Text
Etiquette regarding the text on a formal wedding invitation varies according to country, culture and language. In Western countries, a formal invitation is typically written in formal, third-person language, saying that the hosts wish for the recipient to attend the wedding and giving its date, time, and place.
As the bride's parents are traditionally the hosts of the wedding, the text commonly begins with the names of the bride's parents as they use them in formal social contexts, e.g., "Mr. and Mrs. John Q Smith" or "Dr. Mary Jones and Mr. John Smith". The exact wording varies, but a typical phrasing runs as follows:
Doctor Mary Jones and Mr. John Smith
request the honour of your presence
at the wedding of their daughter
Mary Jane
to
Colonel Dusty Rhodes
on the first of November
at two o'clock
Christchurch Hall
Richmond, Virginia
Note the seemingly anglicised spelling 'honour'; this derives from a ruling laid down by Emily Post in the 1920s.
In the United States, the line "request...presence" is used when the ceremony is held in a house of worship; "pleasure of your company" is used when it is held elsewhere.
If the groom's parents are also hosts of the wedding, then their names may be added as well. If the parents are not the hosts of the wedding, then the host's name is substituted in the first line, or, especially if the bride and groom are themselves the hosts, it may be written in the passive voice: "The honour of your presence is requested at the wedding of..."
Formal announcements, sent after the wedding ceremony, omit the time and sometimes the place, but usually retain the same general form.
Informal invitations, appropriate to less formal weddings, are issued by word of mouth or by hand-written letter. So long as they convey the necessary practical information about the time and place, there is no set form for these invitations.
Read more about this topic: Wedding Invitation
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