The devil is in the details when it comes to the wording of wedding invitations.
Finding the perfect wedding invitation is not an easy task, I know. There are so many options out there these days, and it’s incredibly easy to just start creating beautiful stationery online yourself. However, you did it! You found a wedding invitation suite that coordinates wonderfully with your theme, and now you can’t wait to start sending it out to loved ones. But before you can, there’s a critical task that needs to be completed – the wording for your wedding invitations. Sounds daunting! Don’t panic. Because I’ve put together a little guide, with wording examples, that’ll help you finish your wedding invitations in no time! Leaving you free for extra Wedmin!
Wording Etiquette for Wedding Invitations
Whether you want to be super casual, or classically formal, the wording you use in your wedding invitations needs to be clear and concise. Guests need to know the essential information about your big day. Who, what, when, where and… how (kind of).
The wording in your wedding invites should convey the level of formality guests should expect on your wedding day. We’ll get onto dress code later, but even before guests read that piece of information, they should understand how formal the event will be by your tone. For those who’d rather not actually state a dress code, the style of language you use becomes even more important.
It can be tempting to use calligraphy for all the wording in your wedding invitations. And just get lost in how pretty it is! But, you’ll easily lose the whole point of your invitations, which is providing information. You’ll see from the many wedding invitations I have on Etsy, that I use calligraphy style writing carefully. Host names, titles, and headings may be written in this stylized way. But it’ll be broken up with regular, non-script font to ensure the important information is not lost.
Whether you’re using a wedding invitation template, or you’re dealing with a stationer, be sure not to stray too far from the original design. Keep the format as it is, as much as possible, and just add in your wedding details. Keeping the above in mind.
Wording for Wedding Invitations (with examples)
Whatever style of wedding invitations you go for, the below wording should be included. Use the wedding invitation wording ideas below to create the perfect wedding invitation wording for your wedding invites.
Who’s Hosting?
On formal wedding invitations, this should be the first piece of information guests read. Traditionally, the hosts would have been the parents of the bride, as they would have been paying for the wedding. However, these days this is less common, and now both sets of parents usually invest in the celebrations. Or it’s the couple themselves who foot the bill.
Here are some wording examples for this line on your wedding invitations.
Formal Wedding Invitation Wording
·Mr. and Mrs. Steven Gerrard invite you to the wedding of… (bride’s parents names)
·Mr. and Mrs. Steven Gerrard and Mr. and Mrs. David Seaman invite you to celebrate with them (bride and groom’s parents)
·If one set of parents is hosting, and they are divorced, write their full names, but on separate lines.
Informal Wedding Invitation Wording
·Roger and Mirka Federer would love for you to join them at the marriage of their son (one set of parents)
·Together with their families, Coco Gauff and Paula Badosa invite you to their wedding ceremony (families and couple hosting)
·Kindly join us for the wedding of Andy Murray and John Isner (couple hosting)
No two families, or couples, are the same. And you may find the above doesn’t fit in with your situation. It may well be that one of your parents has passed away, and you want to honor them on your big day. Or maybe you have a family friend or uncle/aunt, who will be acting on behalf of your parents. Suffice to say, I know there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to this kind of thing. If you are struggling to define the host part on your wedding invitations, The Knot has a useful post with lots of different wording examples.
The Request Line
I’ve included a few examples of request lines above, but there are many ways you can ask for people to join you. It all depends on the level of formality, and the type of language that speaks to you.
Here are some examples;
·invite you to celebrate their marriage
·invite you to the celebration of
·would love for you to join them
·invite you to share in their joy
·invite you to their wedding
·invite you to join them
·would love your presence
·request the honor of your presence
·request the pleasure of your company
·cordially invite you to attend
·religious ceremonies)
·request the honour of your presence (extra formal if you use the British spelling of honor)
·request the pleasure of your company
·honor of your presence
·invite you to share in the festivities
·joyfully request the pleasure of your company
·would be delighted by your presence
·invite you to celebrate with them
·invite you to celebrate with them
·would love for you to join them
The Couple Tying the Knot
If the couples’ names have not been included as hosts, they should be featured prominently. You’ll see on most of my wedding invitation templates, that the names of the couple getting married are usually presented in the largest font. And positioned either at the top of the page, or in the center, showing their importance. It’s a part of the invite that should just ‘pop’.
Traditionally, the bride’s name would always come before the groom, in this section, and both should use their full names. If the couples’ parents are hosting, then titles are included too, i.e., Mr and Mrs.
For same-sex couples, you can choose whichever way round you want your names to go. Just do what feels right.
If you want to be really informal, just use your first names. When presented nicely, I love the simplicity of this. My ‘Modern Wedding Invitation Template‘ below is a good example.
The Date and Time
If you’ve ever been invited to a formal wedding, or event, you may have noticed how strange the date and time looked on the invitation. Everything is written out. There are no numbers, and often no date. For example, if your wedding was on June 15, 2025, at 2:30 p.m. The formal way of wording the date on wedding invitations would be, ‘Saturday, the fifteenth of June, at half after two o’clock’. And if you wanted to include the year, it would read, ‘two thousand twenty-five’, with no ‘and’.
For less formal wedding celebrations, feel free to include numerals, a.m/p.m and any other date information you feel your guests will find useful. Which is always the most important thing to keep in mind.
The Location of the Ceremony and Reception
Unless you’re tying the knot in your backyard, or some other residential property, it’s fine to just write the wedding venue name, plus the city and state. Unless you feel the location of your venue is not well known, or confusing to get to, don’t include the street name or zip code.
If you’re partying in the same place you’re marrying in, then add a line after the ceremony location to directly imply this. For example, ‘reception to follow’, ‘reception after ceremony’, or ‘Dining, dancing, and happily ever after to follow’. As long as it’s clear to guests that they need to stick around after your nuptials, then feel free to get a little creative with the wording on this part of your wedding invitations.
For more formal wedding invitations, the wording about receptions would typically be printed on a separate card within the wedding invitation suite. Which would feature a lot more details about the event, including your wedding website. But that’s a story for a future blog post!
The Dress Code
As someone who never knows what to wear, I believe a dress code should always be included on a wedding invitation. But that’s just me! It is entirely optional, unless you’re going black or white tie. To expect that level of formality, you need to tell guests what attire is required.
For less formal celebrations, without a dress code, the style of your invitation should guide the level of dress formality.
If you do want to include a dress code information, no matter the formality level, add it underneath the reception location, or in the bottom left-hand corner of the invite.
There you have it! By now, you should feel like the wording on your wedding invitations is really coming together! And soon you’ll be ready to start sending them out. If, however, you’re still at the research stage right now, and you haven’t actually settled on a wedding invitation design – you’re welcome to browse my templates!
All the budget-friendly wedding invitation stationery you’ll find on Edenwood Paperie have been hand-designed, and crafted to be easily customized. Whether it’s an invitation, wedding sign, table number or save the date. You’ll be able to take the pre-built wedding invitation template, and make it your own. Without any tech knowledge or experience in wedding stationery design.
Start your wedding stationery journey today by experimenting with my templates for yourself!