Ordering your wedding stationery is as simple as choosing your favourite design, matching it with a style or format you love and tailoring your complete wedding stationery package to your individual needs. What isn’t always so straightforward, and what often leaves couples confused when finalising their wedding stationery order, is figuring out just how many invitations they are going to need.

You could be forgiven for thinking that if your guest list is 150 guests, that you will need 75 invitations, but this simple calculation doesn’t account for the number of singles rather than couples, last minute changes to your list, invitations being lost in the post or even such things as keeping one or two as a wedding keepsake.

So while you might have chosen a wedding invitation you love, and considered all the important details such as fonts, paper and colour scheme, before you click the ‘Order’ button, consider these simple rules of thumb.

Couples or Singles?

1. You will need one invitation per household or couple. If all of your guests are part of a couple, then that’s a simple equation but things are rarely that simple. If you have a mix of couples and singles, then the general rule is to order half the total number of guests and add ten.
   

So, (200/2 + 10 = 110) If your guest list is 200, order 110 invitations.

3. You can increase the number of additional invitations according to your particular needs. Have a good look over your guest list and see if this number will work for you, but use this guide as a starting point.
   But it doesn’t stop there;
4. What about a keepsake or two? You will surely want to make keep at least one as a keepsake to look back on over the years, as will the parents of the bride and groom. Consider adding at least two more as a memento.

3. What if some get lost in the post? It’s reasonable to assume all of your wedding invitations will make it to their final destination but this isn’t always the case for a number of reasons. It’s worth considering an extra few invitations to fall back on if anything goes astray.
4. Finally, think about any other additions you might need such as providing one to the photographer as a photo prop, or if you think you might need to keep a couple in reserve for any last minute additions.

So, all things considered, your final wedding invitation order might look like this:

Guest list: 200

Half total guests = 100 couples
Add 10 for singles
Add 10 more for points 2, 3 and 4

Total: 120 wedding invitations

You might also want to consider adding some extra envelopes to your final order to cover any changes of address etc.

Thinking carefully at the outset and ordering the right quantity of wedding invitations will avoid any costly re-orders or extras such as minimum quantity orders, express order charges along with additional delivery charges or expensive overnight courier services.