Make sure you get your wedding invitation wording right with the following tips and examples…
Who’s Hosting the Wedding?
The first point is to decide who is sending the invitations. I don’t mean who’s putting them in envelopes and licking the stamps, I mean who’s hosting the wedding?
Hosting is a nice word for paying. In olden times parents always hosted the wedding and paid for it from their daughter’s dowry… Mr and Mrs X would be leading their daughter from spinsterhood into married life. That, incidentally, is why the bride’s name always appears first on the wedding invitation wording; she’s being given(!).
Today many couples have set up home together and the wedding is a way of cementing their relationship. If they are paying for the celebrations themselves, the norm is for the wedding invitations to be sent from the bride and groom. If the bride and groom AND both sets of parents are paying for the wedding, ‘Together with their parents’ is a lovely start to an invitation.
Today it’s common for parents to have remarried and for several family members to be listed on the wedding invitation. This is not as complicated as one would assume: Bride’s family first, Groom’s second — written as the family dynamic dictates. So, if Mary is the bride and Mary’s mother (Jo Green) divorced Mary’s father (Ed Brown) and remarried (Jim Green), the invitation would read…
‘Mr Ed Brown, Mrs Jo Green and Mr Jim Green request the pleasure of your company at the wedding of etc, etc.’
That’s assuming that Mr Jim Green, Mary’s step-father, is making an equal contribution to the wedding. If he isn’t then just pop the parents’ names on, or even better, use the ‘Together with their parents’.
Other Details
So, hosting agreed — what next? Well, there is a relatively straightforward rule to the remaining text you need to include in your wedding invitation:
- Host
- Couple
- Where
- When
- Time
- Reception
You can obviously shake these around as you see fit, but really the venues should appear on the invitation in the order your guests visit them; church first, reception after. If you are having a civil ceremony in the same venue your wedding breakfast will take place in it’s normal to write “and afterwards in celebration”.
Wedding Invitation Wording Examples
Below I’ve listed some popular wedding invitation wording examples for you… good luck!
Bride’s Parents Hosting
Mr and Mrs Browning request the pleasure of the company of Jo and Simon at the marriage of their daughter Chloe Emma to Mr Mark Empire at All Saints Church, Weybridge, Surrey on Saturday May 6th 2010 at 2 o’clock and afterwards in celebration at Juliennes, Weybridge, Surrey
Bride and Groom Hosting
Chloe and Mark request the pleasure of the company of Jo and Simon at their marriage at Juliennes, Weybridge, Surrey on Saturday May 6th 2010 at 2 o’clock and afterwards in celebration
Divorced Parents Hosting
Mr Evan Brown and Mrs Helen Brown request the pleasure of the company of Jo and Simon at the marriage of their daughter Chloe Emma to Mr Mark Empire at All Saints Church, Weybridge, Surrey on Saturday May 6th 2010 at 2 o’clock and afterwards in celebration at Juliennes, Weybridge, Surrey
Parents and Bride and Groom Hosting
Together with their parents, Chloe Emma and Mr Mark Empire request the pleasure of your company on the occasion of their marriage at Juliennes, Weybridge, Surrey on Saturday May 6th 2010 at 2 o’clock and afterwards for the reception and evening celebrations
Both Sets of Parents Hosting
Mr and Mrs Evan Brown and Mr and Mrs John Dickson are delighted to invite Jo and Simon to celebrate the marriage of Chloe Emma to Mr Mark Empire at Juliennes, Weybridge, Surrey on Saturday May 6th 2010 at 2 o’clock and afterwards in celebration
Guest post by Natalie O’Donovan of 2by2 Creative
Image from 2by2 Creative
