Formal Wedding Invitation Wording
Modern wedding etiquette offers couples a plethora of choices in terms of acceptable wording for formal wedding invitations. Not only have weddings and wedding etiquette evolved over time, but so have modern families. Traditionally, formal wedding invitation wording followed a set format with little room for modification. Today, however, wording a formal wedding invitation often means accommodating situations beyond the traditional nuclear family.
Proper Format
While ideas about what makes a modern family have changed, certain elements of wedding invitations remain constant. Traditional formatting, including the ordering of names and polite wording, are still considered proper for a formal wedding. For example, names of the wedding hosts appear first, followed by “requests the honor of your presence,” the full name of the bride with no title, the full name of the groom with title, followed by date, time and finally, location.
Traditional Wording Example
For formal wedding invitation wording, the following example illustrates a traditional wedding invitation. Note that dates, times and locations are all written out.
Mr. and Mrs. John Paul Doe
request the honor of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Jane Elizabeth Doe
to
Mr. Joe Alan Smith
on Sunday, the first of April,
at two o'clock in the afternoon
Somewhere in America Church
Anywhere, New York
Modifications to Accommodate Modern Families
Traditionally, wording for formal wedding invitations listed the parents of the bride as hosts. Modern families, however, do not always follow the tradition of both parents of the bride hosting the wedding. Divorce, remarriage, hosting by parents of the groom, double weddings and self-hosted weddings all require modifications to traditional wording.
Divorced parents are listed separately. Rather than “Mr. and Mrs. John Paul Doe,” the invitation reads “Mr. John Paul Doe and Ms. Jane Ann Doe.” If the mother of the bride has remarried, the formal address can use the bride's stepfather's name, such as “Mr. John Paul Doe and Mrs. Donald Adam Jones.”
Weddings hosted by the parents of the groom simply list his parents name, following the same format as if the parents of the bride hosted.
Double weddings list the oldest daughter and groom first, inserting the second, younger couple before the time, date and location.
Self-hosted weddings, second weddings and similar situations where the couple hosts the wedding omit the use of parents' names. Rather, a formal wedding invitation for a self-hosted wedding begins with “The honor of your presence is requested...” All other elements, including the order of names and spelling out dates and times, remain the same.