Wedding invitation tips during the coronavirus pandemic

If you’re like me, you’ve gotten a continuous stream of emails from retailers, museums, and other businesses with information about what changes they are making to their day-to-day operations during the coronavirus pandemic, or sadly, how they are closing. It’s a scary + uncertain time, and makes coordinating your 2020 wedding incredibly difficult. How can you plan something when so much is in the air?

My first piece of advice during this COVID-19 craziness is to get a wedding planner if you don’t have one. Their cost will pay for itself when they negotiate deposits for you and secure your venue and hopefully most-to-all of your vendors for your postponed date. I work with tons of plannings in the CT/NYC/NJ + Southern California area, so if you need some referrals just shoot me an email!

But let’s now focus on my real expertise, because a wedding planner I am not! Let’s talk invitations. Over the last several weeks, I’ve seen my March, April, May, June, and some July couples postpone their celebration. Some did so without choice because their venue made the decision to close, while others made the preemptive decision so as not to live in a state of limbo. Brides: the decision is yours, and no vendor (that isn’t your venue) is going to tell you what to do. It has to be your decision. Frustrating, huh? 🙂 But as vendors our job here is to simply give our insight + support.

So here is the advice I can give regarding your invitations…

Photo: Britt Rene Photo

Hold off on printing your invitations as long as you can. Talk with your stationery vendor about his/her timelines and the latest date you can give print-approval and still deliver on time for your wedding date. As we’ve seen, things can change overnight, and that extra week may be the difference between printing your wedding invitations once or twice. With that said, one easy way to give yourself a little extra cushion is to give guests 2-3 weeks to RSVP vs. the traditional 4. These are unprecedented times, so people will understand if the usual traditions aren’t strictly followed.

Send a digital “hold-tight” card. This is my clever name for letting your guests know you’re watching the situation closely, and if your wedding is postponed you will let everyone know. Make sure to remind them that your wedding website is the best place to get the most up-to-date information. (If you haven’t created one, now’s the time to do it! Check out my post about the best wedding website hosts.) I am making these digital cards for my current clients at no cost, so reach out if you’re a Roseville bride and need one!

Photo: Peterson Design Photo

Request your guests’ email addresses on the RSVP card. The more ways to contact your guests, the better. If something changes after the invitations have been sent, email is a quick + easy way to reach everyone.

If your date does change, send a “re-save the date” if you haven’t sent out the invites yet. I am also designing these at no charge for my couples. These can be digital if you have everyone’s email address. If you’ve already sent out your invitations, I recommend creating a new invitation with adjusted wording, and if you want to save a little money you can ask your guests to RSVP to your wedding website. However, many stationery designers (including me) are charging a very small fee for reprints of wedding invitations so it may be worth your while to do it the traditional way. This way you can also have a proper wedding invitation with your final date on it. It’s the least you deserve after all this mayhem! (I am offering to print 5 invitations for free with your new date for all my couples if they decide not to do a full reprint!)

This is a time when no one knows what the future holds, but as I wrote on one couple’s re-save the date card, one thing that will not change is the love you have as a couple and for your guests. You will get married, you will celebrate. Until then, rely on your wedding vendors to help you through it. We know what we’re doing, and we truly care about your happiness during this stressful time.

Stay safe, healthy + lean on love.

Photo: Britt Rene Photo