ANATOMY OF A TRADITIONAL WEDDING INVITATION

Are you thinking of how to word those Wedding invitations? Here's the perfect post! We've got the talented Rebecca from Sunny and Swoon talking you through the anatomy of a wedding invitation. You may not be having a super traditional wedding, but seeing how things are done traditionally is always a great place to start.

You can follow the chart below, there are six key areas to a tradtional wedding invite, which are:

Hosting line (1)

In the past the bride’s parents would hosting the wedding and their names would be stated in the hosting line. this of course is no longer necessarily the case. nowadays the hosting line can be whatever works best for your situation. a common option is to list both sets of parents on the hosting line, starting with the the bride’s parents (the bride’s parent’s names are always listed first) in the hosting line. "Mr and Mrs Kevin and Susan smith / and Mr and Mrs Michael and Deanna Anderson" other popular options are “together with their parents” or “together with their families”

Request line (2)

The wording used on the request line indicates whether the couple are having their wedding ceremony in a place of worship or at a secular venue. Traditionally for religious ceremonies or those being held at a place of worship, the word honour is used in the request. “the honour of your presence is requested...”. For ceremonies that are not held in a place of worship, the traditional wording used is “the pleasure of your company is requested...” There are obviously variations to these two options, for example, if you are having a very relaxed and non-formal wedding you may like to use a term such as “your joyful company is requested at the marriage celebration of...”

The happy couple's names (3)

This section is obviously where you state the names of the happy couple. However, there are also a couple of points for you to remember: - the bride’s name always comes first. - if the bride’s parents are hosting, her last name is omitted because theirs precedes her. - if the groom’s parents are also listed in the host section, both the bride’s and groom’s last names can be omitted. The "son of" line, you may like to list the bride’s parents in the hosting line, and then add a line directly after the groom’s name to honour his parents. This is called a “son of” line and reads like this: "son of Mr and Mrs Matthew and Angela Holden".

Date and time (4)

The date and time of your wedding are always written out in full. if you are including the day of the week, then this is listed first: “saturday, the fifteenth day of june". if you are including the year, then this must also be written out in full “two thousand and eighteen”. the time is described as hands on a clock. such as “at half past six o’clock in the evening". if the time of your wedding is being held anytime from 5pm onwards it is considered evening.

Location (5)

The street address is not included in the location section of your wedding invite. Only the venue is stated, followed by the town and/or city (and country if desired), these details are again spelt out in full. Eg: "The Milk Station / Kapiti coast / Wellington" the street address of your wedding and any other location details are included in an accompanying enclosure card.

Reception (6)

A line regarding your reception is stated at the bottom of your wedding invite. if your reception commences immediately after your ceremony, then your wording could be “reception to immediately follow”, “reception to follow” or “dinner and dancing to follow”.If your reception is not starting directly after your ceremony, and is at a different venue . then you are best to state both the time that your reception will commence, and the reception venue. “reception to follow / half past six o’clock in the evening / sudbury farm” or “dinner and dancing to follow / five o'clock in the evening / sudbury farm”One last point to remember, when addressing your invitations, your guest's names are not stated on the invite, instead each guest’s name is stated on the invitation envelope.

Thanks to Rebecca! Click here to find out more about Sunny and Swoon.