Wedding Breeze

In today’s modern society, wedding invitations can be given via word of mouth, telephone, or email. The objective of a wedding invitation is to let your guests know when and where the ceremony and reception are taking place.

Even though wedding invitations are like many other kinds of invitation, there is almost always more formality to them. Because of this association, wedding invitation etiquette has been established to help you navigate the ins and outs of inviting guests to your wedding. This protocol is in place because a formal wedding invtation lets your guests know through the paper stock, the type style and the wording that this is not a casual event. For a more formal wedding, your invitations need to match the tone.

The Look And Feel of a Formal Wedding Invitation

Proper etiquette for a formal wedding invitation does not allow for inviting guests via email or phone since these methods are relatively new. This leaves for the old style paper invitations. Formal wedding invitations usually have the following characteristics:

• They are printed on heavyweight ivory, cream or white paper
• They use a classic letter style such as Roman
• Formal invitations are usually engraved and most likely written in the third person style.
• There are usually two envelopes with the invitation. The first envelope is the outer envelope which holds everything pertaining to the invitation. The second envelope is used for the reply card only.

Other Helpful Tips

There are other helpful rules of etiquette for formal wedding invitations which should be considered during the planning stage.

• For the more formal wedding ceremonies, your don’t need to be as creative.
• If your guest is certain to bring a date or companion it is acceptable to write “and guest” on the invitation when you do not know their name. Usually this limits the amount of unknown guests brought along by others.
• Ceremonies held in places of worship require a more formal setup and thereby more formal invitations than a ceremony held in a nature setting or a home.
• Generally, formal wedding invitations are produced at a printing company, and the envelope is addressed by hand by members of the wedding party.

Wedding invitation etiquette is a must for the formal invitation. This implies the importance of the special occasion to those involved, unlike other invitations such as wedding shower invitations which are far less formal and more festive.