- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
Our wedding stationery was not something I wanted to drop serious moolah (or time or energy) on. No extra inserts, not hiring a calligrapher, and while letterpress is beautiful, we aren’t investing our wedding cash in that arena. I’m still toying with the idea of purchasing a corner rounder and maybe some twine to keep everything together. But nothing fancy, okay?
For most of our engagement, I was pretty set on the fact that we wouldn’t be including a separate insert in our invites to direct our guests to the venue. Everyone (except me) has a smart phone or GPS these days. No one needs us to give them directions. They can just look it up or plug the address into their GPS of choice. Right?
If you were to type our venue address into Google Maps, it would show you directions that look like this if you are driving in from Dallas, Texas:
Not too complicated, but let’s zoom in a little to that first turn off of the highway:
Now let’s take a look at the street view.
Does anyone notice anything odd? Does it appear to you that the directions are suggesting our guests drive right on into the shrubbery and woods? I mean, we’re going for a rustic occasion, but not quite this rustic.
Now, we’ve driven out there a few times, so we just giggle and pass right on by this fake turn-off, knowing the real entrance is right past this little curve in the road.
Here we are just around the bend:
The bottom of that sign in the upper right-hand corner says the name of our venue, Clark Gardens.
All Images via Google Maps
Whew! Arrival.
However, many of our guests aren’t going to be that versed in driving to this location, and since we’re making people trek all the way our here (a 1.5 hour drive from Dallas, and a 2.5 hour drive from Mr. High Wire’s hometown), the least we could do is make sure they have suitable directions.
So how are we going to include those directions in our invitation suite? We’re going to print directions and a map right on the back of the invitation. It might be a little wacky, but it doesn’t bother me. And it’s cheaper (and more environmentally friendly) than printing a whole other piece of paper and adding to the overall weight of the invites (i.e. more postage).
Take this one tip from me, go ahead and Google directions to your venue and make sure nothing funky like this pops up for you!
Are you going to include directions to your venue in your invitations or on your wedding website? Or is it an easy place to get to?
I was definitely of the same thought process as you… between GPS, smart phones, and mapquest, no one should struggle! Buuuut I never actually checked the directions, so this could be interesting…
that is funny! I need to add something to our website about directions since I failed to know that the offramp that google/GPS suggests you use is closed. Now with GPS you can just reroute but for people like me without that fancy car feature I would have no idea how to get there if I didn’t know the area.
We’re having a sort-of destination wedding that’s right between his hometown and my hometown (which are 1500km apart), so it’ll be somewhere none of our guests will have been before. Our venue has a very detailed website though, and a page dedicated to very exact directions on how to get there. I’d originally just thought to add their website address at the bottom of the invitations when we get them printed, but putting it on the back is an awesome idea! We have grandparents and older relatives who aren’t exactly computer savvy!
I am so very worried about the same thing. We are getting married in the Colorado mountains and people are coming in from Denver (1 hr drive) and the airport (1.5-2 hour drive). One issue is that in some areas phones lose reception so any type of phone GPS wpuld not work!
I am definetly getting a little worried about how I am going to make this easy for our guests and dont want to spend too much money on this. Let me know how it turns out.
our place is very easy to get to, however I found a girl on etsy who draws maps super cute and it was like 40 bucks, so I paid that and then had them printed for FREE on vista print as postcards…..
i’ll see if i have a pic 
Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that ‘turn’ on google maps! Good thing you checked that out!
I was thinking of putting the directions in too.But honestly I would even know from which way I should do it.I think I either will provide the address or a map with dots showing where each place is,providing directions from the freeway only.
I should tell you though that my church,hotel and hall is basically on the same road.Everything is within a five mile radius.Wow,thanks.Now that Im really thinking about it,I will do that.
Print a map,make dots where each place is,and written directions from the freeway.Cool!!Ive been wondering how I was gonna do this.:)
Ugh, I hear you on this one! 90% of our guests have never been to this small town before and the venue is out in the country so it’s REALLY going to be a challenge to find it! We did include a directions card as our invite kit came with it; we’ll also be printing up some copies of a proper map that we’ll leave at the front desk of the hotel, and we checked GPS directions which are spot on. With all that done, I’m no longer worrying about it!
We included a map, which I figured we’d use instead of a reception card (since everyone invited to the ceremony was invited to the reception). So we had a single page invitation, a map card (which also included our dress code and wedding website URL — I guess it was kind of the “Practical Details” card), the reply card, and the envelope for the reply card — and (even with envelope liners, and on fairly heavy paper) it all came in at $0.44 postage.
But we’re having our ceremony and reception in the middle of nowhere, and I don’t expect that even the local people will know where it is (it’s on an olive ranch in the middle of our local wine country), so I really felt the map was important.
Shrubbery. Lolz. Reminds me of Monty Python. Solid reference
This actually happens when people try to get directions to our apartment. Google maps suggests driving through someone’s backyard and house to get to our place! I found this out the hard way, when we had the apartment-warming party and 95% of our guests were calling us all around the same time, wondering how to get to us… quite hectic!
My mom’s a geographer, so I’m very familiar with maps! And I’m also familiar with how sometimes Google and Mapquest seem to think roads connect where they don’t. I also know that while I can read maps quite well, many people can’t. I was astonished when a friend of mine looked at a physical map and had NO CLUE what anything meant. She relies on GPS directions so much that she can’t figure anything out on her own. And GPS units are not infallible! I’ve been in her car when it’s told us to turn right on X street after we’d already passed the intersection.
Yes, I’ll be checking directions!
I have the same sort of issue as you. When FI and I went to view the venue, we couldn’t even find the place. (Our venue is in a rural area, 2 1/2 miles into the woods.) Our GPS shot us 2 miles down the street. After back tracking, we finally found the entrance but then STILL couldn’t find our way to the venue! LOL. Later, I found a little note on the website pointing out the problem with satellite maps.
I’m going to draw up a map with detailed driving directions and include it with our invitations. I’m also going to make wooden signs and post them from the entrance to the actual venue. I’m sure some people will still get lost but I’ll do my best to point them in the right direction.
We included a basic map and more detailed written instructions with our invitation. As someone who would have totally taken that dirt road (because Google told me to), it’s very considerate of you to double-check the directions before sending them to everyone! 
I think it’s a great idea to print the directions right on the back of the invitations.
I just went to a wedding in NY that provided a map of event locations since everything was within about 10 city blocks - it was great that it labeled the church, reception, morning brunch, hotels, etc… EXCEPT that the labels and arrows showing the shuttle route were so big that it overlapped the street names for the streets surrounding the immediate area so I could see it was close but didn’t know the street name to help me get there and know I was at least headed the right way (for the places I walked to). So make sure if you’re giving walking maps that people can figure out where they are.
Also Google maps allows you to make and save a map. We made one that shows the best route from the church to reception to hotel and embedded the saved map in our wedding website. Then people can interact with the map the way they expect to from Google and print directions, we just pre-planned the route for them (and labeled everything)
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Mrs. High Wire, Dallas Age and Occupation: 23, Legal Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Director of Communications Engagement Date: October 9, 2010 Wedding Date: September 2011 Venue: Clark Gardens About Me: My loves include yoga, anything spicy, our eccentric cat, our rambunctious dog, and Mr. High Wire, of course! Like the steadiness act of the tightrope walker, this gal is busy balancing life while planning a wedding to the man of her dreams. We’re hosting a laid-back, vintage-inspired, bird themed wedding with heavy doses of love, good eats (did someone say tacos and margaritas?), and endless Texas charm. Mr. High Wire and I are so happy to have you along for the walk across the tight rope.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
Latest Gallery Pics