Wedding Invitations: Everything a Guest Needs, and How to Send It

Wedding invitations are the messages that tell your guests who is getting married, when it happens, where they need to be and how to reply. The design, wording, timing and budget all exist to make that one message land clearly. Get the facts right and the pretty part becomes easy; get them wrong and you spend the last month answering the same question by text. This page maps the whole job, from the first decision to the final reply count.

• Five by seven inches, or 127 by 178 mm, is the size most wedding invitation envelopes and printers are built around.
• A complete wedding invitation carries six facts: names, date, time, venue, reply date and reply route; everything else is optional detail.
• Creating a wedding invitation on Onlivita is free with a free account, and the reply form, countdown, map and music all sit behind one link.

The month-by-month sequencing, including reminders and the week-of message most couples forget, sits in our timeline for when to send wedding invitations in the UK.

What every wedding invitation needs to include

A wedding invitation must state who is getting married, the date and time, the venue and how to reach it, plus a reply date and a way to respond.

Start with what a guest genuinely cannot guess: the names, the date, the ceremony time, and the venue with a postcode or map pin. If the reception happens somewhere else, say so on the same line. Then be explicit about children and plus-ones, because that one silence causes more awkward phone calls than any other detail.

Add the practical layer. A reply date, the route for replying, any menu choice you need back, and a dress code only if it matters. When guests are travelling, a map link does more work than a paragraph of directions.

Leave out the long story of how you met and the gift note buried mid-sentence. Those belong on a details page or a second card. Onlivita keeps the reply form, countdown, map and music behind one link, so the essential facts sit together instead of scattered across three pieces of paper.

Paper or digital wedding invitations: how to decide

Choose paper when the physical card is part of the experience, and digital when speed, cost and reliable replies matter more.

Paper still carries weight. Letterpress on thick stock, a wax seal, an envelope landing on a doormat — that ritual is real, and some couples build the whole stationery suite around it. Nobody needs to apologise for wanting that.

Digital invitations are properly paperless: no printing, no postage, no returns from a house a guest moved out of two years ago. Nothing needs reprinting when a venue changes, and replies arrive as recorded answers rather than texts you transcribe at midnight. We compare formats, animation styles and reply handling in our overview of digital invitations.

Plenty of couples now do both: a small paper run for parents and grandparents, a digital invitation for everyone else. That is distribution, not hierarchy. If you want the ceremony of a wax seal without the postage, our digital wedding invitation opens like a sealed envelope and keeps every reply in one place.

How to make wedding invitations: template, edit, test, send

Pick the format and a template first, change only the wording and colours you care about, then send a test to yourself before anything goes out.

Working in that order saves hours. Decide the format — single card, folded card, or a digital design — then the layout, then the words. Couples who start with wording usually rewrite it three times just to make it fit.

Customising means fonts, palette, one photograph, maybe a monogram. Resist adding five things. A guest reads an invitation in under ten seconds on a phone, and a busy layout slows that down.

Then test properly. Send the finished piece to your own phone, open it on mobile data, tap the map, submit a reply as though you were a guest. If it works for you, it will work for your aunt. Browse the themes if you want to see how different animation styles change the mood before you commit.

When should wedding invitations be sent?

Send wedding invitations six to eight weeks before the day for a wedding at home, and twelve weeks or more when guests must book flights.

Six to eight weeks is the working rule, with save-the-dates going out much earlier for anyone who needs to arrange leave or childcare. Venues usually want final numbers a week or two before the event, so count backwards from that date rather than forwards from today.

Destination weddings push everything earlier: twelve weeks or more, plus a note about passports, transfers and the booking deadline. The month-by-month sequencing, including reminders and the week-of message most couples forget, sits in our timeline for when to send wedding invitations in the UK.

What actually drives the cost of wedding invitations

The price is driven mainly by printing method, paper weight, quantity and extras such as envelopes, liners, calligraphy and postage.

Two couples can pay wildly different amounts for the same hundred guests. Letterpress and foil cost more than flat printing. Cotton stock costs more than smooth. Hand-addressed envelopes cost more than printed labels. Short runs also carry a setup cost per design, so doubling the quantity rarely doubles the bill.

Digital removes print, postage and reprints entirely, and creating an invitation on Onlivita is free once you have a free account. The real budget question is how much stationery you want to hold in your hands. Our article How Much Do Wedding Invitations Cost breaks the numbers down, from printing method to postage.

Buying in Britain shifts the figures again after VAT and postal rates, which is why there is a separate realistic UK cost breakdown for anyone ordering from a British printer.

Wedding invitation sizes and formats

The standard wedding invitation is 5x7 inches, or 127 by 178 mm, with A5, A6 and square formats used for larger suites and enclosures.

Five by seven inches is the size most envelopes and printers are built around, which is why so many designs default to it. A5 gives you room for two languages or a longer ceremony detail. A6 suits a single simple card. Square formats look modern but can cost more to post.

Digital has its own dimensions and you should design for a phone screen first: vertical, large type, buttons far enough apart to tap without pinching. Our size guide covers paper dimensions and digital screens side by side, including what happens to a wide horizontal design on a narrow phone.

Wording your invitation for every kind of celebration

Invitation wording should match the tone of the day and the relationship, while keeping names, date, venue and reply date in the same predictable order.

Traditional phrasing still works: host names, a request for the pleasure of your company, the couple, the date. It also reads stiff for a barn party with a pizza truck. Choose the register first — formal, warm, or plainly funny — then fill in the blanks.

Watch the small words. "Together with their families" covers everyone; naming only parents can unintentionally exclude people who helped pay. And keep the reply date on the invitation itself, not only on a second card that gets separated from it.

Second marriages, blended families, civil ceremonies and multi-faith days each need slightly different phrasing. Our wording examples for every kind of celebration walk through each case if you want ready-made sentences to borrow.

Invitations for a wedding abroad

A destination wedding invitation has to add travel and accommodation detail, a booking deadline and an honest note on who pays for what.

Guests need the airport, the transfer, the hotel block and the deadline for both. Set the reply date earlier than feels comfortable, because flights only get more expensive as the date approaches.

Be honest about money. If guests cover their own room, say it plainly on the invitation rather than letting them discover it later. Our guide to destination wedding invitations UK sets out what to include and when to send, including the pre-travel message most couples forget.

Managing replies without losing your mind

Track every reply against a numbered guest list and set your reply date at least two weeks before the venue needs final numbers.

Chasing replies is the least romantic part of planning and the part that can sour the last fortnight. Number your guest list, note who was invited with whom, and check the count once a week rather than every hour.

A digital reply form does the counting for you: answers land in one place with meal choices and dietary notes attached. With paper you are copying texts into a spreadsheet at midnight. Either way, send one reminder a week before the deadline and one on the day itself.

Then confirm numbers, seating and place cards from that same list. When the invitation link is the single source of truth, this step takes minutes instead of an evening.

A last check before your invitations go out

Before sending, read the invitation aloud, check the spelling of names and the venue, and confirm the reply route works on a phone.

Run through the list: both names spelled correctly, the year written out, the venue postcode right, the reply date present, the plus-one rule clear, the dress code only if needed, and every link tested on a phone. One deliberate read-through catches most of it.

Keep a plain-text version of the details for anyone who asks by message. Not everyone will open an animated link on a work computer, and a short summary saves a whole conversation. It also helps guests who are arranging travel for several people at once.

If you want the ceremony of a wax seal without the postage, our digital wedding invitation opens like a sealed envelope and keeps every reply in one place.