Hey party people!
This is part of the party ponders posts! Say that three times fast…wait…not on a Monday…I won’t subject you to that. ;p
Party Ponders are just questions that come up when trying to plan parties. Last Monday, I talked about how much food to prepare for parties. This Monday, we’re talking about when to send out invitations.
Here’s a really straightfoward guide that I usually go by:
I’m a little more lenient than some people because I, myself, am a planner; so I like to know a good amount of time in advance.
The time frame for wedding invitations can be shorter…like 6 weeks. The only time it should be 6 weeks is if: you sent out a save the date card, there aren’t a ton of guests coming from out of town and it’s not a destination wedding. Eight weeks is a good time frame to shoot for. Ten weeks would only be if there are a lot of out of town guests or it’s a destination wedding.
Formal parties include any event that require a certain dress attire. Three months is the extreme time frame and should only be used for black-tie type events. For instance, a huge fundraising ball would be an instance where 3 months may be necessary.
Casual parties include: showers, birthdays, get togethers, etc. I do have a rule with casual parties. If it’s in the summer or a big weekend, I’d make sure the invitations got out no closer than 4 weeks from the event. For instance, I’m throwing a baby shower the Saturday of Easter weekend. I made sure I got the invites out at the beginning of March. Since it’s a holiday weekend, people’s schedules tend to get full fast. That goes for summer months as well.
Do you have any method to your invitation madness? Any trick of making sure all the addresses are correct?
If you have any party questions or etiquette inquiry, email me at: heidi@heidirew.com.
p.s. This is YOUR official invite to the party… on the PartiesforPennies facebook page! Click here.
Hey Heidi! Whenever I have a lot of invitations to send out, I create a spreadsheet to keep track of who will be attending and if there’s anything special I need to provide, like a gluten free meal. Otherwise I rely on my trusty old address book. I always verify an address though if its been a year since I’ve sent that person mail, and I always google map anyone new’s address to make sure there’s nothing misspelled. Is that a little too thorough? I can’t stand it when mail gets lost 🙂
A spreadsheet is great and I love that you keep track of things like diet restrictions! I love the year rule, too. Thanks Jordan! <3 Heidi Rew