Ordering your wedding invitations, either online or from local printings might be easier than writing it yourself. But the ordered invitation will lacked something personal and intimate. And sometimes, we are just cannot seems to find a satisfactory wedding invitation. If such was your case here are some pointers about how to write your own wedding invitation.

1. Who is Hosting?

The one hosting is the one who will be paying for the wedding. In many traditions, this role fall into the bride’s parents, but as the time goes by, the bride and groom can also host. If the bride’s parents are hosting, it will look like this:

Mr. and Mrs. Hideto Takarai

or

Megumi and Hideto Takarai

If the bride and groom are the one, who’s hosting, writes down you and your spouse-to-be full name.

2. The Request

The next line is where you put your request line. If your wedding is at a place of worship write this one down:

Request the honors of your presence at the marriage of our daughter

Note the formal British spelling of the word “honor.”, if the parents’ are hosting, writing down the gender; son or daughter is fine. On the other hand, if you pick a secular place, write this down instead:

Request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of our daughter

or

would be delighted for you to attend the marriage of our daughter

The usage of ‘our’ is optional and can be chosen if you wish for a more informal and intimate feeling; especially for invitations given to close family members. Use the word ‘us’ if the couple is hosting.

3. Name of the happy couple

Write down the bride’s name first and then the groom’s name. A more traditional approach would have the bride’s first and middle name written, compare to the groom’s full name, complete with his middle name. However the modern approach used is:

Rosie Cotton
And/to Samwise Gamgee

Note that the bride have her fist and family name as opposed to more traditional approach.

4. Date and Time

The traditional way would have those spelled with the day and moth capitalized. See below:

Tuesday, the tenth of August
two thousand and eight
at four o’clock/half after four o’clock in the afternoon

a more modern approach would read:

Tuesday, August 10th
at 4 p.m.

5. The Location and Time for the Reception

Let your guest know if there will be party afterwards. You can either write it down in the invitation or in a separate reply card. Make sure they know if you’re not serving a full; choose the wording carefully, including the place of after-party.

If the reception are held in a different place or doest immediately follow the ceremony, a separate reception card is in order. Make sure to write the date, time and the place.

Reception
8 o’clock

Parker Grand Hotel
342 Allen Road
Pike, Oregon

6. Get The R.S.V.P ready

R.S.V.P can be included as a separate reply card along with your wedding invitations. It can be blank, or more detailed, depending on your preferences. An example of detailed R.S.V.P is as follows:

Please reply before (insert date here, spelled)

M___________________________
_________Will attend
_________Will not attend

Asking the guest to write down a number of their party is a good move as it will give you an idea of how much of them will come.

7. Optional details

Belong to this group is the dress-codes; most guest valued clues about how to dress as it won’t do to appear black tie in beach wedding and there are many wedding types to attend in modern day. To avoid fashion faux pas, it is best if you also include dress-codes.

Also include an ‘adult reception’ tag if you wish to have no children running around in your wedding.

Do NOT; I repeat, DO NOT include information about desired gifts. It is impolite and tasteless.