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Wedding Invitation Wording

Whether your wedding invitations are expensive and purchased custom made, handmade by yourself, super formal, contemporary or just plain fun, the wedding invitation wording is very important.  

Wedding invitation etiquette will offer you a historical and useful guide for wording your wedding invitations.  However, you should remember rules involving your wedding should make your wedding planning easier, not more difficult.  Wedding etiquette should not be considered something to bring grief to the bride and groom.  Also, in this day and age, etiquette is generally treated as a guideline you can break if need be for your particular situation.  

Here are a few guidelines to help you out with your wedding invitation wording.  These guidelines will apply whether you are having custom made invitation designs or making low cost wedding invitations with your friends and family.  Of course, these are just guidelines and you can customize the wording to suit your personality and style of your wedding.  

Standard Wedding Invitation Elements

Who is Hosting The Wedding?  The very first name your guests should see on your invitations is who is hosting (i.e. paying for) the wedding. In the past this has usually been the bride's parents so the invitation would read something like this:

Mr. and Mrs. John Smith

However, more recently many couples have been hosting their own wedding.  In that case the invitation would read more like this:

Ms. Jane Doe and Mr. John Smith

The Request.  The next line the guests should see is the line that requests the guests to attend the wedding.  If your wedding will be held in a place of worship, the line should read:

request the honor of your presence at the marriage of........

However, if your wedding will be held somewhere other than a place of worship (for instance a banquet hall), then it should read:

request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of.......

Also, if the couple is hosting you may want to consider wording such as this:

invite you to join us to celebrate our marriage

The Bride and Groom.  If the wedding is not being hosted by the bride and groom, then this would be the place to mention their names in the invitation.  An example would be like this:

Jane Doe and John Smith

The Date and Time:  As a general rule these are spelled out on the invitations like this:

Saturday, the tenth of July, two thousand and five

at four o'clock in the afternoon

However, if the wedding is not quite so formal you might also consider wording like this:

Saturday, July 10, 2005

at 4 p.m.

Location, Location, Location.  If the wedding will be held at a very well known location, you need not include the address.  For example:

Walt Disney World

Orlando, Florida

However, for smaller locations you will want to include the address like this:

The Cuban Club

1234 Amber Lane

Houston, Texas

The Reception Time.  Let your guests know you will be having a party after the ceremony.  This can be included on the invitation or on a separate card.  It should read something like this:

Reception to follow at the Edgewater Country Club

If the reception will be in a different location than the actual ceremony, be sure to include the time and address as was done for the ceremony.

RSVP.  In the past, RSVP was written on the invitation and guests replied on their own stationary.  Now, however, most couples include a separate reply card as they find they receive more responses this way.  This card can be fill-in-the-blank style such as this:

Please RSVP before the first of June

M__________________________

_________will attend

_________will not attend

Number of people in party_______

Optional Details.  If you are having a very formal wedding you may want to include information on dress.  Also, if you do not wish to have children at your reception you would also want to include wording such as this:

Adult reception

This seems a bit more polite than saying "no children at the reception."  DO NOT include information about where you are registered or gifts. This is definitely taboo.  

Here is an example of a modern invitation and wording.  

Modern Wording

Tags: cheap wedding invitations, invitation wording, do it yourself wedding invitations