Every invitation has the same six jobs. Copy-and-adapt templates — formal, modern, casual — plus kind wording for divorced parents, adults-only weddings, and the details that belong somewhere else.
The AlmostWed team 8 min read
At some point every couple sits down in front of a blank card and discovers that they have forgotten how sentences work.
Is it “request the pleasure of your company” or “request the honour”? Whose name goes first? Do the parents get mentioned? Does the year get spelled out like a Victorian legal document?
Take a breath. Underneath all the calligraphy, every wedding invitation ever printed does the same six jobs — and once you can see them, the wording almost writes itself. Templates below for every situation, and permission, in advance, to sound like yourselves.
The six jobs
Six lines, in this order, on essentially every invitation since the invention of envelopes. Change the words freely — keep the jobs.
1 · The host line — who is giving this wedding
Together with their families
2 · The names — the entire point of the document
Amelia Laurent & Jonas Berg
3 · The request line — sets the formality for everything
invite you to celebrate their wedding
4 · When — date and start time, year included
Saturday 12 June 2027, at three o’clock
5 · Where — the venue, the town
Elmwood Farm, Little Bredy, Dorset
6 · The party line + how to reply, by when
Dinner and dancing to follow · Reply by 1 May at our website
A sample invitation with its six jobs labeled. On the printed card, only the ink stays — the labels are for you.
That is the entire machine. The host line says whose party it is. The request line sets the register — “request the honour of your presence” signals church and formality, “invite you to celebrate” signals joy, “are finally getting married” signals that dinner will be fun. Every template below is just these six jobs wearing different clothes.
Copy, then make it yours
Pick the one closest to your wedding’s temperature, swap the names and dates, and adjust one notch warmer or cooler.
Classic & formal
Parents hosting, traditional
Mr & Mrs Laurent
request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Amelia Laurent
to
Jonas Berg
Saturday, the twelfth of June, two thousand twenty-seven
at three o’clock
St Mary’s Church, Dorchester
Reception to follow at Elmwood Farm
Both families
The modern diplomatic answer
Together with their families
Amelia Laurent & Jonas Berg
invite you to celebrate their wedding
Saturday 12 June 2027 at 3 pm
Elmwood Farm, Little Bredy, Dorset
Dinner and dancing to follow
Kindly reply by 1 May
Couple hosting
Your wedding, your names first
Amelia Laurent & Jonas Berg
invite you to their wedding
Saturday 12 June 2027 at 3 pm
Elmwood Farm, Little Bredy, Dorset
Ceremony, dinner, and a proper party
Please reply by 1 May
Relaxed
For the wedding that is mostly a party
We’re getting married —
and it wouldn’t be right without you.
Amelia & Jonas
Saturday 12 June 2027, 3 pm
Elmwood Farm, Dorset
Food, speeches, dancing until late
Say yes (or no, kindly) by 1 May
The invitation sets the tone.
The website carries the details.
Real families, real wording
Divorce, loss, blended families — most real invitations navigate at least one of these. The wording is easier than the worry.
Divorced parents, both hosting
Separate lines, no “and” between them — each parent (with a new partner if you wish) gets their own line: “Susan Laurent · Mark Laurent · together with…”. The line break does the diplomacy.
Honoring a parent who has died
The gentlest standard: “Amelia, daughter of Susan Laurent and the late Robert Laurent…”. A parent who has died is honored in the wording; only the living are listed as hosts.
Both sets of parents named
Lead with one full couple, then the other: “Mr & Mrs Laurent and Mr & Mrs Berg invite you to the wedding of their children.” Flip a coin for the order, and tell both mothers you did.
“Together with their families”
The universal solvent. When the hosting math gets complicated — contributions from four directions, delicate feelings — this one line includes everyone and itemizes no one.
Adults-only, said by omission
Address the envelope to the adults by name and let that carry the message. The invitation itself stays warm; the website FAQ states it plainly for anyone unsure.
The named plus-one
“Maya Chen and Daniel Osei” beats “Maya Chen and guest” every time you know the name. A named guest RSVPs, eats, and finds their seat as a person, not an appendage.
One card cannot do everything
The most common wording mistake isn’t grammar — it’s cramming. An invitation with hotel blocks and gift-list instructions on it reads like a permission slip.
The invitation
Sets the tone, states the facts
The details card or website
Carries the logistics
Nowhere, ever
The classic overshares
If you are deciding what that website should actually say, we wrote a page-by-page guide to the wedding website — and the reply-by date you print is worth five minutes of thought too: here is how to choose the RSVP deadline so it works with your caterer’s final-count date instead of against it.
Learned the hard way
A start time with a secret meaning
If the invitation says 3 pm, guests will arrive at 2:55 expecting a ceremony at 3. If you actually mean “seated by 3 for a 3:30 start,” print the time you mean: “Please be seated by 3 pm.”
The charming but vague reply line
“Let us know if you can come!” — by when? To whom? Where? Every missing detail becomes a guess, and every guess becomes a text. Charm the rest of the card; keep the reply line boring.
Formality whiplash
An invitation that “requests the honour of your presence” and then promises “tacos & tunes till late” confuses the dress-code radar. Pick a register, and let every line agree with it.
Forgetting the year
It looks obvious in July when you order the cards. It is less obvious to the aunt filing the invitation on her fridge for eleven months, and to you, in thirty years, framing it.
The whole article in one line
Six jobs, one register, the year included —
and it should sound like the two of you.
Nobody has ever declined a wedding because the invitation said “invite” instead of “request the honour.” Get the six jobs done clearly, and spend the saved energy on the marriage.
The small print, answered
Six things: who is hosting, an invitation line, both your names, the date and time, the venue with its location, and how to reply by when. Everything else — dress code, schedule, travel, registry — can live on a details card or your wedding website.
Only if the rest of the invitation is formal. “Saturday, the twelfth of June, two thousand twenty-seven” and “Saturday 12 June 2027” are both correct — what matters is that the formality matches the rest of the wording, and that the year is there.
No — this is the one etiquette rule that has survived every modernization. Put registry details on your wedding website or details card instead. The invitation asks for someone’s presence; it should not also ask for a present.
By name if you possibly can: “Maya Chen and Daniel Osei.” If the guest’s partner is unknown, “Maya Chen and guest” works — then ask for the name in the RSVP so the seating chart and place cards get a real person.
Gently and by omission first: address the invitation to the adults only, and let the names carry the message. Then back it up explicitly on the website FAQ: “We love your little ones, but we are keeping the day adults-only.”
Six to eight weeks before a local wedding, ten to twelve if guests are traveling or it lands near holidays. Set the RSVP deadline about four weeks before the day — earlier if your caterer needs final numbers sooner.
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