Your wedding day is fast approaching, and you’re busy tying up all the loose ends. From placing photos in frames for a memory table to wrapping ribbon around your dinner napkins, things are coming together! If you’re like most brides, you have a room, closet, or space in your home designated to the pile of wedding stuff you need to bring with you on your wedding day. You’ve been looking at the growing pile for months, but it’s just about time to see it disappear! However, a few months before that happens, you’ll be mailing out your wedding invitations. Believe it or not, it’s not as simple as it sounds. I’m here to help you avoid these common invitation mailing mistakes if you’re mailing your invitations yourself!
Unreadable Envelope Printing
A beautiful font is worthless if it is hard to read on the envelope. As your stationery designer, I suggest fonts for your outer envelope that are easily legible. If there’s a font you love, let’s print a sample and test the readability. Having a font that’s easy to read will ensure your invitations get where they need to go on time and to the right address. It’s my goal to craft a gorgeous envelope that has your guests excited to open it and see what’s waiting inside!
Too Thick to Mail
When you mail your invitations, there is a maximum level of thickness allowed to be sent as a “letter”, and that magic number is 1/4 of an inch. That may seem totally feasible, but does your entire suite contain embellishments like ribbons with wax seals or an additional details card? Perhaps you have an RSVP card, a double thick invite, and a vellum wrap, too. When all these pieces are stacked together, this can easily meet that number! The best way to ensure your envelope can be mailed properly is to take a sample to the post office and have it tested. This ensures everything fits!
Not Enough Postage
This is another invitation mailing mistake that is easily avoidable by heading to the post office ahead of time. Take your fully decked-out suite stuffed in the outer envelope and have a postal worker weigh it for you. Once they tell you the postage cost, you can calculate your total mailing budget for all of your envelopes. Once you get this weight, be sure not to change what’s inside of the envelope, otherwise, you’ll be making another trip to the post office! You can use any denomination of stamps to get to the total weight. I love providing clients with pretty (and affordable!) options.
Unsecured Envelope
I have a hot tip for you: you don’t have to physically lick each envelope to secure it. I’m sure your tongue is happy to hear this news! A better approach is to have a small bowl of water nearby and use a Q-tip or cotton ball to dip into the water and run along the adhesion line and then close the envelope. If you want a little additional security, feel free to use a glue stick or double-sided tape. Just be sure to use caution so as to not put tape or glue in the wrong place.
*Photos below by Juliana Mary
As you can see, with a little prep work before hand, you can be sure your wedding invitations are ready to send without any issues. But keep in mind, even with all those checked off your list – it’s still possible to run into some missed mailings or undelivered invites. My last tip? You should order a few extra so that if something gets lost in the mail, you can pop another in and ensure everyone receives theirs! By avoiding these common invitation mailing mistakes, you’re one step closer to finishing up your pre-wedding to-do list!
Want to avoid all of these pitfalls? I may be biased but I definitely recommend hiring a stationer. I work with all my clients to ensure their suites meet these requirements, and can either assemble to these specs and ship them to you unsealed, or mail them for you! I’d love to connect with you. Head to my contact page and get the conversation started!
