Wedding invitations are almost always sent from whoever is hosting the wedding — traditionally the bride’s parents. The wording starts to get more complicated if parents are divorced etc; these days a more modern approach is to word invites as though you are hosting the event yourselves. Have a look at these examples below to get an idea... if you need any more help with wording your wedding stationery, just contact us with all the details and we will be happy to compose it for you!

the bride’s parents as hosts

both sets of parents as hosts

you’re hosting your own wedding

you with both sets of parents

a single parent

a divorced parent with their spouse/bride or groom’s step parent

jointly hosted by divorced parents

informal — this can be adapted to suit any of the above

Other things that you can include on your invitations are:

• The details of any dress code/theme — eg black tie

• The time guests can expect the day to come to an end — carriages at midnight...

• Whether children are invited — this last one can sometimes be a little tricky.

If you are inviting children, make this clear by including their names on their parents’ invitation. Guests generally assume that the wedding invitation is solely for them if their children’s names are not included.

If you’re still worried that your guests may not take the hint, you can also include a short note to parents on your guest information card, such as: ‘We are sorry but we are unable to accommodate children’ or ‘Much as we would like to extend the invitation to the children of all our friends, it is only possible to accommodate the children of close family’.

Equally, if you are inviting children, let parents know if you have arranged for childcare ‘We have arranged child-minding facilities for the duration of the service and/or reception’.

Keep it simple!

Finally, try to keep your wedding invitation wording as simple as possible. Don't blind your guests with lots information... at the end of the day it's your invitation's job is to tell your guests when and where your wedding is going to take place.

It's also not customary to include postcodes for your venue on the wedding invitation. This kind of detail, including dietary requirements etc is best kept to a guest information card.

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