How to Word A Wedding Invitation
Introduction:
Hi you guys! This is my first ever blog post for Bright Star so I thought I’d take a second to introduce myself! My name is Allison and I run the social media and website for Bright Star. I am NOT Allison the owner, yes there are two of us. We find this very convenient but also slightly confusing.
In no way shape or form am I a professional writer, I’m a business student at Texas A&M (whoop) so bear with me if I have poor grammar or typos. My main focus is on being real with y’all and getting you the information you’re searching for! Sometimes you just don’t know the answer to all of the wedding planning things and being completely honest neither do I. I know slightly more than the clueless so that has to count for something.
That being said, that is why I’m here. Sometimes you have to SCOUR the internet and research to find what you need. No one has time for that, unless it’s their job. That’s where I come in!! It’s my job to find out wedding planning information and spit it all out in blog posts so you know what the heck you’re doing.
How to Word a Wedding Invitation
Thank you so much for reading this far if you did, now onto the actual content you came here for!
Friends, your wedding invitation is a huge step. Yes, this step comes after the save the date. A save the date it pretty standardly an engagement photo and pretty writing with yours and your fiancé’s names and the date y’all have set along with the location. These can be more fun! It’s like a teaser trailer for the real deal.
A wedding invitation, though, sets the tone for your whole wedding. This is the first glimpse your guests get into the time, effort, and details you’ve put into your big day. SO regardless of if you choose elegant or rustic, colored invitations or glossy white, floral or simple, one thing is key in all invitations. The wording. More specifically how you word the invitations. I’m not saying there aren’t multiple ways to word an invitation. I’m just saying no one knows off the top of their head how to do that unless they’re a professional wedding invitation designer.
I did some digging and found there are so many steps and things to consider. I laid them all out for you below:
1. Start with who is hosting
There are a lot of options here. Bride’s parent’s, both of the bride’s divorced/remarried parents, one of the bride’s divorced/remarried parents, bride’s one living/single parent, groom’s parents, both sets of parents, bride’s parents host but choose to include the groom’s parent’s names, bride and groom host, both families are hosting together.
The common theme through all of these is:
“Mr./Doctor/Captain and/& Mrs. [man’s first name] [last name]”
If both bride and groom’s families are hosting this is where you would supplement with:
“Together with their families”
If the divorced parents/both bride and groom’s parents are hosting you’d add an “and” and repeat so it would look like:
“Mr./Doctor/Captain and/& Mrs. [man’s first name] [last name]
And
Mr./Doctor/Captain and/& Mrs. [man’s first name] [last name]”
Lastly, if the bride and groom are hosting:
[bride’s name] and [groom’s name]
2. Ask your guest to come
After announcing the host, you have to actually invite the guests:
Traditional- “request the honor of your presence”
Casual- “would love for you to join them”
Spirited- “invite you to celebrate with them”
Formal- “the pleasure of your company”
3. The bride and groom’s names
There are only a few rules to follow here.
The bride’s name comes first.
That’s it. That’s the rule. Everything else is optional. You can choose to do first and middle names, first middle and last names, no last name for the bride, Miss and Mr. So honestly whatever your heart desires (and whatever looks best with your chosen font).
4. Time/Date
Numerical- more casual:
5-25-19 at 5:00 p.m.
a.m./p.m. optional
Spelled out- more formal:
May twenty-fifth [twenty nineteen] at five o’clock in the evening
On the twenty-fifth of May [twenty nineteen and five o’clock in the evening
5. Location
You have the option to put the address here but if it will crowd the card, I say leave it out. The name of the venue/church, city, and state should be just fine. It’s 2019, technology is amazing these days so if your guest can’t find the venue with those 3 things, it’s natural selection at that point, you probably didn’t want them there anyway.
That was a joke!! A bad joke at that. I apologize. In all seriousness though, your guests should be fine with that amount of information.
The reception information comes next.
If it’s in the same place immediately following the ceremony:
“reception to follow”
If it’s in a different location you list the location/address of the reception:
“reception to follow at [address/location]”
“dinner and dancing to follow at [address/location]”
If the reception is at a different location and a later time:
“reception at [time] at [location]”
6. Dress code
What I have learned through my research is that if you do not state a dress code, your invitation will state it for you. If you have a very formal looking wedding invitation and very formal wording, your guests will by default expect to dress very formal or in black tie. Same goes for casual. In my opinion, if you expect your guests to be in black tie you should state it very clearly.
7. RSVP
Last but not least by any means, have a separate card for you guests to send back and RSVP or include the link to your wedding website where they can RSVP there.
If you made it through this post, thank you! If you are unclear on some things feel free to ask questions! And last but not least, here are some other very helpful posts on wedding invitations!
http://emilypost.com/advice/samples-of-formal-wedding-invitation-wording/
https://www.brides.com/story/guide-to-wedding-invitation-wording
https://www.marthastewartweddings.com/228634/wedding-invitation-wording?slide=764125