Your Essential Wedding Stationery Timeline & Checklists

Planning wedding stationery can be overwhelming, but with a well-organised timeline, you can ensure everything runs smoothly. This wedding invitation timeline has been developed to help New Zealand couples identify the important milestones to meet when planning, ordering and sending wedding stationery and invitations.

When You First Get Engaged

Congratulations on your engagement! If you're planning an engagement party, begin looking for suitable engagement party invitations. Holding an engagement party is a great opportunity to 'practice' organising an event, and you'll learn a lot from the process which will help with planning a wedding.

Speaking of a wedding, it is never too early to start thinking about your wedding stationery. If you want to be extra-organised, order a sample pack of wedding stationery to help making your card selections. The card options available are the same for Save the Dates and Engagement Party Invites so grab this early and get multiple uses out of it!

Your to do list for when you first get engaged

• Engagement Party Invitations: Finalise your engagement party details and send out invitations.
• Wedding Invitation Sample Pack: Order a set of samples so you have physical swatches on hand to help make your stationery decisions easier
• Wedding Planning Templates: Download our set of wedding planning templates for planning your guest list, tracking your wedding budget and more

12 Months Before the Wedding

With a wedding date set and around a year to go, it's time to:

• Collate your Wedding Guest List: Start compiling your guest list and gather as many addresses as possible to avoid last-minute chaos.
• Send Save the Dates: Place an order for save the dates. These can be sent anywhere between 18 months to 6 months before, but 10-11 months out is perfect. This gives your guests plenty of notice, especially for destination weddings.

More information on Save the Dates can be found here.

7-8 Months Before

If you have an idea for a unique wedding invitation design, custom wedding invitations are the way to go. The process for custom designs should start 7-8 months ahead of your wedding date. Your designer will work with you to develop and design a unique invitation suite from scratch.

More information on our custom design process is available here.

6 Months Before

With the countdown to your wedding beginning to speed up, you should order your wedding invitations - somewhere between four to six months before your wedding day. This gives you plenty of time to receive them from us and then to address the envelopes to send to your guests.

Figuring out details that go into your wedding invitations can be overwhelming. Our experienced NZ designers are here to help, and act a fresh set of eyes, an advisor and cheer-squad. We’ve got tactful wording ideas here to tackle any guest dramas upfront (like nixing Uncle Jim’s jeans, requesting cash without sounding rude, or asking that the kids stay at home).

Once you have placed your order online for your wedding invitations, you can expect delivery within two weeks. This allows time for you to check the wedding invitation draft we send you, for your invitations to be printed and then posted to you.

Your to do list for 6 months before your wedding

• Finalise Wedding Details that need to be communicated to Wedding guests: Finalise the essential information required to go onto your wedding invitations. You may want to share transportation arrangements, your gift registry/wishing well preferences and/or details for other wedding events such as the rehearsal dinner, a day-after brunch etc.
• Order Wedding Invitations: Order your wedding invitations and finalise your design. This ensures you have enough time to perfect the details.
• Approve your Wedding Invitation Design: You’ll receive an electronic draft mockup of your wedding invitation before it goes to print – so you can see how everything looks, and request any changes or tweaks. Up to two rounds of revisions are included.
• Review your Hard Copy Wedding Invitation Proof: (optional) If you’d like to receive a hard copy of your invitation, prior to approving it for printing, then order a printed proof.  This allows you to see a physical copy of the invitation, check the colour is what you expect, and the card is the right fit for the vision you have in mind.

3-4 Months Before

Wedding invitations are typically sent eight to twelve weeks before your wedding, but it's not unusual to receive a wedding invitation anywhere between six months to two months before a wedding.

If you've sent a Save the Date, you can get away with sending your invitations a bit closer to the wedding. If you haven't sent a Save the Date, get your wedding invitations out sooner so guests can make arrangements.

Your to do list for 3 months before your wedding

As the big day gets closer:

• Finalise your Wedding Invitations: Assemble, address, and send out your wedding invitations.
• Send your wedding invitations: More information on when to send your wedding invitations here.

6-8 Weeks Before

The closer you get to the wedding, the more detail you'll have, which means you can start planning for your day-of wedding stationery!

We don't need the details like guest names straight away, but knowing roughly what items you are requiring means we can ensure we have the applicable materials on hand - plus we block out the time in our schedule for your order, as day-of wedding items are a high priority.

Your to do list for 6 Weeks before your wedding

It's crucial to:

• Order Day-Of Stationery: Finalise the design for your day-of stationery and place the order, ensuring everything is ready apart from a few guest names you're still waiting on. Order name places, menus, seating plans, and any other day-of stationery items you need.
• Approve your Wedding Stationery Design: You’ll receive an electronic draft mockup of your wedding stationery before it goes to print – so you can see how everything looks, and request any changes or tweaks. Up to two rounds of revisions are included.
• Order your thank you cards now if you don't want photos on your thank you cards. You can then fill these out as gifts arrive, to save time after the wedding.
• Now would also be a good time to read through the Epic NZ Wedding Seating Planning Guide. You'll pick up a few handy hints for figuring out where guests should sit and how setting up on the day can be done quickly.

1 Month Before

Your to do list for 1 month before your wedding

With only a month left:

• Follow up on RSVPs: Touch base with family and friends who've omitted to RSVP, and chase them up.
• Finalise wedding stationery details: Send through all details with your designer and make any necessary adjustments to your orders.
• Sign off your wedding stationery: Make sure you're keeping an eye on your email and approve designs/make any changes promptly so we can get everything into print production for you.

2-3 Weeks Before

There is still more than enough time to design your stationery, get it back to you for review, make any changes, then setting up for print. But note that some printing methods take longer than others - for example canvas prints take 3 weeks - so we may encourage you to finalise some items earlier than others, just so we know everything is good to go in plenty of time.

Your to do list for 3 weeks before your wedding

As the wedding day approaches:

• Sign off your wedding stationery: If you haven't already, make sure you're keeping an eye on your email and approving designs promptly so we can get everything into print production for you.
• Prepare all your reception stationery: double-check that everything is in order. Make sure items like place cards, menus, and guest favours are packed and ready to go to the venue.
• Have you got everything? Review the Wedding Day-Of Stationery checklist below to ensure you've got everything under control

Wedding Day-of Stationery Checklist

1 week to go

We are very conscious of your wedding date, but you are welcome to check with us if you are feeling nervous. Orders are shipped on an overnight (South Island) or 2/3 day (North Island) service. Large format prints (signs/seating plans) can take a little longer because of their size.

Guest books, vow and speech books, wine labels plus other ready-to send products are not a problem to order within a week of your wedding. 

For stationery requiring customisation, get in touch for advice on what's possible in a short timeframe. There's typically an urgency fee associated with these expedited orders.

Don't leave it till the last minute if you can help it - we absolutely hate saying no, but hate to let you down with a late delivery even more. 

Your to do list for the week before your wedding

• Double check your wedding stationery: When your stationery arrives, open it up to ensure everything has made it to you in perfect condition. For seating plans and signage, re-wrap it into the packaging it came in so it stays in mint condition till your wedding day and during transport to your venue.
• Sort your wedding stationery for speedy setup: when you received your place cards and menus, sort the guest's names into the tables they are sitting at. Put each table set into a clear zip lock bag with its respective table number and any other stationery for the table. This makes setting up on the day much faster!

Up to a Year After the Wedding

After your wedding, you should:

• Thank You Cards: Send out wedding thank you cards within 2-3 months. Choose a wedding photo and finalise the thank you card wording. Promptly sending thank you cards ensures your guests feel appreciated and remembered.