, be sure you include at the very least your names, wedding date, location, and RSVP due date. Then, decide if you’d like to include things like gift registry, website, dress code, directions, and accommodation recommendations.

The great thing about DIY wedding invitations is that you decide the vibe you create for your suite – formal or casual. Can you just write your first names? Yes! Do you have to include “together with our parents”? Up to you!

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The Invitation Timeline

Send your invites too late, and you risk loved ones missing your special event. Send your invitations too early and your guest may forget, and find themselves scrambling to book travel. While the exact timing is up to you, here’s a general guideline of when to send your pretty paper goods out into the world.

When to send for local weddings:

Send Save the Dates 6-8 months in advance
Mail your Invitation Suite 4-8 weeks before the big day

When to send for destination weddings:

Send Save the Dates 8-12 months in advance
Mail your Invitation Suite 3-4 months before the big day

Check with your caterer & venue of when they need a final count to determine an RSVP due date.

Order your paper goods well in advance to factor in any changes, and shipping time. From a custom stationer, you’ll want to allow 3 months to create your suite. If creating a DIY suite from Artifact Uprising, we recommend ordering a sample copy of your design a month before you mail your invites, to see and feel your design in person before you order your final set.

When should you send your Thank You cards? As soon as possible! “They sent a thank you card to us way too soon!” – said no one ever.

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Extra Paper Goods

Addicted now to the fun of in-hand paper goods? The fun doesn’t stop at the stationery suite! Find plenty of other pretty papers that match your invitation style to include in your wedding decor, and order a few months before your wedding day.

Consider printing a variety of photos of your and your love, or your travels, to use as table settings and hang above your gift table. Print an heirloom photo guestbook of your life together thus far with blank pages to leave out for guests to sign.

Instead of a typical save the date, Jack and I designed and printed travel guide style books of our wedding destination to send to all of our guests. While looking expensive, by designing ourselves and printing online, our invite books were still more affordable than any custom invitation quotes we received.

Essential Info

To start creating your custom wedding invitation suite go to the Artifact Uprising website. Download their super easy app to order prints straight from your phone.

Artifact Uprising is offering 10% off to Bridal Musings readers with the code BMxAU10. Offer expires 3/25/18.

Follow Artifact Uprising on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter for pretty papers and inspirational photography.

This post is made in partnership with Artifact Uprising.

Celebrate your storied year. ⠀ With 2018 in our midst, we’re encouraging ourselves to stop and reflect on the year behind. Best way to do this?⠀ Through our photographs. ⠀ ⠀ We’ve pulled together a guide to help you find some of your most meaningful images from 2017 → link in bio. #artifactuprising

A post shared by Artifact Uprising (@artifactuprising) on Jan 2, 2018 at 7:47am PST