Bridal shower invitations are an important grace note for any bridal shower you throw. You need to get them right, and with a party in the offing, you need to get them done quickly and easily. This guide will help you to save money and, most importantly, time, in picking out and sending invitations to your friends shower.
First, pick out a design for the bridal shower invitations. Because online stores let you search their cards by theme, style, or color for a card that matches the showers theme, and you do not have to spend time schlepping from one store to the other and wrangling sample books, going online is the most efficient way of buying invitations. If you know what your friends wedding invitations look like, you may not even need to choose a new design, since many wedding invitation designs come with a version designed especially for bridal shower invitations.
Once you have chosen a design, lay out the text. In addition to the usual information, like time, date, location, the brides name, and the RSVP number and email address, remember to put details like the bridal showers theme, whether the party is formal or casual, where the bride is registered, the URL of the bridal shower page or wedding page, the bridal shower hosts name, and whether the shower is a surprise. Avoid cutesy turns of phrase. You have seen horrible jokes on invitations before, so you know how easy it is for humor to go astray.
Add matching envelopes and seals, address labels, and other small touches. If you want to skip the step of printing and applying return labels, have the return address printed on the envelopes. When you have finished, pick out a shipping speed option. Faster shipping is preferable to slower shipping because you will want a little extra time to resend any invitations that get lost in the mail. If the party plans are in flux, rather than waiting until the last minute to buy invitations, consider sending out invitations earlier and putting up a web page for the party with the most up to date information.
When you finish, hit the "order complete" button and get ready to see your cards in the mail shortly. Most online stores print bridal shower invitations extremely quickly, so you can often have your invitations within the week. Assemble the invitations, print out address labels and stick them on, and drop the invitations in the mail. Thats all there is to it! Now you can leave that behind and get ready to throw a bridal shower the brides friends and family will remember forever.