Planning a wedding takes a lot of work and patience, and there are always some things brides enjoy doing more than others.  You’re excited to go your wedding dress fittings and to taste test the food for the reception, but you’re less than enthusiastic about triple checking the guest list and filling out your invites.  Wedding invitations are an essential part of every wedding ceremony, so you want to make sure that you get yours right.  If you want to make the wedding invitation process a lot easier, follow these tips when you start:

Never Mention Gifts

Your wedding invitations should only contain information about where the ceremony is and who your guests will be seeing getting married.  Wedding gifts have been a long standing tradition since the intuition of marriage began, and even though many brides and grooms expect gifts from their guests, their guests are in no way obliged to give the new couple presents.  Because of this it’s considered rude to include information about your wedding registry with the invitation, even if the information is on a separate piece of paper.

Gift registry information should never be presented with the wedding invitations or the save-the-dates; but it can be included with invitations to wedding showers.  What makes that okay you ask?  The bridal pair sends out wedding invitation, but the hosts of the shower are the ones that send out the wedding shower invitations.  Since the hosts are sending out the invitations instead of the couple, information about presents is perfectly acceptable.

Don’t Include Your Child Free Policy

It’s becoming more and more common for weddings to become adult only affairs, but there actually isn’t a need to put “Adults Only” or “No Children” on the invitations you send out.  The way your wedding invitation is addressed immediately tells the receiver who is invited to the wedding.  A wedding invitation to a child friendly ceremony would be addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Family, or Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Becky, and John.  If there are guests who RSVP with extra guests or add their children that aren’t listed on the invitation, whoever is hosting the wedding can contact the guests and politely explain that children aren’t invited.

Don’t Make a Maybe List

You want to invite your co-worker to your ceremony, but since your guest list is already packed you decide to not invite them.  Two weeks before the ceremony two guests rescind their RSVP, and you decide to present your co-worker with their wedding invite the next day.  That may seem like a nice thing to do, but doing that would be a terrible wedding faux-pas.

Inviting someone to your wedding a few weeks before the event shows that you didn’t truly want them to be there in the first place.  If you did they would have received their invitation at the same time your “main guest list” did.  A last minute invite could end up making your potential guest feel even more unwelcomed than if you had not invited them in the first place.  Before you send out your invitations make sure that you know everybody who you want to attend, and avoid sending out last minute invitations.

Etiquette Formatting Extras

  • If you’re getting married in the United States the phrasing of your invitation should let guests know what kind of ceremony they’re going to.  Use the phrase “request your presence” if you’re getting married in a house of worship, and use the phrase “pleasure of your company” if you’re getting married in a secular location.
  • Spell out every title on your invitation with the exception of Mr. and Mrs.  Doctor should be used instead of Dr., Reverend should be used instead of Rev., etc.
  • When you’re addressing the envelopes, house numbers smaller than 20 should be spelled out.
  • Never refer to young men under the age of 13 on your invitation as “mister”.  Boys under the age of 13 should always be referred to as “master”.