Guidance for Civil Partnership Stationery
Generally it is a good idea to send your Civil Partnership invitations out at least eight weeks before the ceremony. However it is not uncommon for these things to be left until the last moment. If you do find that time has slipped away and that your Civil Partnership Stationery has been overlooked, you can still get your Stationery produced by using our express service, which is offered at small additional charge. Invitations tend to be a formality or for information purposes with smaller Civil Partnerships Ceremonies, where only close family and friends are being invited and guests have already been made aware of the Ceremony date. This means that it is less important to have them sent out early. Save the date cards can be ordered a long time before the ceremony, it is a good idea to send these in situations where you would like to give your guests plenty of notice of the ceremony, without needing to have all the venue and time details arranged. The only thing that you will require is the date of course!
Finding a design for your Civil Partnership can be tricky as many Wedding Stationery companies do not cater for Gay couples yet. You will find that many companies will claim to supply Civil Partnership stationery, when in fact many have just removed all the cards that feature a Bride and Grooms and some have not even gone that far. The most important quality that you should look for in a stationer when choosing your Civil Partnership stationery is friendliness and flexibility. It is very important that you feel comfortable with the wording and the design that you want to use to invite your guests to one of the most memorable days of your lives. The wording for a Civil Partnership Ceremony can be varied, couples may wish to use the term Commitment Ceremony, which was the pre-Civil Partnership option available to Gay couples wishing to confirm their love. The Commitment Ceremony is a blessing ceremony and is not the legally recognised Civil Partnership service involving the signing of the Register.
Selecting the right wording for your Civil partnership
Getting the right wording is very much dependent on the couple. Some couples prefer to use, Commitment Ceremony, to define their big day rather than Civil Partnership Ceremony. However you wish to introduce your day to your guests, whether it is the legal “Civil Partnership Ceremony” or the ceremonial “Commitment Ceremony”, the wording that you choose to use on your Invitations has no bearing on the legal outcome on the day. If you are having a Civil Partnership Ceremony and wish to refer to it as a Commitment Ceremony in the stationery you can do so.
We supply suggested wording templates and various typefaces for the text, but couples will very often supply a word document if they require something specific. The invitations are sent from the hosts, most commonly the couple, but they can come from one or both sets of parents or any other party footing the bill! For each circumstance there is a way of wording the invitation, either in a formal or more informal contemporary way. Additional wording can be added to the invitation such as a, reply by date, for the RSVP or details of any specific dress code requirements.
If you are having your Civil Partnership in a licensed venue such as a hotel and your celebrations are continuing on the same premise then there is no need to repeat the venue details in the invitation for those attending the whole day. Instead you can choose from a variety of roll on phrases which are used to extend the invitation onto the Evening Reception.
What to send out with your Civil partnership Invitations
Reply cards can be sent out with the invitations, this way your guests will have the means to respond quickly to your invitation. Experience shows that people will always leave replying to the last minute, especially when confronted with the thought of having to purchase a nice card to send back in order to reply.
Additional information that can be supplied to your guest at the point of invitation are things such as: directions to the venue, the gift list and accommodation ideas. Many people like to have this information printed on insert cards, which are postcard size and fit nicely inside the invitation card, or if you prefer you can use a folded card option.
Additional Civil Partnership Stationery
Orders of ceremony and orders of day are produced as a small invitation sized booklet, the orders of day are generally a timetable of event. Orders of ceremony are usually more involved and contain a full transcript of the ceremony, which does produce a wonderful souvenir for guests. The information contained within an order of ceremony is usually provided to us as a word document, and has been approved by the registrar. It is also important to know that if you wish to use a poem or any literary works, you will need to obtain copyright permission in order to use it. Copyright is life plus 70 years of the author. If the literary work is out of copyright then you are free to use it in an order of ceremony. Generally speaking copyright holders are agreeable when granting permission especially for a one off occasion such as a wedding. The responsibility for obtaining copyright is the client’s. The copyright holder’s information can usually be found at the source of the literary. For information purposes a copyright holder generally requires a payment within the region of £20.
Menu cards are produced using the chosen design, with an insert page which contains the menu details, which would be provided to our clients by the hotel/venue. These can often be ordered after the invitations, along with other items such as place cards and table plans.
Place cards continue the design and can be left blank or for an additional cost, can have the guests names printed on them.
Table plans are produced on A3 paper, big format would be available upon request. The plans would show a seating layout and a list of guests names, enabling guests to find their seats. The chosen design would continue to be a feature.
© John Gammans
