The Difference Between Wedding Announcements and Wedding Invitations

Wedding announcements and wedding invitations serve different purposes and some thought needs to go into determining who receives which. There is much to do when planning a wedding and here are some helpful pointers to use when deciding who to include on each of your mailing lists.

Wedding Invitations are sent to friends and family members you would like to invite to attend the actual wedding ceremony. When planning your ceremony, it is a good idea to initially determine a list of those friends, family members and business associates you would like at the ceremony itself. Do remember to include the wedding party as well in your head count. This number will help you in determining the venue for your ceremony. Maybe the chapel is a better choice than the huge main sanctuary, for example, if you are planning a church wedding. Or, maybe the main ballroom is not necessary if a smaller room will do.

When placing the order for your wedding invitations, remember to add a few extra for unexpected additions to your list or in case you incorrectly address a few.

Wedding Announcements are sent to notify friends and family of your marriage if they did not receive wedding invitations. Announcements do not include details of the ceremony itself and are usually mailed on the day of the event. They are used for announcing your wedding to those you may not know well enough to invite to the ceremony or who may live too far away to attend. They are great for business associates or to let recipients know of your name change. They can also be sent to announce a wedding if you have eloped or if only a very small group was included in a destination wedding.

Just as formal as wedding invitations, wedding announcements let those important to you know that you have made it official and are usually ordered at the same time as your wedding invitations, and are printed in like style. As with wedding invitations, order a few extra just in case.

Wedding Reception Invitations offer a third alternative for celebrating your wedding and often call for separate forms of notification. Reception cards are most widely used to invite attendees and share details of the reception and are included in the wedding invitation. Normally all guests invited to the ceremony are also invited to the following reception. However, for more intimate ceremonies, it is possible that a larger group is invited to the reception separately. For this, a formal wedding reception invitation is appropriate. These too are printed and ordered at the same time as the invitations and announcements.

Regardless of whether someone is on your wedding invitation, wedding announcement or wedding reception list, be sure you keep all three lists up to date. Avoid embarrassment by forgetting to include someone or by sending them the wrong invitation. And, keep several of each on hand for memory books.