12 Month Wedding Invitation and Stationery Timeline

Your wedding is an event and with any event, there are a few tasks that you will need to think of and ultimately organise.

When it comes to your wedding stationery, I have outlined the ideal timeline for when you need to order, mail your save the dates, invitations & thank you cards and prepare for the other stationery you might require on the day of your wedding.

Lets great straight into it.

Presuming you will be engaged for 12 months, below is a suggested timeline for all of the different wedding stationery items you might have and when you will need to organise and send them.

12 months before

Order and send out your engagement invitations
Congratulations you're engaged!! Enjoy this very special time!

The first thing to do, is to celebrate your engagement!

11 months before

Prepare your wedding guest list
List down everyone you want to invite and finalise when your list meets your family, budget and quantity requirements.

Read here - How to create your wedding guest list

10 months before

Finalise your wedding guest list
Request all of your guest's names and addresses

Order your save the date cards with your stationer
View save the dates here

Order wedding invitation samples
View wedding invitation samples here

9 months before

Send your save the date cards
Only send save the dates to your final wedding guest list

6 months before

Order wedding invitations
Confirm the design with your wedding stationer, confirm all details and proof necessary digital artwork.

View the invitation wording artwork template here that you will need to complete

4 months before

Mail wedding invitations
I always suggest sending out your wedding invitations around 3 - 4 months before your wedding date as I suggest you should have an RSVP return date at 5 - 6 weeks before your wedding date. Read more here as to why this is so important.

This will then give your guests 6 - 10 weeks to receive and respond to your wedding invitation.

Also make sure you have the postage stamps ready for those invitations you plan to mail. Another option is to hand-deliver invitations to guest you will see within the next week or two.

3 months before

Order 'Day Of' Stationery
If you are able to order these with your invitations, then please do so to ensure all items for your wedding match and materials are ordered at the same time.
Other stationery you will need/want for the wedding day are;

Place cards
Menus
Table numbers
Guest book
Ceremony programs
Guest favour tags
Thank you cards

2 months before

Start compiling the details for the 'Day Of' stationery
Such as;

Place cards - be ready to finalise this list once your RSVP’s have all been received
Menus - meet with your venue/caterer and decide on your chosen menu
Table Numbers - confirm how many tables you will have
Ceremony programs - decide on the layout with your celebrant/priest
Guest favour tags - confirm the quantity you require
Thank you card message

6 weeks before

RSVP return date

Cross off all reply cards that have been returned on your guest list to keep track.
Follow up all reply cards that have not been returned.

5 weeks before

Start organising your seating chart
Decide where your guests will be sitting

4 weeks before

Send all of the information to your stationer for the following items. This will allow for all artwork to be designed and approved by you. Once approved they will take approx. 1-2 to make.

Place card guest names
Menu for food and beverages
Table Numbers
Guest book wording
Ceremony program order of service
Guest favour tag details
Final seating chart list
Thank you card message (ready to be made after your wedding when your photo is received).

2 weeks before

Prepare your guest favours
Add the tags (if applicable)

Prepare all reception stationery and double-check everything is in order

Place cards are in table order
Menus are in table order
Guest book is packed and ready
Guest favours are packed in table order
Ceremony programs are packed and ready to go to the church/ceremony location

1 week before

Give your wedding venue or wedding planner the following items in preparation for your wedding day

Place cards in table order
Menus
Table Numbers
Guest book
Ceremony programs
Guest favours with tags applied

After the Wedding

Up to 2 months

Thank you cards

Choose a wedding photo from your professional photos and send to your stationer to include in your thank you cards.
Send through your guest list if any names and/or addresses have changed since you created your wedding invitation guest list
Confirm your thank you card wording if you didn't do this before your wedding day.

Up to 3 months

Send your thank you cards

If you have any questions with the timeline above or want further information on a certain point, please don't hesitate to either email me at hello@whitecherryinvitations.com.au or comment below as I am always here to help.

Until next time,
Bel x