I’ve had a little flurry of enquiries recently for weddings happening during Winter/early Spring this coming year! And, it got me thinking that I should probably just put a little bit of insight out there on the world wide web, to when you should actually order your bespoke wedding invitations.
If bespoke is the route for you, here’s my little bit of guidance on when to actually order them…
WHEN SHOULD YOU ENQUIRE?
There’s a lot of advice out there as to when you should send them (we normally recommend between 4 and 6 months prior to your wedding, depending on whether you’ve done save the dates). However, there is little advice out there, if you want to go down the bespoke design route, to when you should order them.
9 to 12 MONTHS IN ADVANCE OF YOUR WEDDING
Short and sweet; you should be contacting your chosen supplier (i.e. me in this case *wink wink*, *nudge nudge*) about 9 months to a year in advance of your wedding.
If you’ve decided you would like a custom design and handmaking service for your invites, there is a considerable amount more time to take into consideration.
“EEK! BUT WHAT IF I HAVE LESS THAN ONE YEAR? IS IT TOO LATE TO ENQUIRE?"
Not at all! Absolutely, still get in touch, even if you have less than 9 months. You should always check the availability of your supplier, as it depends on our own current workload and to a certain extent, how complicated the design is.
I totally get it, sometimes life takes over and you’re suddenly four months away from your big day and you’re thinking “argh, I need my invites!” Hence, many people panic buy online and end up with something not being what they wanted.
I had a bride come to me recently because she’d bought some invitations online and she was so unhappy with them when they arrived, that she was too embarrassed to send them to her guests; luckily, we had time to sort them out, but what a huge waste of money for them.
THE TIMELINE
From placing an order, the initial design process can take between 4-12 weeks depending on the season and your supplier’s individual availability. Then when you factor in needing to send your invitations 6 months in advance; boom! Here we are at nine months to a year before your big day.
For invitation suppliers, you will also need to consider that if you are getting married in Summer 2023, we invitation suppliers are going to be pretty darn busy in January 2023, as this is when a lot of invitations will be handmade, ready for couples to send to their guests. So, we will have started that consultation and initial design process during Summer/Autumn 2022… in an ideal world.
There is plenty of opportunity to make any amendments during the design process. The print and delivery process (with lots of handmaking in between) can take anywhere between 2-6 weeks depending on how complicated the printing and handmaking process is.
BOOKING
If you would like to explore having your invitations custom designed and made. Please follow the quote request link here www.doveandlace.co.uk/quoterequest and I will be in touch to schedule our initial consultation.
Thank you for reading, Katy <3