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Purchasing Wedding Invitations Early?

psychbabe314psychbabe314 member
100 Comments Second Anniversary 25 Love Its Name Dropper
in Wedding Invitations & Paper
Quick back story: FI and I got engaged November 2014. FI got offered a job in Japan March/April 2015. He moved to Japan late July 2015. I joined him January 2016. He got offered a second year at his position which we decided to take, but this meant putting off the wedding for us. We did already start to look at venues/colors/invitations/rough guest list/etc. to get a feel for what we wanted for our wedding before we decided to put off the wedding for a bit longer so as to have this experience.

Today, while we were out shopping, we spied some beautiful cards at a shop. There were two of them that we were looking at, a simple letter pressed card with green shamrocks on the front (can't find example), and a more traditional japanese card except with a green and white tie instead of red and white (example below) and a the kanji for "life long happiness" letter pressed inside.

FI and I got so excited about our future wedding, and then FI asked if we could buy are wedding invitations in Japan. I don't know, but they are just so cool! And cheap! These went for (including the envelopes) less than $4.50 per card. For something this nice in the U.S., we would probably be looking at a lot more. I had originally wanted letter pressed cards, but decided that they were going to be too expensive for our wedding. Also, the paper is very high quality, you can feel the nice thickness of it.

I did take a moment to ask one of the store workers, and they assured me that they could easily order 50 of whichever card I wanted for me, no issue! We had a rough estimation of needing 37 invitations.

I know we do not have a set wedding date... I know that I shouldn't even be thinking of wedding things right now, but... would buying cards early be a bad thing? Maybe not these cards, but if we bought wedding cards in Japan right before we left for the states, when we were positive that our wedding was a year or less out... then would it be okay then? Or should we just settle down and wait until we have picked a date and are settled down back in the U.S.?

http://heartfish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/shizukare1.jpg
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Re: Purchasing Wedding Invitations Early?

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  • MairePoppyMairePoppy mod
    Moderator Knottie Warrior 5000 Comments 500 Love Its
    You can buy your invitations anywhere you like. 
    psychbabe314 said:

    Quick back story: FI and I got engaged November 2014. FI got offered a job in Japan March/April 2015. He moved to Japan late July 2015. I joined him January 2016. 

    http://heartfish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/shizukare1.jpg

    Are your dates correct?
                       
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  • RezIpsaRezIpsa member
    250 Love Its 100 Comments Name Dropper
    I'm assuming your years should all be -1.

    You need a pretty firm guest count, a definite budget, and a signed contract with your venue to be ready to print invites. If you can get all that together a year before your date, go ahead (assuming they are in budget for you guys). Be sure you are OK with spending that much for something that will get thrown away and no one remembers. Sounds like you may have a smaller guest so it may not be as big a chunk of your budget to worry about.

    You could also just get the vendors contact info, order once you are home, and have them shipped to you in the States. Shipping from Japan is expensive, but for a smal amount of paper goods it shouldn't be too bad.
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  • CMGragainCMGragain member
    10000 Comments 500 Love Its Fourth Anniversary 25 Answers
    Could you buy the blank cards now and have them printed elsewhere at a later time when you are certain of your information?
    httpiimgurcomTCCjW0wjpg
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  • psychbabe314psychbabe314 member
    100 Comments Second Anniversary 25 Love Its Name Dropper
    MairePoppy said:

    You can buy your invitations anywhere you like. 

    psychbabe314 said:

    Quick back story: FI and I got engaged November 2014. FI got offered a job in Japan March/April 2015. He moved to Japan late July 2015. I joined him January 2016. 

    http://heartfish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/shizukare1.jpg

    Are your dates correct?
    Eck! Sorry, it was like 3am when I was posting this! My dates are off! Here is the correction:

    Engaged November 2013
    Job Offer March/April 2014
    FI moved to July 2014
    I joined him January 2015
    We will return to U.S. July 2016 or July 2017, although 2016 is what we have currently agreed upon.

    Ideally, I would like the wedding to be Spring or Fall 2017. Maybe Christmas 2016 at the earliest or Christmas 2017 at the latest.
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  • psychbabe314psychbabe314 member
    100 Comments Second Anniversary 25 Love Its Name Dropper
    RezIpsa said:

    I'm assuming your years should all be -1.

    You need a pretty firm guest count, a definite budget, and a signed contract with your venue to be ready to print invites. If you can get all that together a year before your date, go ahead (assuming they are in budget for you guys). Be sure you are OK with spending that much for something that will get thrown away and no one remembers. Sounds like you may have a smaller guest so it may not be as big a chunk of your budget to worry about.

    You could also just get the vendors contact info, order once you are home, and have them shipped to you in the States. Shipping from Japan is expensive, but for a smal amount of paper goods it shouldn't be too bad.

    This may be a bit difficult because the store that I found the cards at is pretty small. They do not have an online website and it would be very difficult to try and arrange for it once we are out of the country.

    As for our guest list, we have a rough estimate that includes family and friends, plus an extra 20-30 or so "blank spaces" for extra guests that we did not think about at that time. If we did 65 invitations, we would have plenty.

    Is $3.00 expensive for cards? When I was shopping around in the U.S., $5.00 per invitation (including RSVP, directions, etc.) seemed to be an average amount.
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  • psychbabe314psychbabe314 member
    100 Comments Second Anniversary 25 Love Its Name Dropper
    CMGragain said:

    Could you buy the blank cards now and have them printed elsewhere at a later time when you are certain of your information?

    That was kind of what I was thinking. These cards are blank, except for the kanji at the bottom of one the cards (which was only a single line). But, I figured we could bring them home and either use my FMIL's nice professional printer, or work with a stationary store, to have them printed with the information.
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  • RezIpsaRezIpsa member
    250 Love Its 100 Comments Name Dropper
    You are going to get a lot of answers about what an invite "should" cost. To me personally, $3/invite is nuts because it gets thrown away, no one remembers it, and no one cares. Other people are going to think that $25/invite is fine. It's just priorities and personal taste.

    If you want to get blank ones, that seems fine. Sometimes printers have a hard time with nonstandard paper. I would buy double and use the extras for thank you cards just in case one batch gets messed up, but that's just me.
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