How to Write a Wedding Invitation

Be original on your wedding invitations and don't simply settle for the generic pre-written invitation. Use your own voice to describe how special this event is and how important it is to you that your guests attend the ceremony. Send out invitations at least six weeks before the ceremony to give your guests plenty of time to make travel arrangements.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Writing Pens
• Stationery
• Personalized Stationery
• Wedding Programs
• Wedding Invitations
• Postage Stamps
• Wedding Planner Book

1. Decide who is announcing the wedding - the couple's parents or the bride and groom themselves.

2. Determine if your invitation will be formal or informal. You can say 'Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Melendy request the honor of your presence' or use a more casual phrase like 'please join us.'

3. In general, use the term 'the honor of your presence' if the ceremony will be held in a place of worship. Otherwise use 'the pleasure of your company' or another less formal phrase.

4. For a traditional invitation, list the bride's name - usually first and middle - after her parents' names. For example, 'Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Melendy request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter, Wendy Sue.'

5. Follow the bride's name with the full name of the groom: 'to John Jacob Williams.' You may choose to name the groom's parents: 'son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Williams.'

6. Write out the date: 'Friday, the ninth of June, two thousand one.'

7. Mention the time of the ceremony: 'at ten o'clock.'

8. List the location and full address.

9. Enclose a separate map and a stamped, self-addressed reply card.

Tips & Warnings

• Invitations to a small or informal wedding are usually handwritten, not engraved. In designing them, feel free to use your imagination.
• Include all the guests' names on the envelope. Avoid impersonal terms such as 'and family.'
• If you want to depart from the traditional wording, consult your stationer for ideas - or look at wedding invitations you've received, and and decide which ones you like best.

[khristena]

on 7/17/2008 How do I add the shipping of wedding gifts into the wedding invitation.

on 9/5/2006 Under a strict budget, and with this being the second time around for both of us, we went with something different for our invitations. We created photo greeting cards using the Kodak Easy Share Gallery, it cost $48 total for 60 cards. There are many designs to choose from and horizontal or vertical layouts - don't limit yourself to just the ones that say "wedding" on them - we used the sage green cards with the gold aspen leaf. We received many compliments on how the invitations fit us perfectly, and many people were glad to see our photo incorporated into the card. Some have even saved the cards as a wedding keepsake. They envelopes provided are somewhat flimsy, so I bought card stock envelopes and postcards at a local craft store, printing out the response cards on the postcard stock on my home computer with a font to match the one we used on the cards. The cost was less than half what we would have spent on traditional invitations, and completely unique.

on 11/22/2005 I recently saw a wonderful invitation from a couple who had children from other marriges, the front of the invitation had a picture of the family that one of the children had drawn, I thought it was a great way to make the children a part of the wedding. I plan to use a picture my future step daughter drew on mine

on 12/27/2007 I think that your invitation should express your love for one another. Maybe not make it so fancy but, instead, make it loving and laughter written.

on 11/22/2005 If you use response cards, put a small number on the back corner of each card. Have a master list that tells you which number goes with each invitation. That way, if you cannot read the name on the returned response card, you can look up who it was from.