Foolproof Wedding Shower Invitations
My best friend and I recently threw a wedding shower for a college friend. To be original, we decided to make our own wedding shower invitations. We considered ourselves pretty creative people. We got lots of practice sewing and bedazzling things on the cheap, since we were in a sorority. We took that confidence and started off on our adventure to make the perfect wedding shower invitations. To help all those who follow our footsteps, we decided to write up a summary of our lessons learned.
Make sure the bride is okay with giving you full creative license with the wedding shower invitations and the shower. I do not mean that you have to spill the beans on your idea and ruin the surprise. But some brides have very definite ideas of what their showers and weddings will be like. It is my belief that women like that would probably never agree to hand over the planning reins to someone else other than themselves in the first place. You can move onto the design phase if you already know the bride is cool with you doing whatever you want.
There are a million different designs for wedding shower invitations, so I am not going to babble on about what you can make. They should probably relate to your theme in some way, but do not have to. If a more traditional shower is planned, then just make wedding shower invitations that are fun, groovy, gorgeous or memorable (or all four).
Now, listen closely, because this next paragraph is what is most important. Make sure you go over the message on your wedding shower invitations with a fine tooth comb. I like to have a person who has not been knee deep in the invitation making factory take a look at it. I have seen lots of tips that say your invitations should be written in proper British English. I do not think that is totally necessary, unless you are inviting the Queen. Quality check everything, so that there are no grammatical errors or misspellings. It is essential that the invitation recipients have the right date and time for the soiree. Verify the location name and the address. If the address is confusing, include directions. Make sure to tell people to reply as to whether they will be able to attend or not. Some people assume you do not need to RSVP if you are not going to attend. Conversely, there are plenty of people that assume you know they are coming unless they tell you no. This makes planning difficult. Now, there will always be a couple people who show up unexpectedly or cannot make it at the last minute. But, by making it explicit on the wedding shower invitations, you increase your odds of a good headcount tremendously. Having a clear RSVP statement, however, will give you a better chance with planning. If it is a coed party, make sure there is something in the invitation about that too. Lastly, if you are hosting a themed party, make sure your guests know what to wear or bring. “Come dressed as your favorite rock star from the 80s and bring a bottle of wine to stock the cellar.”