Getting married is expensive enough without having to fork out for custom stationary. Fortunately there are a host of free wedding invitation templates online that you can customise yourself!
What wedding stationary will I need?
You’ll need:
- Save the date – these are cards you send out to the most important people that you’d like to attend your wedding, when you know what day you’re getting married on but you haven’t yet finalised the details.
- Wedding invitations – these contain all the details of the wedding ceremony, meal and evening reception. You might need two or three different versions if you’re not inviting everyone to all of the events on the day. Stuck for wording? Here’s a guide to what you might include.
- Menus – you’ll need to send these out in advance of the big day – ideally with the invitations (for anyone who will be attending the meal).
- RSVP card – you’ll find most people respond to your invitation by email, phone or social media these days – but some people like to include an RSVP card anyway. You might want to create space for peoples’ food choices on this card.
- Envelopes – custom envelopes for the invitations, menus and RSVP cards aren’t essential, but they are cute!
- Table numbers – numbering all of your tables will help you lay out the place cards, help people find their seat more easily and help serving staff find your guests.
- Place cards – place cards are an absolute essential, to ensure that people know where they are sitting! TIP: Pencil the table number on the back of each card and if you have round tables, number the cards in order of how they are sat, so they are easier to lay out without referring to your seating plan.
- Favour cards – favour cards are cute little cards perfect for tagging onto favour bags so your guests know which gift is theirs.
- Thank you cards – you’ll want to thank people for your wedding gifts and a custom thank you card makes this an easy job.
Don’t forget that if you’re laying on an evening buffet where guests don’t get to pick the food, some may have food allergies or preferences and it can be helpful to scope these out on the invite. Whilst you might not be able to fully adjust your menu to please everyone, it does give you the chance to ensure dishes are labelled properly (‘vegetarian’, ‘gluten free’, etc).
Want more designs? Check out this page of free gorgeous printables (wedding invitations, labels and related stationary) on Everything Etsy!
You can also find more free printable wedding invitations and complete wedding stationary sets on:
There are some fantastic ideas on the Shabby Chic website for adding decorations and embellishments to your invitations to make them even more unique.