Research is the key when choosing wedding stationery that matches the theme of your big day.

After you have booked your venue, the next job on the wedding ‘to do’ list is sort out the wedding invitations.  The wedding invitation that you send out will be the first insight into your wedding, your guests will receive, so it is absolutely crucial that you get it right.

MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt">Your invitation must set out the right mood for your big day, so pick your colour, theme, patterns etc. carefully. In the context of things, the invitations will cost no more than 3-4% of your total wedding budget. If the invitation you like is slightly over what you had planned to spend, it is advisable to spend that extra few pounds to get what you want. You’ll be surprised by how many of your loved ones will keep an invitation as a memento of your day for many years to come. While many of the other things such as the cake, flowers, the cutlery etc. will be long forgotten.

Research is the key. With internet access now so readily available, finding the invitation you want is not difficult. A quick Google search under the keywords ‘wedding invitations’ yields almost 500,000 pages. There are many websites from almost every country in the world online selling invitations in almost every colour and design possible.

Before you place an order for your total amount of cards, it is imperative that you order a sample of the invitation first, almost all suppliers do send out samples and you only pay nominal charges. You could well be surprised at how a photograph of an invitation appears on a website and what it looks like once it’s on your hands. Typically you should order between 5-10 samples, the more you order the longer it will take you to decide and you may well end up back on square one, if you only order 1-2 samples, as mentioned above, the invitation(s) may not be what you thought it was.

With the styles of wedding invitations, your personal needs also come into play. Some minimalist styles, although very inexpensive, may not have all of the elements you need for planning your wedding. Consider whether your wedding invitations come with RSVP cards, save the card cards, and return envelopes. Some styles do not include these elements, which mean that you have to order them separately.

It is also advisable to get your family and friends to join in, ask them to look for invitations and email you links, images or their ideas. They might just surprise you with their effort.

To view our online catalogue or order samples, please visit http://www.shadicards.com/