How you choose to word your wedding invitations is a very important part of your wedding planning so it is worth researching to get it right. The incorrect wording could result in someone's feelings being hurt or incorrect information being printed and rendering your beautiful invitations useless, and the cost of reprints can be an extra expense that could have be easily avoided with careful thought beforehand. Your wedding invitation, to many guests, will be the first notice they have about your upcoming wedding, so you need to be clear with details and share a reflection of your own personal style. There are certain rules of etiquette that should be observed when choosing your wording for your wedding invitation.
Traditionally in the past, the brides parents were expected to pay for everything at their daughters wedding, but these days with spiraling costs, that may no longer be the case, and quite often all parties involved will help with the bills. Firstly, it must be determined who is paying for, and therefore hosting the wedding. The hosting party should be the first names to appear on the invitation, which means specifically that they are solely paying for the wedding. The wedding of a son or daughter is a very special occasion to any parent and as such, having their names mentioned on the invitation, is a courteous and polite gesture, even they have no financial interest in the wedding at all.
Do you need to consider a widowed, separated or remarried parent, or parents with different surnames? Would you like to mention a deceased parent or step parent? I have given examples of these situations below.
Of course customs and traditions for all aspects of your wedding will vary depending on your family background, ethnic customs and beliefs, and changes to your wording should be made accordingly.
Following are examples of a traditional wedding invitation wording, if the Brides parents are paying for the wedding. However, if the Groom's parents are primarily paying for, and hosting the wedding, the order of names in the examples below are simply switched around to suit.
Brides Parents request the honour of the presence of Guest names at the marriage of their daughter Brides name to Grooms Full Name on Saturday, 19th September, 2009 at 4.00pm at St Anne's Church Church Address Etc. However, you may wish to acknowledge the Grooms parents as well, and in this case your invitation could read, Brides Parents request the honour of the presence of Guest names at the marriage of their daughter Brides name to Grooms Full Name son of Groom's parents names Etc.
If however both sets of parents are paying the wedding, the wording could read like this, Bride's Parents together with Groom's parents cordially invite Guest names to attend the marriage of their children Brides name To Groom's name Etc. In a situation where the Bride's or Groom's parents may be divorced and both remarried and both parents co-host, your wording could read, Brides mother and new husband names(or leave singular if unmarried) and Brides father and new wife names (or leave singular if unmarried) invites Guest Names to attend the marriage of Brides name to Groom's name Son of Groom's parents names (optional) on Etc.
Or if you would like to specify who the parent is in a remarried/stepparent situation, Brides mother and new husband's name or partner name' requests the honour of the presence of Guest names to attend the marriage of 'Brides Mother Name' daughter Brides name to Groom's name Son of Groom's parents names (optional) on Etc. In the situation where there may be a deceased parent you would like to acknowledge, the wording could read like this, Brides mother name invites Guest Names to attend the marriage of Brides name Daughter of Brides mother name and the late Brides fathers name to Groom's name Son of Groom's parents names (optional) on Etc.
The parents names can be printed using their married salutations, or full first names or both. Traditionally, the parents names would be printed as follows; Mr and Mrs Graeme Jones request the company of... Or Mrs Julia and Mr Graeme Jones request the company of... Or Julia and Graeme Jones request the company of...
Of course the line 'request the pleasure of the company of' can be changed and altered for any mood, to any number of polite phrases as follows,
o cordially invite...
o request the honor of the presence of...
o guest name are invited to share in the celebration of the matrimony of...
o would love guest name to be a part of the celebration...
o ask guest name to join us for the union of...
o invite guest name to share in the joy of the marriage of...
o ask guest name to be present at the ceremony uniting...
o invite guest name to be with us at the wedding of...
o invite guest name to witness the nuptials of...
o please join our families on the occasion of the marriage of...
The final word is that it is your decision and whether you follow tradition or create your own special wordings is entirely up to you and your fianc矇, there are no rules written in concrete, but remember, you should carefully consider any person or persons that you may offend, or upset, by accidentally leaving them off the invitation or out of your wedding planning altogether.
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