SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR INVITATION WORDING
1. Who is the Wedding Invitation coming from?
Example A above is of a traditional style where the invite is coming from the bride’s parent(s). In some cases the invitation may come from both sets of parent(s) and in one of our favourite layouts the invitation was from the couple’s children (see example D below). Another more common form is where the invitation is coming direct from the couple getting married, as seen in example B below.
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2. Who the Invitation is going to?
In example A, we have shown the option to have the guest names written inside which we normally print in black bold. There are different styles for you to choose for the font we use for the guest personalisation (see G below). If you are not having your guests names printed then you can have the option of having a dotted line (as per examples B & D below) or word it in a way so that no names are required (as per example C below).
3. Who is getting married?
While we normally print the main body text of the invitation in black or pencil grey, we would typically print the names of the married couple in a different colour of your choice. We can use a line for each name (usually full names per example A above) or a single line for both names (per example B below, where some customers just use their forenames only).
4. Where & When?
Next we usually print where the marriage is taking place. Location, followed by date, followed by the time. Here you can let us know any preferences you have, for example some customers wish to have the date written in full (Saturday the Sixth of August, Two Thousand and Twenty Two) or two o’clock as opposed to 2:00pm.
5. …and the Reception afterwards?
Then follows where the reception venue is being held. In example A above this is separate from the wedding ceremony (which is for a church wedding). Where both wedding and reception are held at the same venue then we would normally word it as per example D below. We normally add something along the lines of “for an evening of fun, friendship, love & laughter” or slight variation on this as a lot of couples like to remind the guests that while this is an important formal event, it is also one to celebrate and have fun in the reception that follows. We can also include a line if you wish on the closing of the celebrations, such as “Carriages at Midnight”, as seen in example A above.
6. …yes, we would love to come!
Finally, you will need to inform your guests how they should RSVP to your invitation and by when. If you are having a separate RSVP Card with pre-addressed envelope then you may wish to simply state “Your RSVP Card with return envelope is enclosed” as we have done in samples A-C. Alternatively you may put an address underneath the date and some couples will put their email or wedding website address if they wish their guests to reply via their site. The RSVP date may depend on when your venue needs numbers for catering so check with them. Please also bear in mind that you may wish to invite reserve guests (and if you are thinking of ordering spares for this reason then you may wish to include a later RSVP date for these spares or not have one at all).
So is it formal or informal?
Our final advice is that this is your wedding, your special day and it is important that you have the wording that you both want.
We have seen hundreds and hundreds of slightly different variations ranging from the very formal to a more relaxed and laid back style. We would suggest that you choose a style that matches your style of personality and/or the tone that you want to set for the day.
You will see a couple of examples of the latter in examples E & F below.
Examples of different fonts for your guest personalisation
These are the different styles for the italic font to print your guest names. We are more than happy to show you a few samples on your proofs to help you decide.