When to order your wedding stationery

When working with wedding clients, I often get asked about timing for ordering and sending save the dates, invitations and day of stationery items. Below is a general time line that may help you when getting started on placing an order for your stationery.

Adler Planetarium Wedding Invitation Suite, Chicago, IL

Save the Dates:
Order 10-12 months prior to wedding date; Mailing 8-10 months prior to wedding date.
Tip: It's always a good idea to have a wedding website with your details and accommodations listed on your save the dates so your guests can have access to all of the information.

Invitations:
Order 5-6 months prior to wedding date; Mailing 4-5 months prior to wedding date, earlier for destination weddings that will require guests to secure flights and accommodations.

Day Of Wedding Accessories:
Order 4-6 weeks prior to wedding date. Special applications such as gold foil stamping or letterpress on menus, ceremony programs, etc., may require additional production time.

Other Things to Consider
If you plan to have your envelopes hand addressed, you may want to add in extra time to allow for this. Calligraphers can have longer turnaround times for envelope addressing, sometimes up to 12 weeks.

Keep in mind, if you are planning a destination wedding, it is a good idea to mail out save the dates at least 10 months to allow for planning. The invitations can be mailed out closer to the wedding date, 4-5 months, as a reminder that your wedding is coming up soon and they will need to book their reservations if they haven't already done so.
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Tuscany wedding invitation with watercolor map