Glossary of Stationery and Printing Terms

There are many different printed items available for your wedding or other special event, and it's hard to know what you need when you don't know what everything is! (And why should you? How many times do you get married?) Here you'll find information about commonly ordered items you may want to familiarize yourself with:

If you are moving to a new home and want to share your new address with family and friends, you will want to order at-home cards. In addition to your address, these cards may include your phone number. They are also an opportunity to let people know whether you are keeping your maiden name. At-home cards are usually included with the wedding announcements, or mailed separately after the wedding. As such, they are available with or without envelopes.

Similar to reception and dinner cards, ceremony cards are used when everyone is invited to the reception and/or dinner, but only a limited number are invited to the ceremony. Mailed with the invitation, this card announces the time and location of your ceremony.

Typically, this card is used when a select number of the guests invited to the ceremony are invited to the reception. In Southeastern Wisconsin, it is more likely that everyone who is invited to the ceremony will be invited to the reception, but the dinner may be smaller. In such a case, the ceremony and reception information would be printed on the invitation, and the information for the dinner on a separate card. For the most formal weddings, only the information for the ceremony is printed on the invitation, and a dinner and/or reception card is required.

Because of school, military service, or other plans, your wedding date may be far in the future. If you want people to know you are engaged, plan an announcement using wedding invitation card stock printed with your own special wording. Either formal or informal copy may be used to let people know your exciting news. At Ace Printing, we will be happy to help you create an appropriate wording for your specific situation.

With or without the name of the groom, this personalized stationery is needed to hand write thank you notes to those who gave a wedding gift. People who took the time to pick out a wedding gift deserve an individual, personal thank you note. Informal notes can also double as an announcement of your new married name, as women have many different options today, and people won't know what you want to be called if you don't tell them! One of the most significant advantages of an informal note vs. a thank you note is the flexibility of the informal . . . while thank you notes can only be used to thank people for gifts, you don't have to wait to be grateful for something to use your informal notes! As they are blank inside, they are perfect to use for brief correspondence, gift enclosures, and other short messages. It is not appropriate to send informal notes printed with your married name prior to your wedding, and some brides choose to have some informal notes printed with their maiden name to use to thank people for gifts received before the wedding. Other brides use thank you notes for such gifts, and informal notes with their married name for the rest of the gifts. Informal notes include blank, matching envelopes, which can be printed with your return address for an additional charge.

The inner envelope is used to indicate to the guest(s) specifically whom you are inviting. For example, if you intend for a single guest to bring a companion, you would write the person's first name, and then "and guest", both on the same line. This is also where you would indicate if you were inviting children under eighteen to your wedding. An easy way to decide the form of the name(s) on the inner envelope is to imagine what you would call them if you were addressing them in person. So, you might write "Uncle Fred and Aunt Wilma", or "Barney and Betty", or "Bam-Bam and Pebbles Rubble". If you are not well-acquainted with the invitee(s) (perhaps they are friends of your family), you would probably write "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" on the inner envelope. We will be happy to answer any specific questions you might have about addressing your invitations. For an added touch of elegance, the inner envelope can be lined, or you might want to make them special with a beautiful seal. Inner envelopes are not gummed.

The outer envelope of an invitation should include your return address and are addressed to the  person(s) you are inviting. The return addresses can be hand-written or printed for you. The U.S. Postal Service suggests that all first-class mail have a return address. It also lets your wedding guests know where to send your gift, and ensures that you will know if the invitation does not reach its destination as it will be returned to the sender. Labels are generally considered too casual to use on wedding invitations and should be avoided.

Your dinner will be less chaotic if you assign your guests to specific seats, or at least specific tables. Place cards should include the guest's name and table number and are often displayed on a table outside the dinner location. You can also station one of your attendants or ushers at the entrance and distribute the cards to the guests as they arrive. For a particularly elegant touch, there are place cards that include tiny envelopes to enclose them in! In most cases, however, a place card is scored in the middle so that it can be folded into a tent to stand up at each place setting.

Response cards are a must in today's busy times, or you simply won't know who is planning to attend. While guests were traditionally expected to write a personal note accepting or declining an invitation, these days a response card has become an accepted part of wedding etiquette. You may also want (or need) to include entree choices on your response card. Including one with your invitation is a thoughtful way to make it as easy as possible for your guests to reply. Response cards include envelopes that are pre-printed with your address, so all your guests have to do is fill out the card, put it in its envelope, and mail it. As a courtesy to your guests, you should put a stamp on your response envelopes. We have several suggestions for response card wordings that help to increase your response rate, and will be happy to help you. At Ace Printing, we don't charge for so-called 'extra' lines; why pay more?

It is a good idea to give family and friends as much notice as possible of the coming event. This is especially true if you have many out-of-town guests. Typically, save-the-date cards are mailed three or four months in advance of the wedding.

Thank you notes come in many different styles, blank inside for you to write a specific message to each gift-giver. While it is possible to print a generic wording and your names on the inside of the note, this option is to be avoided whenever possible, as givers will not know whether you actually received their gifts unless you identify them in the notes that thank them. This is particularly true of out-of-town guests, who may ship or mail your gifts to you. If you will be unable to write individual thank you notes in a timely manner (within two months of your wedding), it may be appropriate to send a pre-printed note to each guest, indicating that you have received the gift and will be writing a more personal note in the future. You must, of course, follow up and do so! Thank you notes can be used for both shower and wedding gifts, though informal notes are preferred for wedding gifts. All thank you notes include matching envelopes. 

If your circle of friends and relatives is larger than the list you intend to invite, or you are having a private wedding, you will want to send an announcement to share your happy news! Wedding announcements include the wedding day, date and year, but never the time, and typically not the location of the ceremony. They are mailed the day of the wedding, not before.

An occasion this important rates more than a casual invitation! They are sent to anyone you want to attend the ceremony (even if they are ill or too far away to actually come). Invitations always include the names of the couple getting married, the day and date, the year (spelled out in full), the time, and the location. Wedding invitations include two envelopes to mail them in: an inner and an outer envelope. There are many styles to choose from, and a range of prices to fit your budget.

Programs are a great way for your guests to follow the ceremony and learn who is in your wedding party. They also give you an opportunity to share a special message or poem with your guests, and can include details about your receiving line and/or your new address. Programs provide guests with a meaningful memento of your special day . . . and they don't have to be expensive! Check out our Wedding Program page for more information on styles and prices.