Believe it or not, the Royal Mail Pricing in Proportion change for postal charges will have been in force for 3 years this coming August.  Previously, postage prices were based upon the weight of the item. The heavier the item, the higher the price. Pricing in Proportion also takes into consideration the physical size and thickness of the item, as well as the weight.

I am sure that many readers have come across border line letters which have reached a thickness that makes you wonder, as you pop into the post box, whether it should have actually been stamped as a Large Letter.  Well, if there is ever a time when you wish to remove this doubt then it is when you are sending your wedding invitations.  If an item of mail has not been stamped with enough postage then the local sorting office will more than likely hold your invitation and request that the intended recipient (i.e your wedding guest) makes up the postal costs plus a surcharge.   This is embarrasing enough for the sender but it also means that there will be a delay in your guests receiving their invitations as they will either have to collect them from the sorting office themselves or arrange for them to be redelivered.  Worse still, your invitation will be forgotten about and lost forever.

The reason I bring this up in a blog post is that it is an oh so common occurence.  Many wedding invitations look for innovative ways to spruce up their wedding invite designs by adorning them with flouncy bows or bold embellishments without giving much consideration to the practical elements of sending the invitation.  Remember too that at an invitation may at first appear like a standard Royal Mail ‘Letter’ class but may increase to a ‘large letter’ category through either weight or thickness when you add to the envelope a reply card, a guest information card, and perhaps a gift list sheet as well.

So, if you are unsure about your finished invitations, whether hand made or bought, then be sure to check out both the weight and dimensions.  Criteria for each price band is of course available on the Royal Mail website or you may find the post room at your work will have a ready reckoner size card and scales to check the classification.  If in any doubt then take a finished wedding invitations to your local post office to have it checked out.

I was surprised that this lady did not notice that the cards were the same when she ordered the wedding invitations but I would encourage anyone purchasing their wedding stationery in stages to check what other items are available in the range are what they are expecting so they are not disappointed later.  The reason why many wedding stationers duplicate cards within a range is quite obvious… it is usually a commercial decision rather than a design choice as it is father more economical to hold stocks of a range that uses the same core card stock rather than individual items that each need to be inventory controlled.  I have to say that this practice of card cloning across a whole range does not happen often and it tends to occur on the cheaper ranges of wedding stationery.  A more common use of the same card tends to occur only between the Thank You card and Reply Card in a range.  This in fact does make common sense because when your guest is returning your RSVP card then whether they accept or decline they are in essence thanking you for the invitation.

This article is the first in a series on wedding stationery etiquette and special thanks goes to The Letter Press of Cirencester for letting us reproduce their guide.  All the images in the articles are Letter press of Cirencester designs which are available from their website.

The Etiquette of Wedding Stationery
The etiquette of wedding stationery should combine convention with convenience. The Letter Press of Cirencester have found that their customers want “to do it the right way”, at the same time as communicating clearly the information guests need. There are, however, different conventions you can choose to follow, as well as different ideas about styles of wording adopted. As a general rule, keep it simple.

Wording of Invitations
What is “correct” wording? There is no black or white answer. Taste is more important than dogma: ‘o’ clock’ is as correct as ‘pm’, but ’3.30 o’clock’ sounds clumsy. ‘To’ and ‘with’ mean the same, but nowadays ‘with’ may sound old-fashioned. ‘At All Saints’, Stanton Fitzwarren’ is as clear as ‘at All Saints’ Church, Stanton Fitzwarren’ and probably looks neater on the page.
Clarity and simplicity are important. There should be no doubt in guests’ minds as the what, where and when of the invitation. However, avoid repetition, such as the following:

at the Church of St Mary, Ampney Crucis,
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
on Saturday, 13th June 2009
at 3 o’clock
and afterwarsd at
Field Barn, Ampney Crucis,
Cirencester, Gloucestershire

R.S.V.P. Field Barn, Ampney Crucis, Cirencester

It is not necessary to repeat the address three times: your guests are intelligent enough to understand the following, simpler in wording and more pleasing in design:

at the Church of St Mary, Ampney Crucis,
on Saturday, 13th June 2009
at 3 o’clock
and afterwards at
Field Barn

R.S.V.P. Field Barn, Ampney Crucis, Cirencester

In Part 2 of this series we will look at the different styles of wording and options available depending on who will be hosting the wedding

This is one of the biggest wind ups for me in this industry.  Every week, I see scores of start ups and even long established companies mispell their own profession on their websites.  Lets clear this up once and for all with some definitions straight out of the Oxford Dictionary.  I have chosen the School version of the Oxford Dictionary because I do not want to make this issue any more confusing than it already seems to be. It is is funny, because in this simplified dictionary it even has bold text after each entry warning the reader not to confuse the spellings of both words.

Definition : Stationary
adjective not moving. The car was stationary when the van hit it.

Definition : Stationery
noun paper, envelopes, and other articles used in writing or typing

Maybe I am being a little naive. Of course if the wedding stationery businesses themselves do not know how to spell the word then I am sure there are many more customers who are equally misguided. Could it be that these companies are mispelling the words “wedding stationery” on purpose to capitalise on all those potential customers who will be punching “wedding stationary” into Google search.  This may be true in some cases and if it is I think these crafty web designers may be wasting their time. Google is cleverer than it used to be and you will find that you get pretty much the same search results whether you look for “Wedding Stationery” or “Wedding Stationary”.
The thing is, I spot this fundamental spelling mistake so many times outside of cyberspace that my theory above must only account for part of the incompetence.  I see it in magazines, on display boards at wedding exhibitions, and on marketing material and brochures. I know there are more pressing issues in the world to moan about so I will get off my soapbox now and have a coffee.  Personal rant over !

Well, we knew it was coming.  We have been pinging emails to each other for years, and christmas ecards are becoming ever more popular…. but a wedding einvite ?  It is time to make a stand and say no.  It is fair to say that wedding invitations have become more contemporary and less formal in recent years but there is no excusing the informality of an invitation that will ultimately end up in your guests trash folder when the wedding day is over.  American firms Evite and Pingg have introduced the electronic wedding invitation, primarily to the US market but of course, like the internet, it is open to anyone with a PC and a modem.

I could have based this article around the theme that the first environmentally friendly wedding invitation has arrived.  This is one of the main selling points that the developers of these ecard sites like to portray and to a certain extent I have to agree because the absence of a paper card, envelope and stamp is certainly eco friendly.  However, I do not view a wedding invitation in the same vein as a birthday card, christmas card or any other kind of invitation.  It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to invite your friends and family to one of the biggest events of your life.  More importantly for your friends and family the wedding invitation means more than the paper and card it is made from.  It is a physical item that will be kept and treasured like a gift long after after the event and will trigger happy memories of your wedding for years to come.

Traditional wedding values have already been eroded over the decades but I think that this is one leap to far.  What next?  You may as well just set up a Facebook group and send all your guests an email to join it if they can make it.  Oh what the hell, they will probably be busy, why not do away with the invitation altogether and set up a webcast so your friends and family can watch the nuptials from the comfort of their own sofa.  Then, if they are busy or there is something better on the telly they can download and watch it later.   When you are back from your honeymoon why not upload your wedding video to YouTube so the whole world can comment on how you looked in that dress.

Rant over.  Let me here your opinion on the electronic wedding invitation.  Is this the future?

You see an image of your chosen design on screen overlayed with text that you can manipulate pretty much how you wish.  Change the wording, the typeface, the size, the layout and it instantly updates on screen to get a live proof of your invitation will look.

Pretty nifty eh.  Head on over and give it a go.  Its a great to get a feel of how your invitations will look in the flesh.  Now all we need is for the clever IT guys to figure out a way for us to feel the raised print on our PC monitors