Have you ever thought planning a wedding would be easy if it weren’t for all of the etiquette rules you’re expected to follow? Well, you’re not alone. And no matter how much you’d love to ignore them and just do whatever “feels right” for your wedding, most of us also don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or do anything that would upset potential guests. That’s why wedding etiquette is so important.

To make following those rules a little easier, we’ve put together a collection of articles that will help you learn and apply the basics quickly and easily so you can get back to the parts of wedding planning you probably enjoy a lot more: cake tasting, dressing shopping, gift registering.

For starters, you’ll find some extremely useful articles about how to write wedding announcements properly, when to send out wedding gift thank you cards, and how to decide who pays for what parts of the wedding. We’ll also help you tackle some of the more modern etiquette issues: Should I put my invitations on CD-Rom? How do we send invitations for a gay/lesbian ceremony? Should my wedding invitations by bi-lingual? You won’t find the answers in many of these outdated etiquette books at your local library, but we have them for you here.

If you just want to brush up on your wedding etiquette basics, then you’ll find articles offering an overview of what you should know. Plus, if you want to test your knowledge, you’ll also find two ways to show what you already know about wedding invitations. Taking the quizzes might be a good way to figure out which articles to read before you start finalizing your invitation decisions.

Have fun browsing our article collection and planning your big day!

What Good Is Etiquette?

Wedding Invitations Etiquette | If you don't already know, there are plenty of etiquette rules related to wedding planning. And wedding invitations are no exception. Below is a list of ten etiquette rules you need to keep in mind as you are dealing with your ...

Who Should Pay for Your Wedding Invitation? | Weddings are costly affairs and deciding who should foot the bill for all of the planning, including the costs of wedding invitations, can be a bit confusing. Traditionally, the bride's family covered the costs of the wedding ...

How To Write Wedding Announcements | Typically, wedding announcements are mailed to people who were not invited to your ceremony and/or reception. Unfortunately, many couples aren't sure who should receive announcements, how to write the content for the announcements ...

Wording Rules for Wedding Invitations | Wording your wedding invitations appropriately is very important, especially if you are having a formal or traditional wedding or if you had help covering the costs of your ceremony and reception. A few decades ago, wording wedding invitations was very straightforward ...

Is Your Wedding Invitation the Place for a Company Logo | In today’s fast-paced world, both grooms and brides are often climbing their way to the tops of their careers. For some couples, their careers may be such a huge part of their lives that almost everything else takes a backseat. These couples may wonder if they can include their company’s logo ...

Mailing Wedding Invitations | The day you mail your wedding invitations will be both exciting and anxious. The moment you send those invitations out into the world you'll know that you only have between six to eight more weeks to wait before ...

Hand-Deliver Wedding Invitations Etiquette | So the big day is coming up and you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you. Your wedding day, is after all, one of the most important days in your life. So you want everything to be perfect, which means that every detail needs to be considered. One of the first major steps you’ll need to take is to prepare the invitations ...

Sending Wedding Invitations Overseas | Not so many years ago, most couples’ wedding invitations rarely went further than their own state, except for maybe a few relatives who had moved away. Today, however, wedding invitations are sent all over the country because people not only travel more but they can more easily stay connected with friends and family members ...

Addressing Wedding Invitation Envelopes | While choosing the wording for the invitations may be the more challenging, you should still use care when addressing the invitation envelopes. After all, the way the envelopes are addressed is going to give your potential guests important ...

Wedding Thank You Cards | After all of the excitement of your wedding day is over, you'll have to sit down and start writing out those wedding thank you cards. Sure, it's a huge task but it's also a necessary one. And one you should begin planning for months before ...

Wedding Invitations Recipient Psychology | What will your guests think the moment they open your envelope and get a first glimpse of the wedding invitations you’ve decided to send out as a representation of your wedding? That’s an important question, especially when you consider how much the people on the guest ...

Bridal Shower Invitations Etiquette | Bridal showers are a chance for all of the bride’s friends and family members to get together and have a more informal celebration before the ceremony. Before you start inviting guests though, there are a few more pointers about bridal shower etiquette ...

Rehearsal Dinner Etiquette | If you’re having a formal rehearsal dinner, you need to brush up on your dining etiquette. Because most of us don’t get a chance to practice the etiquette skills we’ve learned (and many of us may never have learned them at all), it’s important to review some of the proper ways ...

Should My Wedding Invitations be E-Invitations? | Today, most of us check our e-mail at least once a day and wouldn't know how to stay up-to-date with the fast paced world without our computers. Our dependence on the convenience of the Internet and technology might make it seem obvious that sending ...

Should My Wedding Invitations be On CD? | All couples want their wedding to be something unique. Maybe they choose to have the wedding inside a cave or in a hot air balloon. Maybe they choose to dress up in Halloween costumes instead of dresses and tuxedos during the ...

Incorporating Humor to Your Wedding Invitations | Weddings are sometimes thought to be very serious events. In fact, couples often take themselves so seriously and become so upset by the smallest details that they can lose sight of the importance of the ceremony itself. However, there are no etiquette ...

Is It Necessary To Have Bilingual Wedding Invitations? | As the world becomes more connected thanks to the Internet and the global marketplace and as countries become more diverse, our wedding ceremonies are becoming more likely to stray into other cultures. For example, some couples have opted ...

Wedding Invitation Cartoon and Caricature Drawings | When you think of wedding invitations, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a very formal card in a neutral color with a message written in a very elegant script. You probably never imagined having a cartoon version of yourselves or of other characters ...

Other Etiquette & Ideas

Ordering Wedding Invitations | Ordering wedding invitations is an important part of your wedding planning. In fact, you should begin thinking about the style of invitations you want as soon as you begin setting a date and choosing ...

Choosing Fonts for Wedding Invitations | When you begin making choices about your invitations, you'll probably first be thinking about the design, the paper color, the ink color, etc. Chances are the one thing you won't give much consideration to is the ...

Self-Mailer Invitations | One of the most exciting and scariest days of your wedding planning will be when you go to the post office to mail all of your wedding invitations. After you drop those invitations in the box, you’ve passed one of the big moments and you know that in just a few weeks ...

Easy, Fill-in-the-blank Invitations | Whether you’re planning a bridal shower, birthday party, or Christmas bash, you probably know all too well how complicated party planning can be. You need to choose refreshments, entertainment, a guest list, a location, and so on. With so many decisions, wouldn’t it be nice if ...

The Do’s and Don’ts of Wedding Invitations | When you're planning your invitations, there are some things you should definitely do and some things you should definitely not do. Here are some tips to help you avoid making mistakes ...

Wedding Invitations from an Existing Family | When most wedding etiquette rules were written, couples were walking down the aisle without having their own children in the bridal party or sitting in the pews. Today, things are much different. Not only are many couples starting their families before saying “I do,” but blended families and second marriages are increasingly ...

Your Wedding Invitations Gone Wild! | Most brides and grooms think of their wedding as being extremely formal – almost to the point of being dull. You have to wear stuffy clothing. You have to invite people you really don’t know all that well. You have to spend hours inside a potentially uptight location. On top of all that, you have to send out plain invitations. While those things ...

Wedding Invitations Wording Ideas with Poems

Unique Rhymes for Wedding Invitations | Couples are always looking for ways to make their wedding invitations something special. It only makes sense. This is your special day – a day you’ve been waiting for your entire life and that you’ve been planning for months – so you want your invitations to really make a statement for your recipients. Although there are a number of ways ...

Writing Wedding Blog | Blogs have become an increasingly popular way for people to share information about their lives with a huge online audience. And since so many people are interested in weddings, particularly the challenges of planning a wedding, having a wedding blog makes sense. Whether you want your blog to be geared towards your family and friends or you want to help other ...

Wedding Invitations Etiquette Knowledge, Test Your Skills

Test Your Basic Knowledge of Wedding Invitations Etiquette | Are you getting ready for a wedding? Are you confident that you know the rules of etiquette regarding your wedding invitations? Are you concerned about making a mistake that might embarrass you and your family when your invitations are ...

Test Your Advanced Knowledge of Wedding Invitations Etiquette | Wedding invitation etiquette may not seem as exciting as trying on wedding dresses or tasting wedding cake flavors, but it’s just as important. Sure, you might make some minor mistakes that wouldn’t even be noticed. However, etiquette ...

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Wedding Invitations Etiquette

Etiquette rules are plentiful, even in modern times. It is difficult to keep remember them all, especially when it comes to wedding invitations. Following are the most important wedding invitation etiquette rules to remember.

Who to Invite

Weddings are deeply personal events, and you have the right to invite anyone and everyone, or just family and a few close friends. When it comes to making your guest list, it is important to remember that only people you plan to invite to your wedding should be invited to wedding-related events like bridal showers.

Before you make any official decisions as to the size of your wedding, make a master list of all possible guests. The groom and his family should brainstorm and make a comprehensive list, as well as the bride. This way, you won’t inadvertently leave out someone special. Once you have the master list, start narrowing. Even if the number isn’t as high as you thought it might be, consider each name and decide if you really want her presence at your special day. In general, you can’t invite just one side of your family unless there are really unique circumstances.

If your wedding will be very small, and you have some single friends on the list, your invitation should just list her name. This indicates that you are not inviting that friend to bring a guest. If you get questioned, just politely explain that your budget won’t allow extra people.

When to Send Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitations should be in the mail six to eight weeks prior to the wedding. This gives guests time to receive and respond to your wedding invitation promptly and allows you time to organize your responses.

When you order your wedding invitations and response cards, calculate back three weeks and put that date as the RSVP deadline. This will give you time to do a final headcount and track down those wayward guests who haven’t brushed up on their RSVP etiquette and failed to respond. Unfortunately, this will happen more often than you might expect. Feel free to enlist help from your bridal party to call unresponsive guests.

How to Address Wedding Invitations

If it isn’t too much more expensive to have a return address preprinted on your outer envelopes, then you may want to purchase this option. This will save you from doing it yourself and will match the wedding invitation font. Just decide who will be responsible for receiving response cards, whether it’s the bride, the groom’s mother, or the bride’s mother.

When addressing your wedding invitations, either hire a calligrapher or enlist help from friends or family with neat handwriting. Unfortunately, computer-generated labels aren’t considered good etiquette for the address label.

In general, when addressing wedding invitations, one wedding invitation is sent per household. This includes married couples with different last names and unmarried couples who are cohabitating. The exception is friends who also room together. They are not a couple and should receive separate wedding invitations. If you want an adult-only wedding, your friends with children should take the hint when they only read their two names on the response card, instead of the whole family.

Keeping these wedding invitation etiquette rules in mind will help the process go smoothly and help avoid hurt feelings or misunderstandings.