Wording Your Wedding Invitation

Comment Written by natasha on August 25, 2010 – 5:00 am

In light of Jenny’s newly designed STDs and invitations, I thought she (and you!) might benefit from learning or re-learning how the traditional wedding invitation is worded. Please note – everything that follows is traditional, unless I’ve designated otherwise. Modern rules dictate that you can do whatever you would like, whatever suits your personality, and whatever makes grammatical sense.

photo from weddingparaphernalia

General Wording Etiquette

• Do not use punctuation, except after titles (Mr., Mrs., Ms., and Dr.)
• Capitalize ONLY proper names, titles and the first word of a sentence. Do not capitalize anything else. (You will see what I mean below)
• The date should be worded as follows: day of week, day, month, and year. The date (including the year) must be spelled out. (eg. Sunday, the fifth of June, two thousand and ten).
• Spell out the times and refer to the clock (eg. Half after four instead of 4:30 p.m.; Four o’clock in the afternoon instead of 4:00 p.m.; Eight o’clock in the evening instead of 8:00 p.m.)
• Use third person instead of first person (eg. “Mr. and Mrs. John Smith” instead of “we”).

The easiest way to explain this is by breaking the invitation into lines. Such as:

Line 1: Mr. and Mrs. Walter Johnson

Line 2: request the pleasure of your company

Line 3: at the marriage of their daughter, Madeleine, to Mr. Ryan Smith

Line 4: on Saturday, the fourteenth of August, two thousand and eleven at seven o’clock in the evening

Main Street Park, 123 Main Street, San Francisco, California

Reception to follow.

 Line one answers the question: Who hosts?

The host of the wedding is usually the primary financial contributor to the wedding, but this is not always the case. Traditionally, the bride’s family hosts. So line one would say Mr. and Mrs. Bride’s Father’s Name (eg. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Johnson).

 Line two is the invite part of the invitation

If the wedding is held in a religious place of worship, use “request the honor of your presence.”

If the wedding takes place elsewhere, use “request the pleasure of your company” or “request the honor of your company.”

 The most formal traditional invitations do not use “your” in the wording, but leave a blank space to handwrite the name of the guest. For example, “Mr. and Mrs. Walter Johnson request the honor of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Lee’s presence. . . .” This is rarely done now, however.

 Line three answers the very simple question of who is getting married?

Since (traditionally) it’s the bride’s parents who are hosting and inviting, the wording would be: “in the marriage of their daughter, Madeleine Eve, to Mr. Ryan Johnson.”

 Line four and onward explains the when and where part of the invitation

Time goes first, then location. Then you can add in a line about the reception – but a reception card will be separate.

Modern ideas

Dont forget that there are many “new” ways to write invitations. For example, many couples are hosting their own weddings. In that case, try something like:

Madeleine Eve Johnson and Ryan Taylor Smith, together with their families,

Request the pleasure of your company

At their wedding

on Saturday, the fourteenth of August, two thousand and eleven at seven o’clock in the evening

Main Street Park, 123 Main Street, San Francisco, California

You get the idea. Make the wording work for you!

 Reception information & Children

The reception information is NOT included in the invitation. The only information that you need on the invitation is that a reception will follow. (The information for your reception comes on a separate card, included in the envelope with the invitation.)

 If you do not want children in attendance, instead of writing “Reception to follow,” specify “Adult reception to follow.” 

How did you word your invitation?

~ Natasha