Wedding invitations - one of the first of many long and difficult decisions a bride and groom must make when planning for the big day! When embarking on the adventure of finding the perfect invitation, here are some tips and tricks to make the road smoother.

-Don't come alone. With pages and pages of invitations to search through, you are going to need some help. Bring one or two assistants along who understand the style you are looking for. This may be your fiance, mother, maid of honor, or someone else close to you. If you haven't set a firm buget for invitations, bring along the people footing the bill. This is guarenteed to save you an extra trip.

-Be prepared to spend some time. Set aside an hour or two specifically to look at invitations. Avoid Saturdays, as you may not have the opportunity to ask your questions to our event specialists due to traffic volume. Anytime during the week is a good time, as well as Thursday nights (we're open until 8:00 pm). Bring some coffee and make yourself comfortable; it is a long process!

-Have all your information ready before you come. Although you may not know exact wording, it is important to know dates, times, addresses, and spellings before you come. Our event specialists know specific invitation etiquette and will assist you with wording.

-Know ahead of time how many invitations you require. Do not make the mistake of ordering an invitation for every guest invited to the wedding! The approximate number of invitations you will need is calculated by the total guest list number divided by two. If you are inviting a lot of families or a lot of singles, you may want to go through your guest list and count the number of households. Remember to include extra invitations for keepsakes and errors. Invitations are sold in quantities of 25.

-Allow enough time for the invitations to come in. Generally, invitations will take 3-4 weeks from when you place the order. In that time, you will recieve a proof via email to make sure spelling is correct. If you do not require a proof, up to one week can be taken off the expected delivery date.

If you are interested in do-it-yourself invitations, Edmonton Wedding & Party Centre has invitation kits. These invitations are pre-cut and designed, all you have to do is feed them through your printer. They are a very cost effective option for such little work involved!