Confused about the etiquette associated with wedding invitations? For example, how should they be addressed? When should you mail them? Do you also need to send “save the dates”? You’re not alone. When so many rules and misconceptions abound, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the task. But relax, here’s a quick list of invitation do’s and don’ts to keep you on track.

Do design and order your invitations 3-6 months prior to your wedding date.

Do mail out your invitations 6-10 weeks prior to your wedding date.

Don’t forget to order extra envelopes. When addressing your envelopes, you’re bound to make a few mistakes, such as misspelling someone’s name or accidentally using an old address. Make sure to have extras on hand.

Do include this information in your invitations: Hosts’ names (parents, the engaged couple or both, including titles, first, middle and last names), date and time, location city/state, and RSVP address and deadline (if you’re not including separate, stamped reply cards).

Don’t include attire or registry information on your formal wedding invitation. Save these details for your wedding website instead.

Do proofread your invitations prior to ordering them. Make sure to carefully read and re-read your invitations to catch any mistakes. Have a friend review them as well – a fresh set of eyes may catch something you missed.

Do address outer envelopes with your guests’ formal titles first and last names (Mr. and Mrs. John Robert Smith).

Do address inner envelopes with your guests’ titles and last names (Mr. and Mrs. Smith). Then list children’s names by first and last name.

Don’t address an invitation to only one person in a married couple. Include both names on the invitation, even if you only know one of them personally.

Do address invitations to unmarried couples to both people’s titles, first and last names. For single guests, address their inner envelopes with the person’s title, first and last name and the phrase “and Guest”.

Do remember to include reply cards, so you can keep track of your guest count. Your RSVP date should be 2-3 weeks from your wedding date, so you have plenty of time to update your venue on your final headcount and minimize any last-minute stragglers.

Don’t forget to include postage (choose Forever stamps, if possible, to avoid any unforeseen postal rate increases). Weigh your completed invitation beforehand to determine the correct postage. Also ensure that your reply envelope size doesn’t require special extra postage. On a strict budget?  Consider adding a line to your invitations that allow guests to RSVP online instead.

Do send out save-the-dates if your plan on a long engagement, destination wedding or plan to invite several out-of-town guests who’ll need plenty of time to make travel arrangements.

Don’t bother with save-the-dates if you plan on a short engagement or your wedding date is less than six months away.

Do invite anyone who attended your engagement party or wedding showers. It’s rude to invite guests to a pre-wedding event but not the actual wedding.

Today’s post comes courtesy of our friends at Next Day Flyers. They’ve got some helpful tips on place card holder and save-the-date savings — so pay attention!

So is your fiancée running around like crazy trying to plan every last detail of the upcoming wedding? Of course she is. She wants everything to be perfect. But that’s why you love her right?  Perhaps you could help her out with a detail or two.  It will make both your lives much more pleasant. Start with the printing needs. There’s a great online printer, Next Day Flyers, who is offering folded business cards which work great as place card holders.  The best part about ordering these cards is the low price tag. As we all know any product related to weddings is automatically given a higher price tag. A bit of a wedding markup is always factored in. These folded business cards however aren’t specifically marketed as wedding place card holders. They are nonetheless a card that’s the exact same size as a place holder but given a different name.  Thus you’re not stabbed in the gut with the high price tag. You can get a set of 100 for less than $40, which should help keep you aligned with your budget.

If you haven’t sent out save the date announcements yet, once again you should avoid going to printing companies specializing in wedding needs. Just find an online printing company offering postcards. The bigger name printers will have a tool on their site to allow you to create and design your announcement online. How hard is it to upload a photo of you and your significant other, add a personalized message and order? It’s not hard at all, and it doesn’t have to be expensive either.  A set of 100 4”x6” postcards can be purchased for less than $25.  So before your wife-to-be starts nagging you even further, take some initiative and get a couple things done. It will help her out, and you’ll come out looking like a hero.

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This post presented by Next Day Flyers.

Guys: are you getting involved with the design and printing of the wedding or rehearsal dinner invitations? Share your printing experience in the comment section below.

Let’s face it, sports are a huge part of the lives of many men. Personally, there isn’t a weekend that goes by that I don’t watch at least two or three sporting events in their entirety. We’ve always been huge proponents of grooms incorporating their team spirit into the wedding day. However, this isn’t always as easy as its sounds. If your colors, theme and venue have already been decided upon, where else is there to go? Enter: SportsThemedWeddings.com.

NHL Hockey Themed Wedding Invitations

This fantastic website creates custom designed sports wedding invitations and wedding programs. Their personalized invitations feature a photo of the bride and groom designed into the familiar ticket style for sporting events. Section, row and seat are replaced by date, month and year. A portion of the ticker, errr invite, can even be torn off so that your guests can easily RSVP. It’s one of the most clever wedding invites we’ve come across.

With the gameday program, you’re given the option to use several photos in the design. It also gives you an outlet to list the names of people who will be sharing in your big day. These names range from parents, readers and wedding party members. In other words, it takes the place of the boring wedding programs you’re used to seeing and replaces it with a man-tastic guide chock full of team spirit. Click here for an example.

A few favorite program/invite designs from SportsThemedWeddings.

If you’re fiancée is looking for a more traditional wedding invitation, never fear. Rehearsal dinners and bachelor parties are also manly events that require an invite. Or there’s even the possibility of choosing a non-sports related theme. SportsThemedWeddings has recently begun expanding into designs including movies, goth, gangsters, Star Wars and more. Just like wedding planning, this is all about the creativity and customization that best fits the couple. This is your wedding day… make it one that you and your guests will always remember!

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Grooms, which team would you feature on your ticket invites? Brides, would you be willing to use a sports-themed wedding invitation? Discuss in the comments section below.

disclosure: sportsthemedweddings.com is a sponsor of the man registry’s groomsadvice blog

As a serial entrepreneur, I’m a huge supporter of start-up companies. It takes real guts to go out on a limb and start a company in today’s financial climate — especially with no guarantee of stability in the economy. There’s no shortage of innovative companies on the rise in many industries,  — but what really interests me is discovering start-ups in the world of weddings.

This brings me to Greenvelope.com. Greenvelope is the brainchild of Sam Franklin — a student at Washington University in St. Louis that decided a heavy college workload at a prestigious university wasn’t enough. He also wanted to start a company. I dig that outlook on entrepreneurship and I also dig his idea: a personalized approach to paperless wedding invitations.

Introducing Greenvelope.com

Greenvelope provides clients an environmentally-friendly service to easily customize and send formal wedding invitations electronically (via e-mail). They offer three packages — including the free “bronze” package for your Save-the-Date cards.

To help celebrate their launch, Greenvelope is offering our readers a 25% discount on their two most popular packages. Users entering the coupon code “themanregistry” will receive:

• 25% off the Silver or Gold Package
• New Package or Upgrade eligible.
• Good for 3 Months
• Unlimited Use – Can even be used for multiple events within the same account.
• VIP support and guidance.

A sampling of what Greenvelope offers..

Greenvelope is easy to use because it was designed with the user-experience in mind. A few of our favorite features are:

• No ads! – Greenvelope takes electronic invitations to the next level, by introducing an unexplored level of formality: ad-free wedding invitations. Guests do not see pop-ups, ad banners, or receive spam.
• Organization – Your guest list will be easy to keep organized with the simple management tools that Greenvelope provides. Users are instantly notified when a guest RSVP’s, and the guest list updates automatically to show any changes.

For the full list of features, click here.

We hope that you’ll check out Greenvelope.com. For further information, you can follow them on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook.

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Readers – what do you think of Greenvelope? Would you consider going paperless with your wedding invitations and save-the-dates? In what other areas of wedding planning are you going green? Let us know in the comments.

Is it time to ditch the traditional wedding invitation? OneWed doesn't think so.

By Guest Blogger: OneWed.com

I’m generally seen as a pretty environmentally friendly person. I have a compost in my backyard, all of my light bulbs are CFS, I recycle. I’m also by new means a Luddite. I mean, I work for a website for crying out loud!

But, I have a weakness: paper invitations. I love real, paper wedding invitations. I love the excitement of getting an invitation in the mail. I love the feel of the invitation, the way it tells you about the upcoming invitation. I love that wedding invitations are one way that artists can make a living!

I’m a big fan of Evite and similar sites for everyday gatherings, a potluck, a get together, a kid’s birthday party. I LOVE that OneWed lets guests RSVP directly on your website.

But a wedding is something special, something unique and in this day of text messages, Facebook events and yes, Evites, sending out an actual honest-to-goodness wedding invitation means something. It means it’s a special event, a time to slow down and do things a little differently. It means that you can’t say “Maybe” I’ll be there, you actually have to commit to coming.

So, go green and go high-tech, but don’t ditch the paper invites quite yet.

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Brides and grooms, what sort of wedding invitations will you be sending out? Wedding professionals, have you noticed a drop in the number of actual paper invitations sent out? Discuss.