How to Word Your Wedding Invitations

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Author: Leslie Silver

Your wedding invitation makes a first impression on your invitees, and gives them an exciting glimpse into the big day ahead. Wedding invitations can also say a lot about you as a couple. With the right wording, everyone on your guests list will get a taste of your personality in addition to exciting information about the wedding. Depending on your wedding particulars, there are many different ways to word your wedding invitations.

If you are going for a formal wedding invitation, you should look back to conventional wedding etiquette. If your wedding is formal, you’ll want to stick with the more traditional wedding invitation wording. But if you’re having a more modern wedding, you can opt for a fun and modern approach to the wording.

Host and Hostess

First, you have to know who is hosting (paying for) your wedding. Traditionally it is the bride’s parents so their names appear first on the wedding invitation. However, if both parents are hosting the wedding, or if the couple is hosting their own wedding, the couple’s name appears first on the invitation. Here are some examples:

Bride’s Family Hosting: “Mr. and Mrs. John Smith or (Jane and John Smith, less traditionally) request your presence at the wedding of their daughter….”

Groom’s Family Hosting: “Mr. and Mrs. Jack Jones (or Jill and Jack Jones, less formally) request your presence at the wedding of their son…”

Bride and Groom’s Family Hosting: “Mr. and Mrs. John Smith and Mr. and Mrs. Jack Jones request the honor of your presence at the wedding of their children…”

Couple is Hosting: “Mr. Joseph Jones and Miss Janice Smith request the honor of your presence at their wedding…”

Wedding Invitation Request Line

The next step is to request their presence. Depending upon the venue of your wedding, the wording will vary. If you’re hosting your wedding at a place of worship such as a church, the wedding invitation should read “request the honor of your presence at the/their wedding of their children…”

However, if you’re holding your wedding at a different venue other than a church or place of worship, your wedding invitation should read, either, “request the pleasure of your company at the wedding of their daughter/son.”

If the couple is hosting, the request should read “invite you to join us at the celebration of our marriage….”

Announcing the Date and Time

The next step on your invitation is to announce the date and time. Traditionally the words are all spelled out, such as, “Saturday, the fifteenth of June, two thousand and ten at two o’clock in the afternoon,” or, “Sunday, the second of December, two thousand and eleven and half after two o’clock in the afternoon.”

If you’re going for a more modern approach, you can just write, “Saturday, June 15, 2010 at 2 p.m.”

Location, Location, Location

The next line of your invitation should be the location of you wedding. However, if your wedding is at a popular local location, you don’t need the address, but you do for smaller or lesser known locations.

If you are hosting your wedding at a vacation destination or a place outside of your local home city or town, you should include the full address, including the city and state/province, even country if necessary. If this is the case, you should also include an insert to your wedding invitation regarding the destination information and other information that will pertain to the venue.

Reception

If you’re having a reception, the next line in your invitation should be about the party or reception afterwards. You can include this on your wedding invitation or you can put it on a separate card (especially if you are inviting more people to the reception than to the wedding, or vice versa, which is common in keeping the wedding costs down). The wording should read something like, “reception to follow at . . .”

If you’re not serving a full meal at your reception, you should inform the guests by writing something like, “and join us afterwards for cake and cocktails at…” or “dancing and dessert to follow at…”

You should include a separate reception card if you’re holding the reception at a different venue from the wedding, or if the reception isn’t immediately following the wedding ceremony. Your insert card should read, “reception at eight o’clock at the Grand Hotel…” complete with the address.

Request a Reply

You should request a reply from your guests so you can finalize your plans. Include a reply card and self-addressed, stamped reply envelope. This will help you to get more responses to your invitations. Formally, your reply request should read “R.S.V.P.”

But you can also write, “the favor of a reply is requested before the fifth of June,” or “Please reply by…” You can also include a detailed reply card that requests whether they will or will not attend and the number of guests that they will be bringing.

Regardless of how formal your wedding is, your invitations should convey respect and appreciation for your guests, and let them know how much their presence means to you on your big day.

Leslie Silver is a freelance writer who writes about weddings and wedding invitations.