When it comes to weddings, rules matters. That means that things need to be done at certain times to avoid alienating your guests. Wedding invitations are one of those things that you have to get just right if you want your wedding to go smoothly.
Digital wedding invitations are totally acceptable. In fact, they are the best way to notify your guests given that they are convenient and reliable. Whether you decide to do wedding invitations the old-fashioned way or get with the times by going digital, the same problem still arises: When should you send them out?
To help you sort things out, here is a quick answer to the question of when should you send out digital wedding invitations.
The Benefits of Digital Wedding Invitations
At this point, you’ve probably already decided that digital wedding invitations are the best option for your wedding. However, if you are still unsure why they are a superior choice over paper invitations, consider the following reasons:
- Cost: If you are concerned about the costs, digital wedding invitations cost significantly less than paper invitations once you’ve factored in the number of copies, cost of the template design, as well as, any calligraphy work. In addition, you’ll also save a bundle on postage when you go digital. In fact, you can get a free digital wedding invitation here.
- Deliverability: Email guarantees a high rate of deliverability for your wedding invitations and you can rest assured that people will have received your invitation, unlike paper invitations which can go missing in the mail or get overlooked.
- Response Rate: With digital invitations, you’re likely to get fast responses to the invitations that you send out. As a result, you’ll know much faster who’s coming and who isn’t.
- Convenience: Who wants to spend hours licking envelopes or paying someone else to do it? With digital wedding invitations, inviting people to your wedding can be done with just a few clicks.
Send Everyone a Digital Wedding Invitation
If you decide to go digital for your wedding invitations, there is one major rule that you absolutely have to follow. Make sure that all guests are sent digital invitations. For example, don’t send your close family members paper invitations, but instead, send digital ones to friends. Doing this is only sure to cause a major disagreement among your guests once people find out what you did. This will only make people start asking you why you don’t care about them enough to send them one of the “special” invitations. It sounds silly, but it’s one headache you should avoid.
Adhere to the Same Guidelines As Paper Invitations
Now that you have a better understanding of why digital wedding invitations are so popular these days, we can get into the etiquette rules surround them. If you want to your guests to feel welcome, you should follow the same etiquette guidelines that you would adhere to for paper invitations.
That means that you shouldn’t wait until the last minute to send the wedding invitations so that guests have plenty of time to make plans to attend or decline your invitation before you have to confirm with vendors as to the exact number of guests who will attend your wedding.
Traditionally, wedding invitations should go out 6 to 8 weeks before your wedding. If your wedding is a destination wedding, you should give your guests more time and send them at least 3 months in advance. If the majority of your guests have to travel to attend your wedding, you need to give them time to hunt for travel and accommodation deals.
If you’ve noticed that certain guests haven’t acknowledged your wedding invitations about 2 weeks after sending them, a little nudge via phone is a good idea just to ensure that they have checked their emails for the wedding invitations.
When Should You Set the Deadline for RSVPs?
When you create your wedding invitations, you’ll also need to set a deadline for RSVPs. Make sure that you allow at least 2-3 weeks before the wedding date so that you can get a final head count to your wedding vendors and finalize the seating chart. If some guests have still not responded to the date that you set, you should call them right away and ask them to respond to your email invitation so that you have all of the details of your guests in one place.
For a destination wedding, you’ll want to ask for RSVPs sooner, at roughly 3-4 weeks before the departure date. This will allow you to plan local excursions for your guests and allow you to book special packages for them. Since destination weddings typically include events other than just the ceremony and reception, you’ll want to make sure that you have enough time finalize these plans.
Start Working On Your Digital Wedding Invitations
If you are concerned about the quality of digital wedding invitations, you should know that there are many exciting features to choose from that add a lot of value and uniqueness to your wedding. In addition, you also get the added bonus of being able to pat yourself on the back for doing your part to helping the environment by cutting down on paper waste.
So if you’re wedding is rapidly approaching, now is the time to get started with creating and sending your digital wedding invitations. Following these etiquette rules for digital wedding invitations will also help to make planning your wedding easier and more convenient.
