Wedding Vowels: Wedding Invitation Etiquette

We all know our a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y's, but do we know why we use certain verbiage on wedding invitations? There are certain traditional etiquette tips which brides have subscribed to for generations, and there are newer recommendations as far as proper etiquette. Through my wedding vowels series, I hope to bring you some helpful information for wording your wedding invitations so you can be confident when sending out those invites.

There is a lot of ground to cover, so we'll start with the basic: consistency and spelling. Check out the invitation above. Notice that the date, year, and time is spelled out. This is one of the first things our consultants check for when proofreading your order. If it is a formal wedding invitation, and the date is spelled out, we recommend spelling out the time as well. The same case goes for when you use the numerical form of the date.

Please also note the spelling of the word 'honour'. 'Honour' is the British English spelling and 'honor' is the American English spelling of this word. They are interchangeable and it is completely acceptable to use either. Our recommendation when it comes to this word is remain consistent with your use of the language. For example, a common phrase on a response card is "The favour of your reply is requested by (insert date here)." If you use 'honour' on your invitation, then it would be appropriate to use 'favour' on your response card.

I hope this information was helpful! If you have any questions regarding wedding invitation wording etiquette, please post a comment! I would be happy to answer them in an upcoming Wedding Vowel post.

Invitation featured above: Flaunt the Natural

p.s. Congrats to Maggie Gyllenhaal & Peter Sarsgaard who were wed last week and share 12 vowels between their unique names. Their monikers inspired the title of this post.

Comments

[Jenna]

Always needing help with this kind of stuff.

[SB]

Nice to hear the Wedding Vows :)

[Crysti Blaylock]

I am an only child and want to give my parents a 50th anniversary reception. Do I include my name and husband's name and our children on the invitation. I would like to say (name ^ name) and grandsons of (name Name. Is that ok?

[reilly]

Hi Crysti,

It is definitely okay to include your names on the invitation as the host of your parent's anniversary reception. I would recommend wording similar to the following:

Because you have shared in
their lives
by your friendship and love
we invite you to join
in the celebration of the
50 year Wedding Anniversary
YOUR PARENT"S NAMES HERE
DATE HERE
LOCATION HERE

YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND'S NAMES HERE
and family

Or, you could replace the words 'and family' with your children's names.

I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions!

[Wedding Forum]

good stuff... Thankz for the info.

[marriage]

Thank you so much for bringing up this,very informative nice invitations.

winnie