Wording Your Perfect Wedding Invitation

Weddings can be a lot of work and just when you think you’ve ticked everything on your to do list, a new list appears! So, you’ve found the perfect invitation but there’s so much more to think about than just what they look like! Design… tick, colour, font and then we ask you what style of invite you like and ask you to send us the wording you’d like to use! It’s often the last thing you’ve had time to carefully consider, but it’s an important part, so we thought we’d put together some quick tips that may help when it comes to wording your invitations.

Invite Style

Classic

Contemporary

Modern

We get asked what the etiquette on wording the perfect invite is, there are some rules on how your invitations could be worded, but whether you are following tradition or not, here’s everything you need to know.

Who’s Hosting?

Traditionally the bride’s parents were the hosts, but now anything goes…

• If the bride’s parents are hosting or paying for the wedding costs, include their names on the invitation. For example, “Mr. & Mrs. Daniel Montague request the pleasure of the company of…. at the marriage of their daughter Sophie Rose to Noah James Hargreaves”
• If the groom’s parents are the ones hosting, include their names instead. In this case, the groom’s name can be listed before the bride’s.
• If both sets of parents are contributing to the wedding, you can use, “Together with their families, Sophie Rose Montague & Noah James Hargreaves request the pleasure of the company of…. at their marriage”
• If you, the couple are hosting, for a formal invite you could use “Sophie Rose Montague & Noah James Hargreaves request the pleasure of the company of…. at their marriage”. Or for a casual invite ‘’Sophie & James would like to invite….to their wedding’’.
• If you’re not including the names of your guests within the invitation, you can word it as follows ”Together with their families, Sophie & Noah request the pleasure of your company at their marriage”, you will need to add the full names of those invited on the envelope.

Dates & Times

• Traditionally you should spell out numbers in the date,“on Saturday, the eighth of August two thousand and eighteen.” It also looks good! However, trends change and numerals are growing in popularity.
• Spell out numerals in the times, ’at one o’clock”, or if your wedding begins on the half-hour, use “at half past two.”
• Instead of saying a.m. or p.m. a formal invitation could say “in the morning” or “in the afternoon or evening.”

Addressing Your Invitations

• The names of married couples belong on one line (unless they won’t fit).
• Always spell out “street,” ”road”, or “avenue,” etc.
• If you’re giving someone a plus one, try your best to find out the name of their guest.

Finishing Touches

• The line-breaks on an invitation act as punctuation, so there’s no need for commas or semi colons. Only proper nouns and the first word of a line that stands alone needs to be capitalized.
• If your ceremony is in a church or temple, you can use the phrase “request the honour of your presence” instead of “request the pleasure of your company.”
• If you would like to let guests know what to wear to your event, you can include an optional attire line. Options may include black-tie, black-tie optional, and cocktail attire.
• It’s not always considered polite to include monetary requests or gift lists within the wedding invitation, its best to save those for an information card.
• When requesting an RSVP, you don’t need the word ”please” in front of RSVP as Répondez s’il vous plait means ”please respond”.
• You can request dietary requirements on your RSVP card or include a menu .

Information Cards

These are handy if you have important info to pass onto your guests and it saves getting calls, texts and emails asking you lots of queries and questions. Remember to include:

• Directions – to the church, and or the venue. Include the postcode and any significant routes.
• Accommodation – You may have made a group booking reservation or suggest places to stay.
• Confetti rules – some venues don’t allow it, others request biodegradable petals.
• Gifts – most couples politely request none or monetary gifts towards their honeymoon.
• Dress code
• Children – always best to make it clear whether children are included or not to avoid any embarrassing situations!
• Carriages – the time the celebrations are over.
• Parking and transport.
• Social media etiquette.
• Requests for dietary requirements if you haven’t included this on an RSVP card.

We hope this helps!