Helpful Hints for Planning a Wedding

Wedding Invitations

By Linds | March 11, 2008

There are many details to include on a wedding invitation. There is a balance between finding the perfect wording and providing information to your guests. I offer the following tips:

1.) Check with your parents to find out if they have any opinions on wording. Conversely, you may draft something and show it to them and ask their advice. You may want a very formal approach where the parents names are mentioned followed by the full names (middle names optional) of the bride and groom. For example:

Mr. and Mrs. Bride's parents
request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Bride
and Mr.Groom son of
Mr. and Mrs. Groom's parents
Date
Time
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
Address Line 3

2.) The bride should be listed first, using first and middle names only. Then the groom should be listed, using both title and middle name. Less formal names would appear:

Bride
and
Mr. Groom
Together with our parents, invite you to join in a celebration of our love.

3.) It is traditional for the date and time to be written out in completion:

Saturday, the eighth of August
two thousand and seven
at half after ten o'clock in the morning

Or less formally it can appear as :
Saturday, August 8, 2007
at 10:30 a.m.

4.) If there is going to be a reception to follow the ceremony, the details can either be included on the wedding invitation or on a separate reply card.

5.) Don't forget out of courtesy, you should mail your wedding invitations no later than 6-8 weeks before the wedding. If you are nervous about people making plans on your wedding date before receiving their invitations, I recommend calling, emailing or sending "save the date" cards.

6.) Be sure to include a date by which your guests must RSVP and information how to RSVP. Set the RSVP date for at least 3 weeks before the wedding. This allows enough time to give a head count to the caterers, arrange for beverages, make place cards, order Wedding Favors, etc.

7.) For more fantastic suggestions on invitation wording visit www.versethis.com