Printed Wedding Invitations
Paloma Wedding Invitation
Making sure that you stick to the rules of wedding invitation etiquette when designing your wedding invitation and RSVP can allow you to make the most positive impression on your guests. Proper wedding invite etiquette can vary depending on the theme of your wedding, the level of formality you want and your own personal style. In general, your wedding invitation text should reflect your own personal style and your preferences. While observing the niceties of wedding invitation etiquette is important, adding your own personal touches to your wedding invitation can make your day even more special for you, your partner and your guests.
At Bliss & Bone, we can help you create the perfect wedding invites and can provide you with information on wedding invite etiquette that you can use to create your own wedding invitation text and designs. We offer practical tools to allow you to customize your wedding invitations, Save the Date cards, wedding websites and other elements of your wedding stationery suite.
This guide will give you some insights on how to address wedding invitation plus one, determining the best time to send wedding invites out, advice for couples who aren't sending save the dates and which names goes first husband or wife. We will also provide you with guidance on how to address an invitation to a family, the difference between a Save the Date vs invitation and online wedding invitation etiquette. By understanding the basic rules of wedding invite etiquette, you can decide which wedding invitation etiquette guidelines make sense for you and your partner on your once-in-a-lifetime wedding day.
Bliss & Bone can also provide the tools and the options you need to create customized wedding websites and to create the perfect wedding invitation for your upcoming nuptials. We make it easy to find the answers you need about wedding invite etiquette, your planning timeline, how to address an invitation to a family, which names goes first husband or wife and appropriate digital wedding invitation etiquette and wording for your wedding invites.
Deciding the best time to send out wedding invitations can be challenging. If you are planning to send a Save the Date, you can often send your printed wedding invitations at around eight weeks prior to your wedding day.
The M on your RSVP card stands for the first letter of Mr., Mrs. or Ms. Guests who do not identify with any of these titles can use the gender-neutral title Mx or can simply cross out the M on their RSVP card. Your wedding planner can often provide added help in answering the question, "What is the M for on an RSVP card?"
On the outer envelope for your invitation, you should use formal wedding invitation etiquette that includes the use of titles and full names. The inner envelope can be much less formal and can use first names only to identify the guests you want to attend your wedding. By observing these elements of wedding invite etiquette, you can create the right impression on your invited guests.
While your invitation can be as unique as your love story with your partner, your wedding invite typically includes the names of the couple, the date, time and location, information on the reception, the dress code and the name of the people hosting the wedding if this differs from the names of the couple. An RSVP card will typically be included in the invitation to be mailed back as a response to the wedding invite. You can also include the requested dress code for the wedding on the invite.
While in traditional wedding invitation etiquette, the husband's name would be listed first on the wedding invite, modern wedding invitation etiquette allows for much more flexibility in deciding how to address an invitation to a family or a couple.
When considering the difference between Save the Date vs invitations for your wedding, timing is the key. Save the Date cards are sent out very early in the process of planning your wedding. Invitations, however, are sent out later and follow much stricter rules about wedding invite etiquette.
One of the most important elements of wedding invitation etiquette is timing. Sending your wedding invite too soon could allow invited guests to forget about your big day. Conversely, sending the invite too close to the date could make it difficult for your guests to make plans to attend your wedding celebration. Knowing when you should send out your invitations can be challenging. Here are some of the most important guidelines for wedding invitation etiquette as they relate to timing for your wedding activities:
By completing these items on your wedding planning checklist in the correct order and in a timely way, you can make sure that your wedding invitation reaches your guests on time and that you observe all the details of proper wedding invite etiquette when planning your wedding for this year or next.
Although sometimes confused for each other, a Save the Date card is used to establish first contact with your guests. If you are planning to send online wedding invitations, your Save the Date cards can be used to collect information about email addresses that can save you time and effort later in your wedding planning timeline.
Your Save the Date can be as simple or as ornate as you like. In general, you may want to design your Save the Date cards to match your wedding theme, decor and invitations. Bliss & Bone can make it much easier to stick to the rules of wedding invitation etiquette while adding your own unique touch to your wedding invitation wording and designer wedding invite to make it much easier for you and your partner to create unique works of art for these elements of your wedding stationery suite.
Knowing when to mail or deliver your wedding invites so that they can be received on time by your guests can be challenging. Several factors can play a significant role in deciding the right time to send your invites:
Whether you are wondering about what to do if you aren't sending Save the Dates or when to send Save the Dates and invitations, making sure your guests have ample time to send RSVPs and to plan for their attendance at your celebration can make your wedding an even greater success and can make the most positive impression on those you want to share this very special day with you and your partner.
Wedding invitation etiquette has changed considerably over time. For example, many items that would once have appeared on insert cards in printed wedding invites are now typically found on the wedding website. Additionally, the development of paperless wedding invites has made it necessary to establish online wedding invitation etiquette guidelines for these newer forms of wedding invitations. Here are some of the most important elements of proper wedding invitation etiquette to help you manage your wedding planning checklist in the most appropriate way:
Creating a personalized wedding celebration can make a big difference in your memories of this special day and on the impact it will have on your beloved friends and family members. By taking traditional wedding invitation etiquette into consideration and deciding whether and where to bend the rules, you and your partner can create wedding plans and invitations that are uniquely your own.
Now that you understand the basics of wedding invitation etiquette as it relates to wording, let’s dive into the details. These are not required, but sticking with a wedding invite etiquette approved structure can help take the guesswork out of your planning process.
These are the specific wording constructions recommended for couples looking to follow wedding invite etiquette:
The names of the hosts. Traditionally, the bride’s parents host the wedding. With that, wedding invitation etiquette encourages you to start with the titles and full names of the bride’s parents. If one or both of the parents has a distinguished title, you should also spell that out. For example, “Doctor and Mrs. John Michael Smith…”
The honor of your presence or the pleasure of your company. The hosts are essentially telling your guests that they “request the honor of your presence” or “request the pleasure of your company.” The most appropriate choice depends on where your ceremony is held. If you are getting married in a place of worship, like a church, it is considered proper wedding invitation etiquette to use “the honor of your presence.” For all other venue types, ranging from a beachside ceremony to a formal event space, you should employ the phrase, “pleasure of your company.”
The names of you and your partner. The guests of honor are next up for your wedding invitation wording. The standard outline for wedding invite etiquette recommends that if the bride shares the same last name as the hosts (generally, her parents), you only need to include her first and middle name. After that, you should write “to” followed by the groom’s title and first, middle and last name.
The date and time of the wedding. Your Save the Dates gave your guests the basics, but your wedding invitation should clearly state more of the details involved in your celebration. For the date and time, everything should be spelled out. In other words, no abbreviations or numbers should be used here. Per wedding invitation etiquette, you should also capitalize the month and day of the week, but the year and date should be lower-case. As for the time, you can write it out and use “half after” and “o’clock.”
The venue or venues. Some couples opt to host their wedding ceremony and reception at two separate venues. This is particularly popular for those who get married in a place of worship. You will want to write out the ceremony venue name and the city and state. However, if all of the guests are local, you can nix the mention of the state. If you are staying at the ceremony location for the reception, you can simply write, “Reception to follow” or even “Dinner and dancing to follow.” And if you are relocating, you should write “and afterward at the reception,” followed by the name of the reception venue and the street address.
RSVP. You can use almost any style to say, “RSVP.” It is an abbreviation of a French phrase, and it is necessary because guests will know that they need to RSVP to the hosts by a particular time. Only mentioning “RSVP” signals to your guests that they need to use the enclosed reply card and envelope. If you want to use an alternative method, like a RSVP wedding website, you will need to include that information below the “RSVP.”
The details mentioned above are the standard for printed and digital wedding invitation etiquette alike, but it is just one way to word them. Some couples may not align with the methods used for wedding invite etiquette and that is more than acceptable. There are so many ways to word your wedding invitations, and this is only one formal example.
Here is an example of wording that follows formal wedding invitation etiquette:
Doctor and Mrs. John Michael Smith
request the honor of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Lauren Ann
to
Mr. Carl Matthew Cook
Saturday, the sixteenth of December
[two thousand twenty-three]
at four o’clock
Grace Church
North Garden, Virginia
and afterward at the reception
Pippin Hill
2308 Valleyfield Avenue
RSVP
Modern weddings often feature emailed wedding invites that can save couples money on printing costs and postage while allowing guests to respond more quickly online. Your wedding website from Bliss & Bone can be set up to accept RSVPs electronically, which can make it much easier to manage your guest list and acceptances of your invites in the most functional way.
Electronic wedding invitation etiquette is much the same as traditional etiquette for weddings. While the timing issue is usually not as problematic for paperless invites, proper digital wedding invitation etiquette still requires plenty of advance notice for your guests to ensure that they can attend your wedding ceremony and reception. By allowing plenty of time for your guests to plan to attend and to return RSVP responses, you can stay on the right side of wedding RSVP etiquette as well as online wedding invitation etiquette.
As with printed wedding invitations, digital wedding invitation etiquette requires the inclusion of certain key information. The date, time, location, and the names of the happy couple are always to be included in the invite. Information on transportation, accommodations and wedding registries, however, are excluded from the invitation itself as part of digital wedding invitation etiquette.
If you are planning to send a mix of printed and digital invites, it is part of good electronic wedding invitation etiquette to use the same wedding invitation text and design on both the printed and the digital invitations. Bliss & Bone makes it easy and convenient to match all of your wedding stationery backgrounds, images, designs and wedding invitation text options to create a cohesive look for your entire wedding suite.
At Bliss & Bone, we provide the tools you need to create your wedding stationery whether you are familiar with electronic wedding invitation etiquette or still wondering "What is the M for on an RSVP card?" Our easy-to-use interfaces will allow you to stay in line with proper wedding invitation etiquette while creating your own unique wedding invitation text and images for the perfect paperless or printed invites for your once-in-a-lifetime wedding day.
Understanding the wedding invitation etiquette involved in how to address an invitation to a family, how to address wedding invitation plus one invites and appropriate wedding invitation text for your invites can help you to manage your wedding invitations much more easily while sticking to the rules of wedding invite etiquette. These guidelines will help you if you are wondering, "How do you address a wedding invitation?"
How do you address a wedding invitation? For guests you know well and close family members, you can often be a bit less formal while still sticking to proper wedding invite etiquette. For black-tie weddings with strict dress codes, however, addressing your wedding invitation in a formal and traditional way can reinforce your theme and can set the right expectations for your invited guests.
And even though this references the inner and outer envelope, these guidelines apply to electronic wedding invitation etiquette as well. Your guests will receive an email addressed to their couple or group. Per online wedding invitation etiquette, you should ensure that the appropriate titles and full names are presented there too.
Understanding wedding RSVP etiquette can often help you and your partner to create wedding RSVPs that work for you. While digital invites were once considered tacky and rude, modern wedding invitation etiquette has evolved to allow for these convenient and green-friendly methods for delivering invites and collecting RSVPs. Here are some of the most important things to remember about wedding RSVP etiquette when planning your wedding invitation:
Being aware of proper wedding invitation etiquette when creating your RSVP cards and accepting responses in printed form or through your website can allow you to stick as closely to the rules of wedding invite etiquette as you wish. At Bliss & Bone, we offer plenty of examples of proper wedding invitation etiquette to help guide your choice of wedding invitation text and wording and to provide you with the right inspiration for your own unique wedding invitation.
Designing your wedding invitation text can be a shared project between you and your partner. Choosing the right wedding invitation wording is a key element in wedding invitation etiquette. If you are unsure of the right wedding invitation text for your once-in-a-lifetime wedding day, you can check out the examples of wedding invitations on Bliss & Bone. This can help you keep your wedding plans in line with approved wedding invitation etiquette while allowing you to show off your own unique style. Some of the keys to observing wedding invite etiquette while creating your wedding invitation text include the following:
Your wedding is an important day in the life of your relationship and can set the tone for your entire marriage. Observing proper wedding invitation etiquette can allow you to relax and to avoid some conflict leading up to your wedding day. If you and your partner have your heart set on unconventional or unique wedding invitation text, however, you should feel free to break the rules of traditional wedding invite etiquette to create an invitation that you and your partner will love.
While some guests may be offended if you do not stick to traditional wedding invitation etiquette, the most important people at your wedding will be you and your partner. Rather than sticking to wedding invite etiquette that does not apply to you and your situation, you can often create your own rules for wedding invitation etiquette and can create your own wedding invitation text without worrying too much about what some guests may say.
There are a lot of rules and traditions that come with weddings, and the advised wedding invitation etiquette is only here to make things easier and more convenient. With so many overwhelming elements in the planning process, some couples prefer to follow wedding invite etiquette for ease and peace of mind. The primary concern is that you and your partner are comfortable and happy with your wedding invitations. So, set any wedding invitation etiquette that you do not align with aside and stay true to yourself and your partner.
At Bliss & Bone, we offer the tools you need to create elegant and beautiful wedding websites and invitations. Our samples and examples can help you find the perfect answers to questions like "What do you put on a wedding invite?" and "What is the difference between a Save the Date vs invitation?" To learn more about our wedding website and invitation services, visit us online or email us at hello@blissandbone.com. We can help with all your wedding planning and invitation needs.