The Parents or Hosts

Traditionally the wedding invitation wording would have the bride’s parents name since they were normally the ones hosting the wedding and “giving” the bride away. But that is no longer the end all be all for invitations. You can definitely still state the bride’s parents name as hosting but you can also omit it if they are not the ones hosting or paying for the wedding. You can also choose to list both parents names since it’s a union of both families. This decision is definitely a personal one that the couple needs to be ok with in the end whether you list both or one or no sets of parents. Also if there are multiple parents due to re marriages, etc then you can take that into consideration when deciding who to list.

There are a lot of examples out there on the best way to word this based on your own experience, here are a few in varying formalities:

Mr. & Mrs. Peter Smith request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their children . . .

Peter & Sandy Smith invite you to the marriage of their daughter . . . . . . son of Paul & Sarah Baker

The Couple

This is pretty much a necessity! You need the name of the couple, I can’t see an occasion where you wouldn’t need this item. But after that how you put in the names can be done in a variety of ways. You could use first names, full names, or first and middle. A lot of these decisions can be based on the formality of the wedding that you want to convey to your guests.

The Details

Once you have who is getting married you need to tell your guests when and where it is happening or else no one will show up! The amount of details you have can change depending on what you are including in your invitation suite. If you are having a separate card with the nitty gritty details or a website with more information then you can keep it pretty simple.

Here is what I would recommend adding:

• Date
• Time
• Location (you don’t need the full address if you will have it elsewhere)

All Together

Those are really the main elements you need for your wedding invitation wording. But how you put it all together and the overall formality of it is up to you and the type of wedding you’re having. Keeping the vibe cohesive is really important so the guests get the right first impression of your upcoming wedding!

You can also add a few additional lines in the invitation and customize it to fit your personalities. Some will also add a simple “reception to follow” line at the end and then all of those details will be on accompanying detail cards. In the end make sure you make it your own and don’t over complicate it!