Wedding Invitation Wording
Wedding invitation wording refers to what and how you write on your wedding card. There are no hard and fast rules on how to design a wedding invitation. The design is totally up to you. But when it comes to what to write on a card, there are some essentials you should follow to make it informative.
Some people, who order wedding cards from us, find themselves not sure of what to write on the invitation card. Luckily, we always have sample cards from which they can easily get guided. However, they have little idea about the essential wedding info. It’s is why we have this time come up with this article on the basics of the wedding invitation wording.
What Are These Essentials for Wedding Invitation Wording?
One thing you must know is that the primary purpose of a wedding invitation card is to invite guests to your wedding. It should, therefore, be informative in addition to having a beautiful design for the entire wedding card. The design gives the first impression guests will have of your wedding. It has to be good. The wedding invitation wording provides the information the guests need to know. It should, therefore, spell out all the essential wedding info as far as who, what and where are concerned.
As you work on your wedding invitation wording, you should consider these five essentials:
- The host line
- Names
- Invitation line
- The information, and lastly
- The party line
Having mentioned them, now let’s try to see what each of them stands for.
#1 – Host Line
The first line(s) of wedding invitation wording is for listing out the wedding hosts. Who is hosting the wedding? Is it the parents of the bride and bridegroom? Is it you, the bride and groom? Who are they? That information is so crucial to your wedding guests. You need to think about it and decide as per your situation.
In Uganda, and I believe even in other African countries, the families of the bride and groom usually host the wedding. If your parents are all married, you, therefore, have to write something like this – “Mr. & Mrs Justin Okello together with Mr. & Mrs Stanley Obua”. But if your parents are single parents, it’s prudent to list them individually by their names. Why? It’s because you should avoid giving to any of them the impression that you isolated them.
The host line is an honour in itself that you give to your parents. It doesn’t relate in any way to who contributed what to your wedding or upbringing. It, therefore, follows that you don’t list the names of the hosts according to their contribution to your wedding. But it’s good to bestow the hosting honour in a way that makes you, the bride and groom, feel comfortable.
Secondly, the hosting honour is generally for living people because it’s existing people that invite you to their wedding celebration. Not the dead. If you so wish to honour the dead, you can style the host line of your wedding invitation this way – “The family of the late Justin Okello ……”
Sample Wedding Invitation Wording
#2 – The Invitation Line
It’s where you invite people to your wedding invitation wording. It’s where you ask people to join you in the wedding celebration. There are no hard and fast rules on how to write the invitation line. But since you’re inviting people to attend your wedding, please use a gentle tone. Some examples of the wording of the invitation line you may use include the following.
♦ “with great pleasure invite.”
♦ “invite you to share their joy as…”
♦ “cordially invite the company of …”
♦ “invite the honour of your presence …”
♦ “want you to come party with us when ….”
♦ “request the pleasure of your company at …”
♦ “invite you to join them at the celebration of their marriage…”
♦ “with great joy, you are invited to …”
#3 – The Names
It’s where you list the names of the bride and groom. Who comes first? It’s up to you and how your tradition dictates. Traditionally, this honour belongs to the bride. So there is no problem listing first the name of the bride. But in Uganda, people are into a habit of writing the bridegroom’s name first, followed by that of the bride. I think it’s because men in the African setting usually take the lion’s share.
#4 – The Information
It’s where you specify the time, date and location for the wedding. It’s so important to adhere to this essential in your wedding invitation wording. Without it, then your wedding invitation is not informative about when which time and location of your wedding ceremony.
#5 – The Party Line
The party line is where you state what comes after the wedding. Usually, it’s a celebration. It’s where you can give your guests a feel of what to expect. But most people in Uganda limit themselves to the usual wording of “….and after that to a wedding reception at …… at 2.00pm”. Well, that’s good. But you can be a little more creative to set the tone for the celebration. You can alternatively say and not limited to:
♦ “Party to follow at 7.00pm at Sheraton Gardens.”
♦ “Food, cake and beers to follow.”
♦ “Join us for a luxurious dinner at 7.00pm at Sheraton Hotel.”
♦ “Dinner and dancing to follow
RSVP
You will wonder why I didn’t include the RSVP as an essential of the wedding invitation wording. It wasn’t an omission. You may include it or leave it out. It’s an acronym of the French words “Répondez s’il vous plait”, which mean “Please reply if it pleases you” or “Respond please”. It calls for the guests to respond to your invitation whether they’ll attend or not.
In modern times, people also use “Regrets only” instead of RSVP. It merely means that you only respond if you are not going to attend. If you don’t reply, it’s taken as an acceptance.
Conclusion
You can become creative with your wedding invitations to come up with your style as long as you keep to the essentials of the wedding invitation wording discussed above. We always help our clients in this area in addition to making good wedding text card designs for their wedding cards.
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