Wedding Invitation Etiquette

The wedding invitation is one of the most important aspects of any wedding. Most couples spend hours pouring over stationery, fonts, and wording. You’ve probably ordered samples and perfected your guest list, but you may not be able to shake that nagging feeling of, “What am I missing?” Well, while every good bride should be well versed in the necessary formal etiquette for her wedding, don’t fret if you find yourself in need of a few pointers. So, here are some tips for appropriate wedding invitation etiquette.

1.)   Formal wedding invitations are always printed in black ink.

2.)   The name of the people who are paying for the wedding is always on the invitation. If it’s the bride’s parents then their names should appear first, if its both sets of parents, then include both sets of names. For instance, “ Mr. and Mrs. William John Harris request the honor of your presence…” or “Mr. and Mrs. William John Harris and Mr. and Mrs. James Anthony Ford request the pleasure of your company…”

3.)   Be sure to use you and your groom’s full names, including middle names on your invitation. If you don’t want to use your middle names, you should omit them instead of using initials. For example, “Sarah Lynn Harris to Mr. Robert James Ford” or “Sarah Harris to Mr. Robert Ford”.

4.)   When addressing your invitations, you should use the middle initial of the addressee only if you know what it is, “ Mr. and Mrs. Albert D. Cross” or “Miss Julianne E. Baker”. Always include a formal salutation on both the outer and inner envelope such as, “Mr.”, “Mrs.” or “Miss”.

5.)   Be sure to spell out numbers, dates, and the year. For example, if you are getting married on June 21, 2010, your invitation should say, “The twenty-first of June, two thousand and ten”.

6.)   Use roman numerals when writing out someone’s name, instead of “the second” or “2nd”.

If you aren’t good about spell checking and your grammar is a little off, the best thing you can do for yourself is order the invitations from a professional instead of making them yourself. If you are making them yourself, be sure to have several people proofread them, before you decide to print 150 of them with a misspelled word on them. Wedding invitations take time and patience, even if you are ordering them from somewhere. Be sure to look over your sample very careful, before giving the okay to have an entire order processed. Misspelled words and bad grammar, will take away from the formality of the invitation and overshadow the extraordinary event it is proclaiming, so even if you have to have a High School grammar teacher look over it, you will be glad you did, when you get them back and they are perfect. You can also do more research regarding invitation etiquette and wording, if you find yourself asking a lot of tough questions. If you can’t find the answer, just go with your gut instinct. Even in the most stressful situations, every bride always seems to know exactly what to do to make her big day everything she wanted it to be.