So you’ve started your wedding planning and you’ve heard the term ‘wedding suite’ be used but you’re really not sure what that is. I mean, is a wedding invitation suite a different thing to just a normal wedding invitation? I don’t want you to be confused, so let’s answer the question for you right now!
WHAT IS AN INVITATION SUITE?
The stationery you send out to your loved ones leading up to your big day really does set the tone of your wedding. The key purpose is to:
- Invite your friends and family to celebrate your special day.
- Give your guests the core information like dates, locations.
- Give your guests any additional information, like accomodation tips or maps.
- And, it sets out the theme and style of your wedding.
Essentially, the experience of your wedding starts when they open that very first piece in the mail and it’s the finer details that create a truely unique and memorable experience!
That first correspondence may be your save the date, if you’ve chosen your wedding date or just booked your venue, we recommend getting that save the date out asap! And it’s never too early to develop your wedding style! All of our invitation suites have save the date card options so you can follow that experience right through!
WHAT’S INCLUDED IN AN INVITATION SUITE?
So let’s explore what is included in an invitation suite!
An invitation suite includes your invitation but it also includes a few other bits and pieces. These added extras serve to give your guests all the information they’ll need and it prevents you answering questions leading up to your big day or avoids your guests going to the wrong place at the wrong time wearing the wrong thing!
The Wedding Invitation | Your wedding invitation should included the formal notice that you and your sweetheart will be wed and you’d both love the guest to join you in celebrating. It should also include the date, venue and a brief note on dress code. You can include other information on this card, but this is the core information that the invitation itself should offer.
View our full range of wedding invitations and find the one that feels just like you! Each of our invitations belong to a full wedding suite, so every little part of your wedding will be consistent and styled to perfection.
Info Enclosure Cards | Information Enclosure Cards are often smaller than the invitation and their purpose is the explain additional information that your guests need to know. The kind of information you might include is ceremony and reception times and locations, maps and directions, attire information, accomodation, additional celebrations that your guests are invited to (e.g. morning after breakfast).
All of our suites include enclosure card options. These can be personalised to include your wedding information.
Wishing Well or Gift Card | It’s common to want to give newly weds a wedding gift. Even when a couple say they don’t want gifts, your guest just wont feel right turning up empty handed! Unless your wedding is a destination wedding – in this case, your guests may have stretched as far as they could with flights and accomodation.
So if your guests are likely to arrive with some kind of gift in hand, why not make it easier for them and give them an idea of what you’d like to receive. The wishing well or gift card is an opportunity to make life just a little easier for your guests by letting them know if you’d prefer a money contribution for something like your honeymoon or a house deposit or if you have a gift registry where you list out items you’d love to receive and your guests can select items to purchase for you.
RSVP Card | Finally, in your suite, you’ll want to include a way for your guests to RSVP to your event and let you know if they can make it to the celebration. Traditionally a RSVP card simply asked your guests to state if they accepted or declined your invitation but RSVP cards have come a long way and we now use these cards to gather extra info about your guests so that we can plan properly and ensure they are having the best experience they can.
So what should you include on this little card?
- It’s always a good idea to ask for your guests full names – especially if you’re allowing guests to bring plus ones. This will come in handy when creating your seating chart.
- You can also ask for dietary requirements. Perhaps your guests are vegan, gluten intolerant or straight up hate pork. This is important information to make sure your loved ones have a wonderful time at your wedding!
- And finally, it’s also fun to ask for suggestions. One of my favourites is “I promise to dance if you play…” to gather music suggestions from your guests.
It’s good practice to include a stamped and addressed return envelope in the suite when asking your guests to return a RSVP card. This can be easily printed at the same time as your suite and you’ll find all of our suites include RSVP card options with envelopes.
Another option, to do away with the additional envelope is the postcard style RSVP. You can affix the stamp to the already addressed postcard making it easy for your guests to let you know if they’ll be attending.
DO I NEED ALL THESE ELEMENTS?
When it comes to your wedding, I want you to remember one thing. It’s your day and there’s no right or wrong way to do things. Having all these elements in your wedding suite really does contribute to the experience of your wedding and it’s lovely to open a wedding invitation package that contains multiple options, especially a luxury suite that feels beautiful in the hands.
However, you don’t need everything. You may choose to only have the invitation, wishing well and RSVP or even just the invitation and RSVP. It’s your day, so please, do it your way!
If you’re still not sure what you need in your wedding suite or you’d like to plan out all the stationery, from start to finish, for your wedding – then I invite you to download the full, comprehensive wedding stationery guide and checklist. It’s free and designed purely to help you!