Sorry this is long!
I'm ordering my invitations soon. Our wedding has started to turn into a weekend affair.
Rehearsal dinner Friday hosted by FI's family
Saturday wedding hosted by my parents.
Sunday brunch hosted by FI's family.
Apparently a lot of FI's family is coming on Friday so his family wants to open the rehearsal dinner to any family that decides to come up the night before, but we won't necessarily know who that will be when we send out invites. (It's OOT for his family and a lot of friends, about a 2-3 hour drive for most. We aren't starting the ceremony till 6 on Saturday so OOT guests have time to come up Sat without rushing, but a lot of his family are still planning to come up Friday.) They need RSVPs for the rehearsal dinner.
I'm waiting to hear back if they need them for the brunch, but I'm guessing yes. The brunch is being held at the hotel where the reception is and where we also have a room block, they've said that anyone is welcome to the brunch even if they stay somewhere else. (A lot of my family are local and will most likely just go home, but might come back for brunch.)
How would you word the invitations to the rehearsal and brunch?
Is it OK to put these both as inserts in the invitation or would that be too much paper? (His family is handling RSVPs for rehearsal/brunch and mine is handling it for the reception. Would that be confusing to guests? Should I send them separately?)
I know I also need to include an accommodations card and directions. This info is on our website but I know not everyone uses those.
So if I do it all together it would be:
Invitation
Reception card
RSVP card and envelope
Rehearsal dinner invite
Rehearsal dinner RSVP
Brunch invite
Brunch RSVP
Envelope for rehearsal and brunch
Accommodations
Directions
That's a lot of paper! WWYD?
Thanks for your help!
Re: Help with inserts
So you and your FI should talk to his parents about invites for these events and they should create a guest list of who they wish to invite. I understand that they want them to be open to whomever, but it would be best for them to issue their own separate invitations that have their own RSVPs.
If your ILs want their RSVPs by mail, those inserts could be done postcard style to insure they are mailed to the correct address.
A friend's daughter used this type of invitation, different theme. Each event was printed on it's own card. Each set of cards was held together by a grommet. The wedding RSVP and envelope were included, RSVP for RD and Brunch were by e-mail address printed at the bottom of each invitation. She added a travel brochure, since it was a DW for all guests. Everything was mailed in manila envelopes. Those invitations, plus postage must have cost a small fortune, but they were really sharp.
Thanks ladies!
Is it ok to put accommodations, directions, and website info on one card? (Are directions really necessary at this point with GPS?) I'm trying to minimize the number of inserts we need.
ETA: This would leave us with
-Invitation
-Reception card
-RSVP card + envelope
-Brunch invitation
-Accommodations, directions, website info
We also created a Google map with the pertinent locations (hotel, airport,church, reception venue)