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Wedding Stationery Timeline

This timeline is specific to wedding stationery and will give you a good guide as to when in your planning process you should be thinking about all of the different elements you may need. However, because we like to be helpful, we’ve also created a great 12+ month planning checklist to give you an idea of all the planning tasks you should think about, and approximately when they should be done!

Download your guide here

As soon as the ring is on your finger!

Plan Your Engagement Party

The question has been popped and you’ve agreed to say ‘We Do’, so now is the time to celebrate! If you want to party after your proposal, you may want to throw a gathering for your friends to get the excitement going! 

We have a wide range of engagement party invitations throughout our Wedding Stationery Collections and this is the time to pick something that will reflect your personalities without worrying too much about setting the tone for your wedding day. That’s the job of your wedding invitation, and you may not have even considered the type of day you would like to have yet!

When the planning begins


Get Your Guest List Together

Getting your guest list together is one of the first things you will need to consider as it is the foundation to the rest of your planning. Planning your guest list methodically, early on, will not only pay dividends when it comes to sending out your invitations, but it will help you to understand how big your venue needs to be and it will help you to set your all-important budget. 

We’ve put together a handy activity which should help you get your guest list together in under an hour (ish)!

Check it out here.

Get Your Budget Together

This isn’t specific to your wedding stationery, but it is one of the first things you’ll need to do and many people don’t budget properly for all of the stationery they may need on the day itself. 

If you’re baffled by the basics of what you may need in addition of your invitations, then take a look at our Guide to On Your Day Stationery where we’ve categorised everything into essential and non-essential items to make it easy for you to see what you may and may not need to budget for.  

You may also find some useful hints and tips in our advice page

How to Beat Your Wedding Budget 

Research Your Wedding Stationery

Although it’s too soon to send out your wedding invitations, it’s never too soon to start thinking about the kind of invitation you want to send, so spend some time looking for inspiration. 

Although the real journey begins with the invitation, you may want to make sure that matching stationery is available for your Big Day as well. Ensuring that your On the Day stationery is sympathetic to your invitations really does make your day flow nicely, and little details like this are the glue that holds your ‘theme’ together. 

Luckily, you’ll find every element of wedding stationery you can think of on our website so there should be no stress further down the line with more decisions to make or deliberation to be had in those precious weeks before you wed.

You may find this blog post 13 of the Most Common Wedding Invitation Mistakes – And How to Avoid Them! a good early read to avoid any potential hazards further down the line!

Finding inspiration

Inspiration can be found through Google (other search engine providers are available!) and wedding magazines, but Pinterest is a particularly popular platform for pinning ideas together. Taking our ‘Find Your Perfect Invite Quiz’ will also help, as all you need to do is answer a few questions and then you will be presented with some great suggestions to consider!

To DIY or Not to DIY… that is the question

Now is also the time to start thinking about whether you want to ‘Do It Yourself’ or use the services of a ‘Done for You’ wedding stationery company like us. 

If you want to ‘Do it Yourself’ then you will need to start getting your design together and producing samples so that you know what you’re doing when it comes to sending out the real thing in a few months’ time. 

It’s easy to assume that doing it yourself will save you money (it definitely won’t save you time), but this isn’t necessarily the case, so think carefully about this before embarking upon this adventure. You may find our blog posts DIY Wedding Stationery – Five Things to Think About Before You Begin  and A Cut Above – Do You Have the Skills & Time to Do It Yourself? a useful read when making this decision.

We are not trying to deter you from making your own stationery if this is what your heart desires – there are some couples out there who will relish in the opportunity to design and make their own stationery and when that’s the case, we say go for it! But you should fully consider all that’s involved before you make any decisions.

A digital invite for the digital age?

You may also be wondering whether it’s worth sending a printed invitation, or whether you should go down the digital route. Our blog post How important is a printed wedding invitation? may help with that decision.

Putting your personality onto paper

The importance of your wedding invitation cannot be overstated. 

It’s the very first thing (bar Save the Date cards perhaps) that anyone will see in relation to your Big Day and it sets the tone and the excitement for what’s to come. 

We’re firm believers that your wedding stationery should reflect you as a couple and that in addition to making the all important first impression for your wedding day, it should also reflect your personalities. For ways in which you can inject your personality, take a look at our blog post Getting Personal – Four Top Tips to Add Personality to Your Wedding Stationery 

The timeline......

1 Year + to go

Send out Save the Date Cards

A year or more out from your wedding is the time to consider sending out Save the Date Cards. These are a relatively new item of wedding stationery and whilst it would be considered non-essential, everyone leads busy lives in this day and age, so you may wish to consider getting the date into the diaries or your nearest and dearest as soon as possible. Sending out a Save the Date card also takes the pressure off having to send out your invitations too soon.

If you’re wondering whether you need to bother with a Save the Date card, take a look at our blog post: Do we need a save the date card? Here are five things to consider. 

Should the Save the Date card match the rest of your stationery?

Every single one of our Collections contains a complete A-Z of wedding stationery so your design can remain perfectly consistent right from the word go, but don’t feel like your Save the Date card needs to match the rest of your stationery if you haven’t yet decided the type of vibe you’d like to convey for your Big Day.

 However, by now, your venue will have been signed and sealed, so you may want your Save the Date to be sympathetic to the type of location your wedding will take place in. Luckily, the way we’ve arranged each of our Wedding Stationery Ranges should make this a piece of (not yet wedding) cake for you to do!

What should a Save the Date card contain?

Your Save the Date card should literally contain your names and wedding date together with a promise that a formal invitation will follow. There is no need to include the name of your venue just yet unless you feel that guests may need to book up accommodation before your invitations are sent, which is usually unlikely.

Who should you send Save the Date cards to?

If you choose to send out Save the Date cards, the priority should be to send them to your daytime guests as these are likely to be your nearest and dearest and they will be the ones who will need to have the day free to join you. 

Evening guests, although important to you, will usually be able to free up an evening more than finding a whole day. 

If you choose to send cards to your evening guests as well, depending on how set your guest list is, you may wish to be specific by saying ‘evening invitation to follow’ instead of the usual ‘formal invitation to follow’. This means that there will be no miscommunication in terms of people potentially booking a date off work when they may not need to. In addition, depending on how your guest list is made up, it stops people from talking amongst themselves and feeling left out if they haven’t received a Save the Date card when someone they know have.

6-8 months to go

Gather information together for your invitations

With your invitation send date looming, now is the time to start to get together the information you’ll need to put into your invites. 

There are three main components to your invitation:

The invitation 

This is the part that tells your guests who is invited to your special day together with the date, time and venues of the celebrations. We always advise that you’re specific with who is invited on the invitation – find out why in our blog post You’re Invited! Or Are You? Three Tips to Avoid Unexpected Guests 

Traditionally, invitations are worded to come from the bride’s parents as traditionally, they paid for the wedding and were the hosts. However, this has become less common in modern times because couples tend to contribute more to the fund themselves and there are many different family dynamics. 

We will help you with your invitation wording, but you may find our advice page How to Word Your Wedding Invitation a useful read.

GOOD TO KNOW: ALL of our invitations include the FREE printing of guest names on the invitation and (if applicable) reply card. Envelopes are also provided free of charge for all invitations and we offer to print all of your guest names and addresses onto the envelope for you as well. We’ll even pop the invitations into the right envelope on your behalf (although we never seal the envelope to ensure you are able to check everything if you want to), so using us will take your stress levels down several notches when it comes to stationery! To take advantage of this FREE OF CHARGE service, just download, complete and return this spreadsheet.

The guest information card

Unlike many other wedding stationery companies, every single one of our invitations – whether it’s the most elaborate pocketfold wallet, or the simplest of postcards – contains space to add a guest information section as it’s really important you have the opportunity to communicate details to your guests. We think it’s almost as important as the invitation itself and because of this, we’ll never sneak an information section in as a supplementary cost which so many other companies do!

The most popular ‘headlines’ are accommodation, taxi numbers and details of your gifts request. However, this space exists to make your lives easier, so use it to tell your guests anything that you think they may find useful. Our blog post Seven Super Tips for Your Guest Information Card contains some useful ideas of what you may like to include.

The reply card

A reply card is included in most of our ‘package-style’ invitations, but some of our more cost effective invitations do not include a reply card in order to keep prices as low as possible for those who are looking to save money; for example, our postcard style is a really popular choice for evening invitations and not all couples would like to include a reply card for their evening guests. However if you do, in the instances where they’re not included in the price of the invitation, reply cards are available separately. 

Reply cards are particularly useful for encouraging a prompt reply from your guests as we know that this is one of the pain points for most couples prior to their Big Day. We’ve put some other advice together in this respect, and you can see this on our blog post Four Ways to Encourage a Prompt Reply From Your Guests. 

You may think that a reply card is only useful for finding out if your invitation has been accepted or not but actually, there are many useful ways you can use a reply card for and we cover those in our blog post Six Potential Questions To Ask On Your Reply Card.

If you’re providing a menu choice to your guests, then a reply card is guaranteed to make your life a lot easier!

Always make sure that you give your guests a deadline by which to respond (although be prepared for some to ignore this!) We suggest that about six weeks after you send your invitations is a good deadline as it gives your guests enough time to respond but not enough time to forget!

GOOD TO KNOW: ALL of our reply cards come with a free-of-charge addressed return envelope to ensure that there are as few excuses as possible for your guests not to reply!

4-6 months to go

Send Your Invitations

Now that you’ve got all of your information together, now is the time to pop your invites in the post!

When to send your wedding invitation is a delicate balance between getting people really excited about the event of the year and giving guests enough time to make any necessary preparations they need to in order to attend your special day.

Don’t be tempted to send your invitation too early as it will lose all the impact that you want it to have and you risk people putting it to one side and forgetting about it if it is sent too far ahead of your Big Day. Also, things may change, so whilst we totally understand the excitement and desire to send out your invitations as soon as possible, we strongly advise you keep to the 4-6 month window.

Of course, there are always exceptions to every rule, which is why we’ve put together a set of useful infographics to help you to find out the perfect time to send out your invitation. Check them out here.

3 months to go

Start Planning Your On The Day Stationery

By now, you should have received the majority of your replies back from your guests and you will know who is likely to be coming.

We do not suggest ordering your ‘On Your Day’ stationery until 4-5 weeks before your wedding because things will invariably change and you’ll get late replies as well as guests telling you at the last minute that they can’t come when they previously said that they could! 

We know that it’s tempting to order this stationery months and months ahead and ‘get it off your list’, but you wouldn’t want your flowers to arrive with weeks to go as they would look a little worse for wear on the day and your stationery is no different! 

However, it’s a good idea to start thinking about what items you may need and begin to put content together where possible; for example menus, orders of service etc. For a full run down on what ‘On Your Day’ stationery is available check out our handy guide where we’ve grouped everything into essential and non-essential items.

If you have planned for a church ceremony, then contact your vicar for advice on the Order of Service, and if you want to give your guests an ‘Order of the Day’, then get in touch with your venue to discuss a running order for the day.

Table planning

Your table plan is a potential headache, so check out our blog post  Wedding Stationery SOS: Ten table planning tips to save you tearing your hair out before you begin, and if you have a particularly big party planned, you may find this blog post Wedding Stationery SOS: Three top tips to tackle your table plan when your guest list is huge! useful.

One other thing to mention with your table plan is that you don’t necessarily have to follow the design set out for your invitations or the design you may be having for the rest of your stationery. 

Your table plan can be as quirky as you like and it’s a great opportunity to convey a particular hobby or interest. We’ve designed many table plans over the years which couples have kept on display in their house as a reminder of their special day and because it links to a love they have. Check out our ‘Hobby Range’ for some ideas of some non-traditional table plans.

And if you do want to break from tradition with your table plan, this may help with naming your tables. We’ve answered a common question in our blog post Wedding Stationery SOS: Should we name or number our tables?  

Even if you’re not having a quirky table plan, naming tables can be a fun way to introduce some of your hobbies or shared interests and is a great way to put personality into your stationery. It also avoids the perceived hierarchy of guests who may find themselves on table 8 vs those on table 1. Take time to think about what is right for you.

4-5 weeks to go

Order Your On The Day Stationery

With the countdown well and truly on, now is the time to order your On Your Day stationery and to make arrangements to collect / have it delivered in the week before your wedding.

You may also want to order some thank you cards at the same time so that you can send a nice note out to your guests after your Big Day. We know that you’re the ones paying for dinner and a day of entertainment and that your guests should really be thanking you, but it is etiquette to thank those who attended for being with you on your special day and for spending their time making memories to last a lifetime. You will also hopefully get lots of lovely gifts which you will want to say thank you for.

1-2 months after your Big Day

Order and/or send your thank you cards

If you haven’t already ordered your thank you cards, make sure you do it as soon as possible after your wedding day, or after you return from your honeymoon. Each of our wedding stationery collections has a thank you card in the same design to conclude your journey, but we also offer a range of thank you cards which include photographs from your special day – a great way to share special moments with your guests.

GOOD TO KNOW: We can print personalised messages in your thank you cards if you would like to avoid the hassle of handwriting each individual cards, and we’re always willing to print your envelopes with names and addresses for you as well, FREE OF CHARGE. Just get in touch to see how we can make your life easier!

If you’re stuck on what to write, then take a look at our blog post Wedding Thank You Cards: A Top 10 of Messages 

So there you have it. We hope you have found this comprehensive timeline a great guide to what you need to be doing and when in relation to your wedding stationery. However, if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Angie White
We can’t thank Jo & Mark enough for the part they played in making our wedding unforgettable.
Jo’s design ideas were amazing. She really took my vague ideas and transformed them into a design that really meant something to us.
Everyone commented on how fantastic they were and I really wouldn’t hesitate a second to recommend JMS Creative to anyone getting married.
They were so friendly but professional, relaxed but efficient and the quality was outstanding.
Thank you both so much!
Jennifer Williams
A must visit for any invites! From the very start the team were wonderful, understanding and had so much patience with us whilst we worked on them. We said they needed doing as quick as possible and they did everything in their power to speed up the process which we really appreciated. The materials are top quality and the price was so reasonable. Amazing to be able to touch and feel your invites before they are made. Can’t recommend enough!
Kira & Michael Hardy Wedding July 2021
Dear Mark and Jo, Just a quick note to confirm that we received these this morning and they all look fantastic. We are so excited to show them off on Friday and have everything all tied together throughout all of the stationery. We will make sure to get lots of pictures 🙂 Everyone loved the invites so much we have no doubt that they will love the other stationery too. Thank you again so much for everything! You're the best! Warm regards Kira
Susannah Thorn
Jo has been fantastic from the start! We collected our invitations today and we are completely in love with them. They are gorgeous and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Thank you so much!
Louise & Neil Jolly Wedding November 2019
Dear Jo, Mark and Team, Thank you so much for the absolutely fantastic service that we received from yourselves in printing all our wonderful Wedding stationery. From the very first appointment with Jo, discussing our initial thoughts .... for Jo to then miraculously transform our thoughts into the great stationery that we had envisaged. Right from the 'Save The Date' cards to our 'Thank You' cards .... Jo you delivered 100%. The theme was carried through consistently on all of our Wedding stationery and the attention to detail was noted by all. The posters are now up in our house and provide a unique memory to our special day. Thank you once again ... we are just looking for another occasion to use your services again. Big smiles Neil and Louise X

About Your Perfect Invite

Hello! We are Jo & Mark Stratfull (that’s where the JMS part comes from!) and we like to think that we are a creative couple! We wed in 2009, and shortly after, Jo left her job as a PR & Communications Manager to begin JMS Creative. Our company grew quickly, so in 2010, Mark jumped ship from his job in customer service, and joined the JMS bandwagon, and here we are!

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