You’ve heard it said a million times, but it bears repeating: your wedding invitations set the tone of the event for guests. The design choices, formality, and—you guessed it!—wording, all help guests know what to expect when they show up at your wedding. Like everything in the wedding planning process, deciding on wording for your invitations can be really overwhelming! This guide is here to help you navigate all of your choices and help you use traditional etiquette rules, should you choose to follow them. Are you getting married in a cathedral and having a black tie reception? Your wording should be more formal and might follow traditional etiquette guidelines. Are you hosting a more casual affair in your backyard? Your invitations should reflect that. Ultimately though, your invitations should reflect who you are as a couple. You can phrase them however you want—remember, it’s your day!

So how do you nail down the perfect level of formality? What are the pieces of information that are typically included on a wedding invitation? Most wedding invitations consist of five key ingredients, with room to get creative as your level of formality allows. Below you’ll find a handy cheat sheet for an invitation wording formula:

NO. 1

Who’s hosting?

Many invitations start off with a line that states who is extending the invitation to the wedding. In a more formal invitation, this line is followed by a request line. “Request the honor of your presence” is traditionally used to signify that the ceremony will take place in a house of worship, while “request the pleasure of your company” signifies that the ceremony will take place in a secular location. If the couple is hosting the wedding, you can drop the host line and add the request line after the couple’s names.

NO. 2

The couple

The bride’s name comes first in traditional wording, and if her parent’s names are included in the hosting line, just her first and middle name are listed, followed by the groom’s full name. For same sex couples, you can lead with the person whose parents are hosting, or simply lead with whichever name you’d like! For less formal wording, skip the middle and last names and just use your first names. Traditionally, using “and” between the names rather than “to” signifies a Jewish wedding.

NO. 3

Date and time

Formally worded invitations should spell out all numbers in the date and time, while more casual invitations need not. You can also employ a combination of the two to achieve the perfect balance of formality.

NO. 4

Location

Just the venue name, city, and state are necessary here, unless the event is being hosted at a private residence, in which case you can include the full address (minus the zip code).

NO. 5

Reception line

If your reception will be held at the same location as your ceremony, this line can simply read “dinner and dancing to follow” or “reception to follow.” If the reception is at a different location, you can list that venue on a second line, or you can opt to put reception information on a separate card.

Examples

FORMAL

Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Brady
request the honor of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter

Felicity Jane
to
Grant Robert Peterson

Sunday, the seventh of October
two thousand twenty-four
at half past three in the afternoon

St. Mark’s Cathedral
Brooklyn, New York

reception to follow at The White Rabbit

FORMAL

Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Brady
and
Mr. and Mrs. Scott Peterson
request the pleasure of your company to
celebrate the marriage of their children

Felicity Jane Brady
and
Grant Robert Peterson

Sunday, the seventh of October
two thousand twenty-four
at half past three in the afternoon

Prospect Park
Brooklyn, New York

dinner and dancing to follow

SEMI-FORMAL

Together with their families,

Felicity Jane Brady & Grant Robert Peterson
invite you to celebrate their marriage

Sunday, October 7th, 2024
at four in the afternoon

Red Hook Winery
Brooklyn, NY

dinner and dancing to follow

CASUAL

Felicity & Grant
celebrate with us as we get married

Sunday, October 7th, 2024 at 4pm

501 Union
Brooklyn, NY

festivities to follow

Whether you want to follow every etiquette rule in the book or throw all the rules out the window, hopefully this guide has empowered you to create wording for your wedding invitations that’s a perfect reflect of you and your event. And if you’re interested in some extra help in creating custom invitations made just for you, fill out our contact form and let’s chat!