Joe's Diary: Stationery

I never thought I could get so involved in stationery design, but it really is important! It's the first hint of the wedding theme for the guests, so it needs to be chosen well and effectively set the scene for the day.


There are thousands of designs out there to choose from. Specialist wedding stationers have huge catalogues full of them and can give lots of advice. Some have people that can come to your house and let you look through samples over a cup of tea. There's also the option of having them handmade which I really like the sound of as then I'll know that ours will be really individual. There are lots of companies that offer this in my Wedding Organizer that I'm going to call later. I'm also tempted to get a calligrapher to make the invitations particularly striking.


We're still playing around with the wording, and there is a debate in the house about whether to invite guests to our 'wedding' or 'civil partnership ceremony'. People in our situation are split about this, Katie hates calling her and Sarah's day a wedding, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all. In strict legal terms it would be better to avoid referring to it as a marriage, as that is legally only recognised between a man and woman, but ?wedding? is fine. Bit of a minefield, I suppose it's all done to personal taste. We have agreed to keep the wording simple yet formal, we both like the whole 'Request the pleasure of the company of' bit!


Seeing as our wedding is slap bang in the middle of the summer I'm going to order them way in advance and send them at least four months before the day. It will also give us time to go over the proofs thoroughly. I'm going to order separate evening invitation versions too as we are inviting quite a lot of people to the reception only. Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to order a few extra just in case I make a mistake or three!


I must not forget to send invites to the attendants. Seems a bit strange as they all know it's happening but it's the done thing apparently. Even though there's no chance Pete's old music teacher will be able to make it, poor old stick, we'll send one to her anyway so she isn't left out and just not include her in the final numbers.


There's been a minor baby boom amongst our friends over the last couple of years and we simply can't fit all of the kids in during the ceremony and meal. Pete rightly pointed out that most parents will just assume that small children are included ? thinking they don't take up much room I guess. I'm a bit worried about offending them but Pete is keen to put a brief explanation on the invite to make sure everyone knows where they stand. If there aren't too many, I may just phone them in advance. We'll need to be careful to be specific on the invitations - 'Bob, Nelly and family' means that all kinds of girlfriends and boyfriends may turn up with various teenage cousins.


For the close family who can bring children I'm going to include details on the childcare arrangements for the day and if we do get that bouncy castle I think they should know so they can bring clothes and socks that are suitable.


I'm going to send them all at the same time so no-one feels unnecessarily left out ? I know my cousins will be on the phone to each other as soon as they get theirs! There are all kinds of things I need to include with them so I've made a list and stuck it on the fridge as my sanity check. Thank goodness for home computers and printers!


Other bits and pieces


It's not just the invites that need to be arranged, but all kinds of other things that would be good to order at the same time. Then it'll all match and also some companies offer discounts for bulk orders. I need to decide whether to have our 'thank you' cards printed with the same design as the invitations.  One thing that will be handy is a stack of printed 'save the date' cards so people can stick it on their fridge or in their diary and not plan to go abroad on the same day by accident.


For the reception venue one of the most important things to co-ordinate with the theme will be the place cards as everyone will look at them! They can include a miniature version of the motif used on the invitations, so can little cake boxes for both the guests and people who won't be able to make it. The venue is providing linen napkins, but if they weren't we could even have matching serviettes! One thing I do want to get is a really smart guest book for everyone to write in during the reception and many stationery companies sell those too.


Right, better get on that phone.


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