Your wedding invitations officially inform friends and family of your plans to marry and provide them with the details they need to take part in your special day. They also establish a mood for the entire event, be it formal or casual, theme-inspired or traditional.

For formal invitations, tradition reigns supreme. Most couples keep with the standard formal inscription, which reads:

Formal invitations are accompanied by a card inviting the guests to a reception. The style of the reception invitation should be the same as the invitation, and offers the following information:

Reply cards are also included in a formal invitation. The reply card is either printed on a postcard with the return address, or a preprinted reply envelope. Always provide postage for guests to return your reply cards. Once again, the style is that of the invitations, and most read as follows:

Format and Size
At its most formal, the invitation is a stiffer letter sheet, folded once, with a piece of tissue protecting the type. It is placed within an unsealed envelope bearing just the name of the guest, and is then placed in an outer envelope with the full address.

The two most frequently used sizes of invitations include 4 ¸ by 6 ¹ inches (classic) and 5 ¸ by 7 ¸ (embassy).

Paper
An exquisite invitation should also serve as a memento. Use a paper that won't disintegrate over time; 100 percent rag, made of cotton or linen is best.

Weight
Stationery is usually measured in bond weight. A good letter sheet is made of thirty-two- or forty-pound bond. You may also come across offset weight. One hundred-pound offset is roughly equal to forty-pound bond.

Envelope
Formal invitations often boast a silk-lined or tissue-lined outer envelope, which adorns the return address preprinted on the back flap. The inner envelope is not lined, nor is it sealed.

Ordering
Invitation orders should be placed approximately four months in advance of the wedding date. You'll need an exact figure in mind that includes invitations for the guest list, members of your bridal party and their guests, grandparents, officiant and any extras you'll want to keep as mementos. Be sure to request a proof to read before the invitations are printed, and ask someone else to read it for typos, too.

Mailing
Make sure you have a complete invitation weighed at the post office before affixing stamps so you know whether additional postage is necessary. Invitations should be mailed six to eight weeks proir to the ceremony.

Addressing Invitations

Ceremony Program

Thank You Notes

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