---
title: 'Planning the invitations'
description: 'When to send, what to decide first, and how the pieces of an invitation fit around the day itself.'
source: 'https://envelope.love/blog/planning'
guides: '9'
---

# Planning the invitations.

When each piece happens and what has to be decided before it can. Dates, deadlines, and the order things go out in.

This is the plain markdown copy of https://envelope.love/blog/planning, published by Love Envelope for machine readers. The page itself carries the same words.

- [Writing an order of the day your guests will actually read](https://envelope.love/blog/order-of-the-day.md): Six lines, real times, and the two moments people most need. Plus the difference between the running order you need and the one they need.
- [The invitation checklist, from first draft to last reply](https://envelope.love/blog/invitation-checklist.md): Everything that has to be decided, in the order it has to be decided, so nothing is waiting on anything else.
- [Save the date or invitation: which to send, and when](https://envelope.love/blog/save-the-date-or-invitation.md): They do different jobs and only one of them is compulsory. When a save the date is worth it, when it is a wasted send, and what goes on each.
- [How many guests to invite, and how many will come](https://envelope.love/blog/how-many-guests-to-invite.md): The decline rate nobody tells you about, how to invite more people than you have seats for, and when that goes wrong.
- [When to send your invitations](https://envelope.love/blog/when-to-send-wedding-invitations.md): Save the date at twelve months, invitations at three, replies at six weeks. What each deadline is actually protecting, and how to fix a late start.
- [A twelve month invitation timeline](https://envelope.love/blog/invitation-timeline-twelve-months.md): Every stationery decision in the order it has to happen, from the guest list to the last reply, with the deadlines that are real.
- [Wedding website or invitation: what goes where](https://envelope.love/blog/wedding-website-or-invitation.md): Two documents, two jobs. What belongs on the invitation, what belongs somewhere it can be changed, and why most couples only need one of them.
- [Choosing a date, and what it quietly does to your guest list](https://envelope.love/blog/choosing-a-date.md): The day of the week, the month and the weekend you pick change who can come, what it costs and how early you have to tell people.
- [Planning a day in three months](https://envelope.love/blog/planning-in-three-months.md): A short engagement changes the order of everything. What to do first, what to drop, and how to get invitations out this week.

## Other subjects

- [Invitation wording](https://envelope.love/blog/wording.md): What to actually write, with lines you can take as they are.
- [Invitation etiquette](https://envelope.love/blog/etiquette.md): Whose name goes where, who has to be invited, and how to say no kindly.
- [Sending the invitations](https://envelope.love/blog/sending.md): Getting it into a hundred hands without a trip to the post office.
- [Replies and head counts](https://envelope.love/blog/replies.md): Head counts, dietary needs, and the guests who never answer.
- [Invitation design](https://envelope.love/blog/design.md): How an invitation looks, and what that is quietly saying.
- [Invitations by occasion](https://envelope.love/blog/occasions.md): The other days that need an invitation, from the engagement to the fiftieth.

Make yours. Six designs, your own words, and one link to send. Free to build, free for a day once it is live. https://envelope.love/create