Weddi-quette Wednesday!

Happy Hump Day! And this marks us as half way to a lovely, long weekend! Alright, as the summer wedding season is going to start winding down soon, the fall wedding season is gearing up! Both such beautiful times to get married in their own regards, I can't decide what I like more, the bright summer colours or the deep, cozy fall ones! So many great palates! Anyways, with the next wedding season on the horizon, bride's and groom's are going to be thinking- invitations! This is the one area I often get a lot of questions about. Invitations are tough, yes they are the first taste of your wedding and I know I've discussed cutting your expenses with making your own invitations a few times here, on the wedding girl. But I've yet to discuss the etiquette of what exactly needs to go on the invitations. So here we go!

The following things are what every invitation should have, at the bare minimum:

• Both you and your fiance's names, first and last.
• Date, Location and Time of your wonderful wedding.
• The location (should it be different then the ceremony) and time of your reception.
• The reply information.

Depending on whether you're having a super traditional ceremony, reasonably relaxed or somewhere in the middle is how you can decide the style of your invitations. Listed below are some commonly asked questions:

1.When should I send my invitations out?
My general rule of thumb is 6 weeks, that gives your guests more then enough time to respond. If you're getting late responses, don't fret! Venues usually allow a grace period of about a week to give final numbers.

2. If I am paying for the wedding, do my parents names need to go on the invitation?
Call me old fashioned by I still think its a wonderful way to honor them, even if they're not the ones inviting people to celebrate your wedding, you could add their names somewhere on the invitation.

3. What if we don't want children at our wedding?
A lot of people don't know that it is only the names printed on the invitation that are invited. For example if it said "The Smith Family" you can assume your whole family (kiddies included) is invited, if it just says "Mr & Mrs Smith" assume that only the bearers of those names are invited. The worst thing is showing up to a wedding you clearly weren't invited too. When in doubt just ask! The bride and groom would appreciate that, trust me! And in terms of adding something like "No children allowed" on the invitation? That's pretty frowned upon in the wedding world, it just doesn't look great. So if you've clearly marked your invites, but still think a friend might try to bring a little one, a phone call can't hurt. Just nicely reinforce there's no kiddies at this happenin' party.

4. Whose name goes first on the invitation?
Well customarily, it's whoever is "throwing" the wedding (read: paying for) so if its the brides parents it might say:
John & Jennifer Smith
request the honor of your presence at the wedding of their daughter
Melanie Anne to Jason Alexander Deacon.

Likewise if the grooms parents were footing the bill. Now if you and your groom are paying, you would right
Melanie Anne Smith & Jason Alexander Deacon
(along with their parents, with the parents names) - if you so chose to add that part
request the honor of your presence at their wedding.

The brides name comes first, followed by the groom no matter which situation it is.

5. What if we would like our guests to donate to a charity, rather then give us gifts?
Referring to gifts in any context is frowned upon when it comes to the invitation. Its just a little bit tacky in my mind, so if you are being so selfless and not asking for gifts, just spread that word of mouth or start up a wedding website. If you ask me wedding websites are great! You can add the link somewhere within your invitation, perhaps on a map, and direct people there for any outstanding questions. Fabulous!

At the end of the day, you don't want to offend anyone, you want to get people excited about your wedding and ensure that all pertinent information is on the invitation! Other then that, get creative and make it your own!