WEDDING INVITATIONS: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHEN DO I NEED TO PLACE MY INVITATION ORDER?
We recommend you place your order 4-6 months before your event date to avoid any stress. That said, we very often take orders for events in 2-3 months. Please allow enough time for shipping (usually 5 business days) envelope addressing, stuffing, assembly, etc. Wedding invitations are typically mailed 6-8 weeks prior to the event.

HOW DO I PLACE AN ORDER?
The easiest way is to use our online order form. If you have any trouble with it, you can always contact us via email with the text for your invitations, the reply date, the return address, any color and fonts you like, and the number of invitations you'll need. Whew... that's a lot, we know, but from that we can create a full set of proofs for you and email them back within 1-2 business days. We provide one proof and 2 rounds of changes for free. Addiitonal rounds are billed at $25 each. Once we have a final proof, we send you an invoice linked to our secure online checkout, and we go to print.

HOW MANY INVITATIONS SHOULD I ORDER?
You'll need to count up how many invitations you'll need to mail out (not the number of guests invited), and then add at least 10-15% to that final number. We have a minimum order of 50 to reprint, so ordering extras is always a good idea, and can end up being a lot less expensive that re-ordering.

WHAT DATE SHOULD I USE ON MY RSVP CARDS?
We advise that you check with your caterer or reception location to find out when they need a final head-count. Then allow another week or two for any tardy RSVP's. Unless there are unusual circumstances, 3-4 weeks prior to the event is standard.

DO I NEED A RECEPTION CARD?
When the reception and ceremony are at different locations, it's traditional to include this information on a separate card. If the reception and ceremony share a site, there is no need for the extra insert. If only some guests are invited to the reception or to the ceremony, it’s mandatory to use separate invitations and reception cards. Finally, when your reception doesn’t immediately follow the ceremony, be sure to mention the time.

HOW SHOULD I MAIL MY INVITATIONS TO ENSURE THEY ARRIVE IN GOOD CONDITION?
The best way to mail your invitations is to bring them to your post office and ask that they be hand cancelled. This avoids them being put into a sorting machine which could cause damage. This is not to say that hand cancelling will avoid normal wear and tear on the envelopes, but it will ensure you've done everything you can to get them to your guests looking the way you'd like them to. We also highly recommend using vellum or tissue inserts which create a buffer between the invitation and insert cards while in transit. We cannot be responsible for amy damages caused to invitations and other paper goods by the postal service.

DO YOUR INVITATIONS REQUIRE EXTRA POSTAGE?
There isn't one answer for this question. Some do, some don't. Any square invitation will require extra postage. Most tea length invitations will not as they are mailed in what is considered a business sized envelope. The best rule is just to bring one into your post office and have it weighed and looked over by one of their representatives, especially because the post office rules change quite frequently. Please do not order or use postage before doing this as it can be costly in the end.

WHAT STAMPS DO YOUR POSTCARDS REQUIRE?
We can usually cut the postcards to fit USPS regulations so that they will take a postcard stamp.

DO YOU ACCEPT RUSH ORDERS?
Rush orders of invitations may be accepted on a case by case basis. At slower times of year, we're much more likely to be able to accommodate a request. A surcharge will be added to the cost of the order. The surcharge is dependent on printing method. We do not accept any orders needed in under one week, and reserve the right to accept or decline any request. We cannot accept rush orders shipping to international addresses due to transit times.

WHAT TYPE OF PAPER ARE YOUR INVITATIONS PRINTED WITH?
That depends on which printing method you are using.
Digital printing: Your choice of 130 lb. smooth cardstock in ivory or white, or, 80lb linen shimmer paper in champagne, pearl white or gold
Letterpress printing: ivory or white 300gsm Somerset 100% cotton paper. We can also special order 500gsm paper for an up charge.
Thermography and engraved printing: 3 ply heavy card stock in ivory or white. For engraved orders we also have cocoa, plum, black, navy, green and red.

DO YOU SEND SWATCH CARDS OUT WITH SAMPLES?
No. Each of our images takes to color a bit differently. Combine that with the fact that there are normal variations between print runs and printing machines, and a swatch card would not be able to universally reflect the actual final color of your order. For people who want to be very specific with coloring, we recommend letterpress, thermography or engraving as we are able to print using your Pantone number for a small charge. We are not able to match Pantone coloring for digital printing.

I AM TRYING TO HAVE A GREEN WEDDING. ARE YOUR INVITES ENVIROMENTALLY FRIENDLY?
Our Somerset papers (used for letterpress) are 100% cotton and tree free. They also do not uses chlorine bleaches. Our thermography and engraving papers are made partially from cotton and partially from recycled materials.

DO YOU OFFER OTHER MATCHING PAPER ITEMS TO MY INVITATIONS?
Yes. we offer save the dates, programs, menus, place cards, seating cards, table numbers, brunch invitations, at home cards, and thank you note sets to coordinate with most of our invitations.

DO YOUR INVITATIONS COME WITH INNER AND OUTER ENVELOPES?
Yes. For most standard sized invitations, we can provide inner envelopes.

DO YOU HAVE LINED ENVELOPES? Yes. We have them to match our thermographed or letterpress invitations. We do not have them sized for our digital invitations at this time.

CAN I ORDER EXTRA ENVELOPES?
Yes you can, though it's often not necessary. We include a few extra envelopes with every order to cover mistakes, and generally you're ordering a few extra invitations as well. If you feel you'll need more than that, let us know and we are glad to provide pricing.

DO YOU PRINT A RETURN ADDRESS ON THE ENVELOPES?
We can print your return address on your envelopes. Please consult our pricing charts for exact costs. We do not print return addresses on Thank You Notes.

CAN YOU PRINT OUR GUEST'S ADDRESS ON THE ENVELOPES? We can recommend printing services and calligraphers. We can also send your envelopes to these vendors. We currently do not offer addressing service in house.

WHICH FORMS OF PRINTING DO YOU OFFER?
Pretty much all of them! We offer digital (flat printing,) offset (for custom orders requiring large amounts of ink coverage,) letterpress, thermography and engraving. We also have access to foil stamping.

CAN YOU SHIP OUR ENVELOPES DIRECTLY TO OUR CALLIGRAPHER?
Yes, we just charge you the actual shipping costs to do so.

CAN YOU CREATE A CUSTOM INVITATION FOR ME?
Yes we can when time permits. If you have some ideas as to what you're looking for, just let us know. We combine different elements from our invitations all the time.

I HAVE MY OWN IMAGE I'D LIKE PRINTED ON YOUR INVITATIONS. CAN YOU DO THAT?
Generally yes we can. We would need you to email us the file of the image, and as long as it is high quality and printable, we're good to go. There is no additional charge for this.

CAN I USE MY OWN TEXT ON YOUR INVITATIONS, OR IS THE WORDING I SEE SET IN STONE?
You can use any text you'd like. Nothing around here is set in stone.

HOW CAN I ORDER A SAMPLE?
Samples are available online. Just add one invitation to your shopping cart and go through our online checkout. We pull samples from orders we have on hand. Specific colors and fonts are not guaranteed. We ship samples via UPS or USPS which is why we charge a standard shipping rate.

DO YOU PROOFREAD MY ORDER?
NO! If something catches our eye, we'll let you know, but in generally we do not proofread your printed materials. Remember to proofread your invitation text. Have one (or several!) other people read over the text as well, looking for typos, misspellings, etc. The White Aisle is not responsible for these sort of errors. Unfortunately, if you find such errors in your printed pieces, we can not offer a refund--and we do have to charge for reprinting. We obviously don’t want this to happen, so we encourage you to proofread and proofread again! We will print the text exactly as you send it to us. When you approve your proof, we will produce an invitation set that looks exactly like that proof (keeping in mind that color varies from screen to screen).

WHAT IS YOUR RETURN POLICY?
As these are printed materials, we do not accept returns on them unless we have made a mistake in printing or assembly. Variations in color can and do occur between print runs, and we cannot take returns because of color tone on flat printed items. We strongly recommend ordering samples before placing an order as they are the best way to know if you really are going to love the final product.

CAN I HAVE YOU JUST DESIGN THE INVITATION, BUT NOT PRINT IT?
No, we have put a lot of time and love into our designs. Many of them we've hand drawn. Because of the unique nature of many of our images, and the fact that people do share files, we will not send our images to people as files.

CAN YOU REPLICATE AN INVITATION DESIGN I LIKE?
We are happy to work on custom orders with clients. If you have a few different ideas or images which have inspired your ideas on an invitation, we're very open to them and can use elements as inspiration for your design. That said, we do not copy or replicate the work of other designers as we'd hope they would return the favor.

IF WE STILL HAVE NOT ANSWERED YOUR QUESTION, PLEASE LET US KNOW.