Q&A: How Important is Wedding Invitation Wording Etiquette?

When the time comes to customize your wedding invitations, crafting the right wording can often cause couples to pause. While it feels simple, writing out your actual invitation wording can be so complicated!

You want it to feel personal. You don’t want to make any mistakes. And you certainly don’t want to leave any critical pieces of information out. But what about etiquette? Wedding invitation wording etiquette might sound old-fashioned, but hear us out.

While traditional etiquette might feel outdated, there some invitation rules that are as important as ever.

Not Very Important: Using Formal Wording

Have you ever received a wedding invitation that spells certain words in a way that makes you scratch your head? For instance –“the honour of your presence is requested” or “the favour of a reply is requested”. If you’ve wondered why honor and favor is spelled with that extra “u” on wedding invitations, we’ve got your answer.

Honour and favour are the British spellings of these words and are traditionally used on wedding invitations that are more formal. Honour is also traditionally used for weddings being held in a place of worship.

If you’re having a formal wedding, by all mean, use these spellings. If your wedding is casual or if you’re just plain weirded out by spelling those words in a way you never have before, use the Americanized versions. Better yet – use wedding invitation wording that avoids them altogether!

Pretty Important: Spell Everything Out

This is a simple one. Spell. Everything. Out! This is your wedding invitation, not a group text. The only thing this does not apply to is the spelling of Mr. & Mrs.

Most commonly, this applies to your wedding date, time and your venue’s address. Here’s a great example:

Wording with abbreviations (wrong!)

Mr. and Mrs. John Brown
invite you to the marriage of their daughter
Samiah Elizabeth
to
Marcus Nathan Filmore
On Sat. Sept. 11^th, 2022 at 1:00
The Hilton Grand Ballroom
9 E. 36^th Ave.
Chicago, IL  

Wording without abbreviations (right!)

 Mr. and Mrs. John Brown
invite you to the marriage of their daughter
Samiah Elizabeth
to
Marcus Nathan Filmore
On Saturday, the eleventh of September
At one o’clock in the afternoon
The Hilton Grand Ballroom
9 East 36^th Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

 

Very Important: Including the Right People

Your wedding invitation wording should include your host’s names. Your hosts are the people who are paying for your wedding. That might be you and your significant other alone, but if your parents are kicking in a significant amount of cash, give them the honor of a place on your invitation.

This is done right at the beginning of your wording. Here are 4 examples that show you how to word your invites both with and without parents included:

Samiah Elizabeth Brown
and
Marcus Nathan Filmore
request the honor of your presence  

or

 Mr. and Mrs. John Brown
invite you to the marriage of their daughter
Samiah Elizabeth
to
Marcus Nathan Filmore  

or

Mr. and Mrs. John Brown
along with Mr. and Mrs. Adam Filmore
invite you to the marriage of their children
Samiah Elizabeth
and
Marcus Nathan  

or

together with our families,
Samiah Elizabeth Brown
and
Marcus Nathan Filmore
request the honor of your presence

Just Don’t: Add Registry Information

It’s one of our most asked questions and we’re sticking to traditional etiquette here. We’ve already covered all the reasons you don’t put registry information on your wedding invitations…most importantly, manners matter!

And Don’t Forget: The Envelopes

The same advice about spelling everything out applies here. You can use formal or informal addressing. Here are two examples:

Mr. and Mrs. James Hanley
183 North Elm Avenue
Somerset, Wisconsin 52019

James and Lucy Hanley
183 North Elm Avenue
Somerset, Wisconsin 52019

 

Happy planning, brides and grooms!  xoxo