The Formal Wedding Invitation

by Emily Post

The Formal WEDDING Invitation<>

As an inheritance from the days when Mrs. Brown presented her compliments and begged that Mrs. Smith would do her the honor to take a dish of tea with her, we still—notwithstanding the present flagrant disregard of old-fashioned convention—send our formal invitations, acceptances and regrets, in the prescribed punctiliousness of the third person.

All formal invitations, whether they are to be engraved or to be written by hand (and their acceptances and regrets) are invariably in the third person, and good usage permits of no deviation from this form.

“The honor of your presence” is the standard opening for the invitation to a formal wedding. It is issued by the host and hostess of the event, that is, the parent(s) of the bride. The names of the hosts are in full, including middle names. Also included are titles, if any. The titles Mr. and Mrs. do not need to be spelled out, but the title of Doctor usually is. It can be abbreviated if space does not provide for the full spelling out of the title of Doctor. The bride’s last name is usually shared with her parents, so her name should be included by only including her first and middle names. If she has a different last name, then it would need to be included on the invitation, as well. And the groom’s entire name is spelled out, including his title, such as “Mr.” or “Doctor.” The date is entirely spelled out. According to Emily Post, the day and month are capitalized, but the year is not. An example would be: “March Fifteenth two thousand twelve.” And when referring to the time of the wedding, the expression “half past” should be expressed as “half after.” It is not necessary to express whether the time is in the A.M. or the P.M. When including the address of the wedding event, the town and state in which the wedding will take place are both spelled out entirely. However, if all of the guests are local, the state may be omitted. The RSVP, or “repondez s’il vous plait,” translates from French as “please respond.” It can be expressed as RSVP, r.s.v.p., R.s.v.p., or R.S.V.P. It can also be expressed by the sentence “The favor of a reply is requested.”
Special thanks to Emily Post on her wonderful tips on etiquette and invites.
Formal Wedding Invitation

Immediate Invites