Wedding Wednesday: Invitation Wording
May 1, 2008
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Wedding Wednesday: Invitation Wording

I worked on the invitation and RSVP card design last night. It’s hard to get the wording just right. Traditional, but not too formal. Basic, but a little fun. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Together with their families
Emily Middle Last
and
Robert Middle Last
request the honour of your presence
at the celebration of their marriage

Saturday, the twentieth of September
two thousand and eight
at half past two o’clock

Sausalito Woman’s Club
120 Central Avenue
Sausalito, California

Reception and
show to follow

“Honour of your presence?” Does there need to be a comma after “parents?” Hmm. Here’s what is on the RSVP card:

Please respond
M_____________________________
_ Accepts with pleasure _ Declines with regrets
Kindly reply by the first of September

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mrsem

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There are 12 comments for this article
  1. Kate at 7:57 pm

    I always thought that “honour of your presence” was for church weddings only, that ceremonies at other locations had a different wording. Pleasure of your company, perhaps?

  2. Stephanie at 8:00 pm

    I’m not sure about using “honour” instead of “honor”. To me, it sounds a bit haughty.

  3. Meg at 10:16 pm

    Technically: “Honor of your presence” is for a religious ceremony (any place, Jewish weddings, for example are just under a chuppah, not in a temple) and “Pleasure of your company” is for non-religious events. Though, really, you should use what you like. Personally, I sort of like “invite you to share their joy.” Nice, but not too cheesy.

    On our invites my pernikityness is that I want our names to be on the same line, as a egalitarian statement.

    Oh! And you can also use a blank card for a RSVP, with just the date to respond by at the bottom. We’re doing that because we want notes back 🙂

    Um. Too many opinions, clearly.

  4. love.boxes at 11:49 pm

    This stuff gets completely complicated. I looked in Letitia Baldridge’s New Manners (She was the social secretary to Jackie Kennedy so I thought she would know and just got more confused than ever. If you use “honour” though.. it’s always spelled as you spelled it and never the other way. There are pages and pages on this topic.. If you lived in my neighborhood.. I’d loan you my book! Good luck! I liked the “celebration” part. 🙂

  5. Anonymous at 12:03 am

    Is it Women’s Club and not Woman’s Club? You don’t want any typos on your wedding invitations.

  6. mrsem Author at 12:08 am

    It is woman’s…kind of strange, I’ve made the mistake before.

  7. Tanya at 2:42 am

    M_____________________________
    _ Accepts with pleasure _ Declines with regrets
    Kindly reply by the first of September

    I would do that and remove the top line that says “Please respond”. I was getting confused because I think “please respond” at the top and “kindly reply” at the bottom are redundant.

    I like rest of it. If you would be honoured by your guests presence, whether its a religious ceremony or not, why not express that in your invitation?

  8. hyb at 2:47 am

    I think the whole scheme looks great. My one suggestion is to look at your guest list and see if the M_____ is a good idea. We had a lot of college faculty and elected officials (it happens when a PhD marries a politico)when we got married and ended up with a lot who crossed off the “M” to put Dr. and Mrs., Drs., or The Honorable, etc. I know it’s customary to put the M____, but I’ve found that people with titles like it better when you don’t presume that they can be called Mr. or Ms.

  9. avalon at 3:14 am

    We did:

    Please reply by …

    Name(s) __________________
    __________________

    o Will attend
    Number attending ___

    o Will not attend

    There was no confusion, and it ensured we got the names of all guests.

  10. Gen~Gen at 1:51 pm

    When planning my wedding last year I had wording issues too! Honour of your presence is used for religious/church weddings and Pleasure of your company is used for the others. If you are in doubt just google, tons of info available. 🙂

  11. Jessica at 2:51 pm

    just wondering about the “reception and show to follow” part… does “show” really need to be in there? it’s a part of your event and it sounds so much more casual than the rest of your wording.

  12. Towely at 7:00 am

    I think there should be a comma. And being Canadian, honoUr looks exactly right. Simply because it’s anglosized (I made that up) doesn’t mean it’s haughty.

    Oh and there should always be a U in colour too.