How many invitations to purchase?!?!?

csaville

SO I am inviting 300 people to my wedding. That includes guests and children. Therefore, I have NO IDEA how many invitations to actually purchase. Any ideas on figuring out how many one would buy to cover screw ups and the actual amount needed?! Thanks!

MobKaz

Do not think in terms of people.  You have to order based on relationship units.  Even if every guest on your list is a couple, the most you would need is 175.  Your overage is often dictated by the company from which you order the invitations.  Many force you to buy in units of 25 or more.  So, if you were inviting 150 couples, for a total of 300 guests, ordering an additional 25 unit would be more than enough.

I think when my daughter wrote out her invitations, she messed up perhaps less than 5 envelopes.

AddieCake

I made a list on paper and then drew a box around the names who would share an invitation. Then I counted my boxes. Voila!

singinchick13

I just wrote out on a piece of lined paper my guest list, with everyone sharing one invitation on one line. This included couples, families and guests with plus-ones. Then All I had to do was count the number of lines and that corresponded with the number of invitations I'd be sending out. Ours is around 55, but we will have to order 75 because they are sold in increments of 25. This is perfect because it allows us to have extras just in case, as well as a few to hold on to as keepsakes.

themuffinman16

Have enough for keepsakes, and remember you aren't sending an invitation to every person, just every household. (If household has children over the age of 18, and are invited, they need a separate invitation as well).

cbabybear

I put mine all in an Excel spreadsheet, with multiple columns for reference:

Group Number (these will be used to help with table numbers, all young friends of brides are #2 group, coworkers #5, etc)
Guest name
Formal Name for invite
Address
Adults # (so Jane Doe & guest is marked as 2)
Children (Jane Doe's kid is marked as a 1 here)
Infants
"Mom" Bridal Shower
"Friend" Bridal Shower

this way I can easily sort the columns, and tally up my numbers...

I have 154 adult guests, and 13 kids - 75 invitations - I'll order 90 though.

theartistformerlyknownas

I used Excel as well. My columns were:

Lori or Jake (so I could keep track of who needed to chase down whose addresses)

Category (Bridal Party, Family, Friends, Coworkers, Maybes {not b-list, just 'decide by invite time but budget for them anyway})

Guest 1 first

Guest 1 last

Guest 2 first

Guest 2 last

Couple Names (this held a concatenated variable that put together the first and last names in the way they'd appear on the envelope - PM me if you want my formula)

Children (listed each kid's name in one cell)

Street Address

City

State

Zip

Count adults (typed a 1 or 2)

Count kids (typed number of children)

Total guests (sum of last 2 columns)

Rehearsal Dinner? (number of guests attending)

Shower? (put a 1 to include the female of that line on the shower invite list)

StD? (put a 1 if sending a StD, changed to an x when it was addressed)

This way, each entire household was on one line, so I only needed to see how many rows down my list went (130). I ordered 150 invites so I'd have some for keepsakes, and 15 extra envelopes in case I screwed up. I could also make a pivot table that showed my sum of adults and kids for catering budget purposes, the breakdown by category, by my group vs FI's, etc. (I work in analytics, can you tell? lol)

vmj23

I would also def recommend putting the names into excel, each household (or invitation) on it's own line.   You then will know how many you need plus can track other information as you go....guest count, meal options, rsvps, gift received/thank you sent, etc

Jean0715

I agree with @jenni1221. Excel has been my best friend. I have been able to track everything from addresses and couple units to thank yous sent for engagement gifts. 

hyechica81

i figured out how many people were were inviting and divided that by 2. we are inviting 159 so we ordered 100 but only needed 80 but of course they did not have a 90 count for the ones we wanted. so we went with 100 gives us 20 extra

melbenso

We are inviting 150 people, but only 80 family units.  I purchased 90 invites (my vendor did them in groups of 10) so that I had a few extras just in case.

ashleyep

My spreadsheet is basically one line per unit of people, with a count in one column. A guest would be in one cell, with his date to the right. Same with kids. They don't go in their own row.

Then I just had to count up rows to know how many invites to order.

We're inviting 190 guests and needed 97 invites. I'm ordering 100 (with extra envelopes) because we have to order in groups of 25 and an additional 25 is quite expensive.