Royal Wedding Invites

Back in February, an invitation to the Royal Wedding was the most sought after invite in town. No… make that, the world.

Celebrities were practically lining up outside the palace to let the happy couple know they’d like to attend their big day and in the end, 2,000 chosen ones heard the thud of the thick 8”x10” card land on their doorstep.

Despite the die-stamped, burnished crest and beveled, gilded edges, the royal wedding invite design was surprisingly orthodox for a couple earmarked to take the royal household in to the next era. However, classic and elegant it certainly was, and it got us thinking about invites.

Have you ever had an invitation to something that was really appealing and then the event itself disappointed somewhat?  Or vice-versa where the invite undersold the event which turned out to be a showstopper?

Whether it’s a personal party for a birthday, wedding anniversary or family celebration, through to a business event for tens, hundreds or thousands of people, getting the design right is crucial to getting bums on seats (especially if you haven’t quite got the ‘Kate and Wills’ appeal to rely on.)

Decide how much you need to reveal about the event to get people there but without spoiling the anticipation and the element of surprise on the day itself. First impressions really count here and if you are potentially competing with other events, then you need to create stand-out. Keep things simple but give your target audience a taste of things to come.

It’s very rare to host an event without needing to know the number of attendees beforehand.  Therefore make sure it is easy for people to reply: include a direct telephone number, perhaps set up an event-friendly email address such as party@solopress.co.uk. (Sorry this isn’t an official email address – you’ll be top of our list when we’re celebrating though!) Could people reply via Twitter or Facebook – both of these methods work well if you want to spread the word widely to generate more attendees but not so good if you need to tightly control numbers.

Dietary or special needs for people with disabilities should also be taken in to account: good hosts will give attendees an easy way to brief them about any specific requirements they may have.

If your event goes well, you may want to continue the party or function well in to the night but all good things must come to an end.  Providing guests with an estimate of the finishing time will avoid any embarrassing conversations during the event with guests competing for taxis or waiting around for their lift at the end. If you go in for old-fashioned etiquette, you might write ‘Carriages at 11pm’ but the rest of us would just say ‘From 8pm until 11pm’.

Finally, it may seem blindingly obvious but we’ve had plenty of customers who’ve printed invites which are missing some of the absolute basics.

Please check that you’ve included the date (day name and number to avoid any confusion), the start time, venue address and contact details for RSVP (including RSVP deadline date). The other information can be left to personal preference but without these basics, you might not be hosting the well-attended event you’d planned. That’s one problem William and Kate don’t have to worry about!

If you’re having a street party on Friday, have a great time and enjoy the bank holiday weekend. Good luck William and Kate. Your invites received so much media coverage, we can’t even begin to imagine how much interest there is going to be in every single tiny detail of your nuptials tomorrow.