Right and Wrong Wording Ideas For Your Wedding Invitations

Whether you realize it or not, the right wording for your invitations–birthday, wedding, anniversary party or otherwise–can make or break the entire event. Harsh, I know. But true? Absolutely. Believe it or not, most invitations require a certain amount of etiquette, or finesse if you will. That’s why we decided to come up with a few of the right ways and wrong ways to address your guests on the inside of your invitation. Take a look…

Wedding Invitations

First and foremost, ask yourself if these invitations are formal or informal. If they are informal, then by all means have a blast. Throw in an Aerosmith quote. Go big or go home. But if your wedding invitations are intended to be on the more formal side, then there are a few rules which you may need to follow.

•    Make sure all names are written out in full. Middle names, too! Unless you don’t like your middle name, then simply use an initial.

•    Avoid abbreviations of any kind. We’re talking date, year, hour, time, addresses. And my goodness if you don’t spell out “street” or “road” then you are in big trouble.

•    Always use Roman numerals if you or your future partner is a “Future Partner the third.” <—See what we did there, don’t do that.

•    If you’re getting hitched in a church, say “request the honour of your presence.” If you’re getting hitched elsewhere, say “request the pleasure of your company.”

Wedding Announcements

Wedding announcements are sent out to people who did not attend the wedding to let them know you tied the knot. Whether the friends or family live too far, or simply could not attend, these announcements keep them in the loop still, and also open up the potential for them to express their best wishes or even send a gift. The type of wording you would use on this type of announcement card would be something like…

Mr. and Mrs. James DuBois
announce the marriage of their daughter

Jennifer Margaret
with
Mr. Allen Hamster

on Saturday, May the second
two thousand and seventeen

Again, this is the more formal option. If you’re choosing to go informal…well then it can contain something like…

We did it!! After eleven longs years of waiting for Allen to pop the question, we finally walked down the aisle on May 2, 2017. We wish you could have attended, although I’m sure you were there in spirit….yada yada yada…

Now with the wording choice out of the way, a few more tips to add to the invitations themselves. Wording is what ultimately sets the tone for your entire wedding and invitation. By saying something like “request the honour of your presence” it has a completely different energy, than say “With joy in their hearts, Jennifer and Allen hope you will join them…”. See the difference?

Also, make sure NOT to include your wedding registry on the invitations. Just. Don’t. This should be something mentioned by the couple’s wedding website, or word of mouth. NEVER on the invitations themselves.

If you’re also hoping for a more personalized touch to your wedding invitations and announcements, then simply address them by hand. This takes time, and energy, and a good hand massage afterwards, but it is totally worth it in the end. Your guests will feel important, loved, and honored to be invited.

If you have any etiquette questions for us, make sure you drop us a line and we’ll try our best to be your wedding invitation gurus.