Wedding Invitation Wording
For years wedding invitation wording was simple. Most couples followed traditional wedding etiquette and the bride’s family paid for the entire wedding. These days with couples getting married later in life, paying for their own wedding or getting married for the second or third time, wedding invitation wording is not as straightforward and wording wedding invitations correctly is very important, especially for traditional and formal weddings.
The two most important things to remember when wording wedding invitations is to show respect to the people paying for the wedding and to make the final call on who to include on the invitations.
Traditional Wedding Invitation Wording
The traditional wording of a wedding invitation reflected the bride being ‘given away’ by her parents and therefore her parents were always listed as the hosts and the bride’s name was always listed before the groom’s name.
These days, the wedding invitation wording should reflect who is paying for the wedding. If both sets of parents are sharing the costs, then both sets should be listed as hosts as they are sharing hosting duties, or if the groom’s parents are footing the bill, then they should be listed as the hosts on the invitation.
When couples pay for their own weddings, the couple are the hosts on the wedding invitation, with the bride’s name listed first. If you feel uncomfortable listing yourselves at the hosts, you can still list both sets of parents as the hosts.
Modern Wedding Invitation Wording
These days, as couples get married their parents may be divorced, remarried, or have deceased parents which therefore require special invitation wording.
If the bride or groom’s parents are divorced, it’s the bride or groom’s choice as to who is listed on the wedding invitation. If the bride or groom wishes for both parents to listed, then their full names should be listed separately as ‘Mr. John Smith and Ms Julie Jones’ (i.e., not as ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith).
It is also the bride or groom’s choice as to whether or not to include any step parents on the invitation. If the bride or groom wishes to include step parents, then their parent’s names can be combined and the step parent’s name listed separately, such as ‘Mr. and Mrs. John Smith and Mr. Jack Brown’.
In the end, it’s your wedding - do whatever makes you and your families happy.
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