Classic Wedding Invitations

Once you’ve chosen a formal wedding invitation design you love and personalized it to suit your style, you may be wondering about the rules when it comes to properly writing and addressing the invitations. If you’re looking for some tips on formal wedding invitation etiquette, see below for some simple best practices to follow.

Examples of Traditional Wording for Formal Wedding Invitations

Let’s take a look at a few examples of proper wording for wedding invitations for a few different scenarios.

1) If the bride’s parents are hosting:

If the bride's parents are hosting, it’s customary to leave off the bride's last name and include the groom’s. However, if the bride has a different last name than her parents, her full name should be used. If the groom's parents are hosting, the bride's last name should be included.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Roberts

Request the pleasure of your presence

At the marriage of their daughter Heather Marie

to Joseph Adam Smith

Saturday, the nineteenth of September

Two thousand and eighteen

At four o’clock in the afternoon

Reception to follow

2) If both sets of parents are jointly hosting:

List the bride's parents and groom's parents on separate lines, starting with the bride's. Since both last names are included in the greeting, you don’t need to use either the bride’s or groom's last name, unless, as in the exception mentioned in the above example, either the bride or groom has a different last name than their parents. In that case, the full bride’s or groom’s name should be listed out, in addition to the full names of the parents. 

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Roberts and

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Smith

Request the honor of your presence

At the marriage of their children

Heather Marie

and

Joseph Adam

Saturday, the nineteenth of September

Two thousand and eighteen

At four o’clock in the afternoon

(Reception to follow)

3) If you and your fiancé are hosting:

The greeting begins with the request line and skips the host line.

The honor of your presence

is requested at the marriage of

Heather Marie Roberts

to Joseph Adam Smith

Saturday, the nineteenth of September

Two thousand and eighteen

At four o’clock in the afternoon

(Reception to follow)

Tips for Addressing Outer Envelopes on Formal Wedding Invitations

When addressing wedding invitation envelopes, keep the following in mind:

• With the exception of Mr., Mrs., or Ms., don’t use abbreviations (for example, state names and the words “Street,” “Avenue,” “Boulevard,” etc. should always be spelled out).
• Do not use symbols (for instance, the word “and” should always be spelled out).
• Don’t use initials.
• When writing your return address on the envelopes, it should either be placed in the upper left corner on the front of the envelope or centered on the back flap. Use coordinating, personalized to give your envelopes a professional quality.

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