When it comes to weddings, the event can be formal, casual or somewhere in between. If you have decided to have a black tie wedding, then you are choosing to partake in the most formal wedding available, with an extreme amount of elegance and style. Black tie weddings are beautiful and wonderful events, but often entail a lot of planning to ensure that sophistication is at its finest. While having a black tie wedding might not be the easiest to plan, the result can be fantastic if you do it correctly.

When it comes to planning your black tie affair, you will want to start off with formal and elegant wedding invitations. The wedding invitations are the first impressions that you give to people about your wedding. Your wedding invitations will give all attendees a clear idea about what your wedding day will be all about, including the formality level. Therefore, if you have indeed chosen a black tie wedding, you will want to start off with excellent invitations that are created to suggest the excellence that the day will hold.

When selecting black tie wedding invitations, it is important to start with the basics. One of the hardest parts of selecting wedding invitations is making sure that they are formal enough for the wedding you are hosting. This is easy to do if you already know what you are looking for. For very elegant and upscale weddings, such as black tie affairs, you will want to follow the idea that simplicity works best. You will want to have crisp, clean cut, straightforward invitations to symbolize the rest of your wedding festivities.

Most of the time, invitations to black tie weddings are one-sheet invitations. This simply means that all of the information about your event is found on one sheet and there are no folds or other pages to the invitation. Usually folded invitations that contain multiple sheets of paper are intended for less formal weddings. If you do choose to use folded invitation style, be sure that the front of the invite only has your names, or something simple and elegant. Many couples chose to have the first letters of their names intertwined on the front of the invitation if anything at all. An elegant or simple design is best, but be sure not to make it too busy. Many modern invitations with details such as pictures, designs, and colored boarders are great, but simply do not agree with the theme of an ultra-formal wedding.

The main portion of the wedding invitation should also be very simple for a black tie wedding. There are a few ways that you achieve this to make sure you are letting your guests know what is expected on the big day. A formal wedding invitation should contain a boarder and nothing more in terms of design. The font should be in a single column, centered on the middle of the page. This will allow you to get everything that you need to get onto the invitation, without it being too busy.

The black tie wedding invitation usually begins with the parents of the bride. It is extremely important, probably the most important task, to make sure to properly spell out all titles, capitalize when necessary, and use full and proper names. You can then either say "along with" or "and", before listing the parents of the groom, and of course spelling their names correctly as well. Next, you will want to have a statement such as "invite you to share in the union of their children", after which you will list your own names. Be sure to use your proper names, and use your full names and middle names if you have them. Some couples prefer to list the parents of the groom after the groom's name, adding "son of??. However, this is a less elegant approach, and is usually only acceptable if the groom's parents did not pay for the wedding.

After the introduction of the names, the next piece of information should be important details about the ceremony. Be sure to include the date, time, and address of the location. It is typical on formal invitations to spell out numbers instead of using numerals. Usually, after the information about the ceremony, information about the reception will be included.

The most important aspect to remember about black tie events is that you want to do all you can to make sure that everything regarding the wedding is formal and elegant including the invitations. The invitation should entail all of the information in a simple yet formal way. For a black tie wedding, some couples prefer to stipulate that children are either allowed or not allowed at the reception. They can also provide information about a cocktail hour or another time in which family members can mingle and gather.