Today I want to talk to you about information cards … not the most thrilling subject I know but something you are probably going to have to think about at some point if you are planning your wedding and planning on sending out invitations! We’re in exactly this position currently whilst planning our wedding for next year … I would kind of like to get our invitations out around September / October time so I’ve started to put together a design for our invitations and subsequently work on what information we need to give guests in our information cards.
These days I have very few couples who order wedding invitations without needing to give their guests a whole raft of information which they need to know, and so information cards have become almost a must! Of course their is the option of putting all of this information on a wedding website and then just having a small line at the bottom of your invitation directing them to said website. However do bear in mind that some older guests might not be that internet savvy and some people are also just lazy and won’t bother looking! So I’m definitely going to send information cards in with my invitations as well as a website to direct guests to.
So then I’ve started thinking about what I need to include. Obviously I have a bit of a head start being a wedding stationer as I know what is normally included as the basics and what many of my clients have included as ‘extras’ … but of course every wedding is individual and so the information you need to provide to your guests is individual as well. The very least I would advise putting on an information card or website is :
- The full address of the venue including postcode ( there often won’t be room for this on the invitation )
- Brief Directions – this doesn’t need to be the full google maps directions, but an idea for guests as the last little bits of the route which might be complicated is always good. You’ll often find a shortened directions on your venues website so sometimes they will have done the work for you!
- Gifts – even if you don’t want any many guests will assume that you do and so some indication of whether you have a gift list, are accepting honeymoon contributions, charity contributions or if you really don’t want anything at all is a must.
- Accommodation – these days many people are not getting married in their home town where all their friends and relatives live so a few accommodation ideas is fantastic.
Then of course there are things which you might want to put on which aren’t necessarily essential but may really help your guests, depending on your venue of course …
- Taxi numbers – if guests will need to pre-book taxis in advance if they are not staying on site.
- Dress Code – you might not have one but it may be an idea at the very least to put ‘no jeans or trainers’ if you don’t want guests turning up in smart jeans and a shirt etc.
- Car Parking – if your venue has a specific place to park or any other parking restrictions then let your guests know.
- Map – as well as directions you may decide to include a useful little map to give guest a better idea of where the entrance to the venue is etc. I’m hand drawing a little map for my information cards and have done so for a few clients in the past.
I’ve now started to also write a list of things which are very specific to my venue as well. Our venue hasn’t got a cash machine on site and is pretty rural so I need to let my guest know to bring cash with them. You might want to let guest’s know about anything else you are inviting them to over the weekend … are you having a get together on the Friday night or breakfast or lunch on the Sunday if its a weekend wedding ?
If you haven’t put it on the invitation card it might be an idea to include in your information card a time you expect them to arrive before the ceremony. Normally the time on the invite will be the time the ceremony starts so if you want your guests to be there at least half an hour before you might want to mention this.
I’m also giving my guests a bit of advance warning that we will be having a ‘unplugged ceremony’ and we don’t want to anyone to be using cameras or phones during the ceremony. I would hate to walk down the isle and just see people’s phones in front of their faces rather than the people I love smiling. It makes me pretty upset even thinking about it – and I’m also sure that our photographer doesn’t want people’s phones / cameras / tablets in shot either!
Wow I’ve got quite a lot to finalise and think about for our information cards … hopefully this has given you a bit of a heads up as to what to include too! Just one last word though – bear in mind that you will often only get 1 double sided information card included as standard in a lot of invitation suites so go in realising that if you do add on any of this extra information you may well have to add on a little to the cost for an extra information card.
Nikki x