One of the first things to determine is how the wedding invitation will be set up. Whose name goes first? What happens when things are more than just a simple wedding? The fact is that there are many questions that come up with the wedding invitation design.
First, here are a few etiquette friendly methods of writing an invitation:
-Start with the sponsor or the bride's parents names. "Mr. and Mrs. Bob Smith" should be the beginning of the invitations.
-Follow this with, " request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter"
-Next, include the first names of the bride and the groom, " Ann Marie to Mr. Adam Jones"
-Follow this with the date and time of the wedding followed by the location.
The invitation should also include the groom's parents if both will be helping to pay for or sponsor the wedding. The bride's parent's names should be first, followed by the groom's.
If the bride and the groom are sending the invitations, their names should appear such as this:
Miss Ann Marie Smith
And
Mr. Adam Jones
Now, it gets a bit trickier when you add in the divorces and other complications. To determine what the right way to design the wedding invitation is, remember this.
The parents that are issuing the invitations, sponsoring the wedding, paying for the wedding should have their name go first. If you have more than one parent, start the invitation with the bride's parents (father first) and then the groom's parents second.
There are also special situations that can follow these rules such as brothers and sisters hosting the wedding, grandparents and many, many more. The goal is to give proper respect to the individuals that are sponsoring the wedding first and foremost.
List the purpose of the invitation on it. For example, this should be an invitation to the marriage of their daughter or, an invitation to the celebration of their daughter's marriage for a reception only. If there is no reception or only selected guests will be there, the invitation would be directed as an invitation for the ceremony of marriage of the daughter.
Include These Things in the Invitation:
-The name of who is sponsoring the wedding.
-The names of those getting married. The bride's surname may be left out but the groom's should be included. If you use Miss at the beginning of her name, her surname should also be included.
-The date of the wedding, include the day of the week with the date. It is proper to do this several ways including, "Saturday, the tenth day of June," or "Saturday, June tenth," as you see fit. The year can be eliminated or included.
-There should not be any abbreviations used in the invitation, excluding Mr. and Mrs. Do not abbreviates drive, street, or the state.
-No punctuation is used at the ends of sentences. You should use a comma to separate the city and state.
-After the date is listed, the next line should include the time of the event. This too should be spelled out. Do not use am or pm, but if the timing is not obvious, then you can add in "in the morning" for a sunrise wedding or "in the evening" for a sunset wedding.
-This should be followed by the location of the wedding. List the name of the location, Grace Church. On the following line is the church's address. You do not always have to include the address, especially if it is a church. You should include it if the wedding is being held at someone's home, though. People can easily find this information on maps included with the invitation or by a simple internet search.
