10 common typo mistakes made on wedding invitations

Unfortunately mistakes do happen. But the good news is, they can be avoided if you know where to look.

When you are planning your stationery, you are also planning your dress fittings, booking your hair and make up artists, liaising with your venue regarding timings and bouncing off family, friends and your fiance regarding napkin colours and what type of flowers you should have.

Suffice to say, you will have a lot on your mind which does take away the attention to the finer details like proofreading your invitation suite.

Below I have listed the areas on your invitation which are more commonly found to have typos that you may easily miss.

1. Times of the ceremony or reception

Initially the time for your ceremony & reception will be a general guess.

However this could be incorrect on your final invitation if you don’t check that those times will work with a few different people involved in your wedding day.

Tip: Chat with the following people to ensure the time for your ceremony and reception will work

• Celebrant or priest - to confirm their availability and location/church availability
• Reception venue - to confirm access and generally they are the caterers too (see next point)
• Caterer - to confirm there is enough time between courses for the amount of people you have
• Photographer - to confirm there is enough time for photos in between the ceremony and the reception
• Wedding planner - (if you have one) as they will be coordinating the entire day for you

2. Ceremony or Reception addresses

Getting this wrong can result in guests being late to your ceremony or reception. They will type the address you provided on your invitation into their maps app on their phone and be taken to an entirely different location.

Tip: Head to the website of your ceremony and reception locations and check the addresses that they have published.
I would then check this with google maps to ensure that google understands the address too. Guests will mainly use a phone navigation app to get there and if google doesn’t know it, it could cause issues for your guests.

3. Guest Names

This happens all the time, especially with last names!

And I have seen it happen with every type of guest!! From a parent of the bride or groom to the cousins new girlfriend.

Other names prone to being misspelt are like those listed below as they are commonly spelt either way

- Matthew/Mathew
- Phillip/Philip
- Alan/Allen

Tip: Facebook is your bible for checking names! Otherwise simply text the guest directly or a person who will know the correct spelling so they reply to you in writing so you don’t get it wrong.

4. Guest Addresses

When I am printing guest envelopes, I can easily say that I have corrected at least one address on every order I have worked on.

Simple errors like the spelling of Crescent, or the postcode is missing. A lot of the time, the street address is spelt incorrectly or it isn't in Proper Case.

Most of the time I will see the error and if something ‘doesn’t look right’ then ill check with good ol' Google.com. However please remember that the information you supply in your guest list is considered approved and correct, ready for merging onto your invitations & envelopes.

5. Phone Numbers

All it takes is for one digit to be wrong in your mobile number and guests wont be able to RSVP to your wedding

Or there could be an issue if the phone number is incorrect for guests to book their accommodation.

Be sure to check phone numbers digit by digit to save hassle later.

6. The Wedding Date

Yep, it happens!

I’ve seen the wrong year!

I’ve seen the wrong day of the week (Saturday instead of Sunday)

Whilst they seem like typo’s you couldn’t imagine making, when proofreading your invitations, the text which seems to be most obviously correct, are the ones we pay the least amount of attention too.

7. Poor Grammar

Make sure you read each sentence on your invitation too and pay attention to words like:

- Your vs You’re (you are)
- Their vs They’re (they are)

8. Some words are simply misspelt more than others

Watch out for the below words. Because of the letters used and how they are arranged, spelling errors are easily missed.

Because….

"It deson't mtater in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iproetmnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a ttoal mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit plorbem. Tihs is busecae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."

- Accommodation (double ‘cc’ and double ‘mm’)
- February
- Wednesday (who else says ‘Wed-nes-day’ when reading this word?)
- Crescent (the 2nd letter ‘c’ is always left out in guest lists)
- Dates that are spelt such as eighth, twelfth, eighteenth, twentieth

9. Difficult words

Then there are some words which are just hard to spell - dust off your dictionary or head to Google to check these bad boys

- Hors d’oeuvres
- Brussels Sprouts
- Vinaigrette
- Accommodations

10. Watch out for those abbreviations too

Just like the ATM Machine (Automatic Teller Machine Machine), adding the word Please before RSVP has the same issue.

RSVP stands for ‘répondez s'il vous plaît’ in French which translates to ‘please respond’ in English. Therefore by adding the word ‘please’ before ‘RSVP’ means you are saying Please please respond.

Actually with guests taking their time to respond these days, adding an extra Please could come in handy :)

PROOFREADING TIPS 

At the end of the day, all of the responsibility for the printed invitation and the relevant insert cards is yours.

Before you let your stationer know that all of your digital artwork is approved to be printed, use the following tips when proofreading

• Print off all copies and grab a red pen to mark changes
• Check, recheck and check again
• Sleep on it and check again in the morning
• Once you have checked them, get your fiance to do the same and then a 3rd person such as a parent or close friend. This 3rd person hasn't been working on your invitations closely, therefore their eyes will be fresh
• Read everything slowly
• Read everything backwards
• Say it out loud when you read it

Take your time, there is no rush! Trust me. One more day in checking everything thoroughly is better than approving a mistaking and needing to have your stationery reprinted or worse, entirely remade.

I'd love to know, have you ever seen a typo on a wedding invitation? Comment below.

Until next time, 
Bel x

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