You’re planning the most important day of your life - getting completely excited about buying the dress, choosing your rings and picking a honeymoon - but when do you do everything? Is there a particular order? Should you choose your flowers before your invitations or after? Most wedding magazines have countdown checklists covering all the details for your day, but here’s some tips on when you should order your stationery.

If you want your wedding stationery to co-ordinate with your colour scheme or flowers, you should make these decisions before choosing your stationery design. Talk to your florist about what flowers are in season for your wedding, choose colours for your bridesmaid dresses, appreciate the colours and style of the venue where you will be holding the reception so nothing will clash.

You will need to have all the details of the day confirmed before placing an order - the more prepared you are, the easier and less stressful the process will be:
Have you confirmed timings with your church and reception venue?
Have you discussed wording with both your groom and if needed, both sets of parents? Do they want it worded traditionally or can you be more informal?
Have you drawn up a guest list so you know what quantity to order?
If you are having the guests’ names typeset on the invites, is the guest list approved by all parties?
Are you having a dress code?
How are you going to describe your reception - an evening reception, dinner and dancing, ?

If you are wanting to give extra information to your guests either on the invitation or on a separate card you will also need:
Your wedding list details (reference number, contact tel. number of store etc)
Travel details - directions by road, and rail to the Church and venue (including a map if necessary)
Accommodation recommendations - nearby hotels you think are suitable, perhaps with preferential rates
Taxi numbers - if your venue is isolated and taxis are hard to come by

The Basics
You should try to order your wedding invitations about 3 months before the wedding date, and send the invitations out about 8 weeks before the wedding, so your guests can reply
(TIP: If you are getting married near Christmas, or near a popular tourist location you may want to send them out sooner so your guests can book hotels)

You’ll need to order one invitation per couple or single person (with a few extras for late additions)

You should be able to order your stationery in 2 stages, initially the invitations and reply cards, and later the Order of Service, menus etc giving you time to confirm all the details (you still need to order these atleast 4 weeks before the wedding)