Wording Your Wedding Invitations

It can be a really difficult decision when you’re trying to word your invitations. These days, the traditional rules of wedding wording invitation etiquette are completely flexible. Bridal Fantasy has put together some examples to help you in this dilemma. For the purposes of our examples, the bride’s name is Jennifer Smith and the groom’s name is Bill Brown.

(PS: hosts are the people who are paying for the wedding, and the bride’s information goes first)

Traditional wording – it is customary in wedding invitation wording to spell out everything, including the time and date of your wedding. Each section of information occupies its own line, and no commas are used except between the location of the wedding and between the city and province.

_______________________ (proper names of those hosting)
request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of their ________ (relationship to host – usually daughter)
Jennifer Ann (bride’s first and middle name only)
to
William Robert Brown (groom’s full name)
on Saturday, the thirty-first of July, two thousand and eight
at one o’clock in the afternoon
______________________ (name of the location of the wedding)
____________, _________ (city and province)

Sidenote: if the bride’s parents are the host, leave off the bride’s last name. However, if the groom’s parents are included in the hosting, the bride’s last name should be included.

Nowadays, there are usually a lot more than just the bride’s parents hosting. The list can range from the bride and groom’s parents, the couple themselves, stepparents and the list can go on. If one set of parent’s is hosting, their names should be listed at the top of the invitation.

Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
request the honour…

If both sets of parents are jointly hosting, you should list both of them on separate lines, with the bride’s parents first:

Mr. and Mrs. John Smith &
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Brown
request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of their children…

or you can word your wedding invitation like this:

Mr and Mrs. John Smith
request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Jennifer Ann
to
William Robert
son of
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Brown…

If the couple is hosting the wedding:

Miss Jennifer Ann Smith
and
Mr. William Robert Brown
together with their parents
Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
and
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Brown
request the honour…

These are just a couple of examples of wedding invitation wording to help get you started. Check out magazines, the internet and talk to your stationer if one of these doesn’t quite fit what you were looking for. Using the above examples as guidelines can help jump start your wedding invitation wording and save you a lot of time!