Your wedding invitations serve as a preview to the event itself, giving clues about the level of formality and the style of your celebration. Invitations must be ordered early, so you'll have enough time to address and mail them.
Most planners recommend placing the order about three months before the wedding.
Plan on mailing them six to eight weeks before the wedding to allow for responses - and for your guests to make plans. Engraved invitations are the most formal and elegant, but they are also the most expensive. Many brides these days are choosing instead to use thermography, a printing process that produces the look of engraved invitations but at a much lower cost. The range of invitation styles has grown dramatically. You can choose pastel, moire or pearlized paper, which may have colored or imprinted border, flowers and other decorations.