Formal And Informal Wedding Invitation Etiquette

There are many things to consider when planning for your wedding day. One of these is the proper methods of carrying out parts of the event such as the service, reception and the list of details required for the wedding. There are proper etiquette standards for everything from attire to manners to announcements. One area often not thought of until needed is wedding invitation etiquette.

The Reason For Wedding Invitation Etiquette

Etiquette for wedding invitations is the proper announcement of your event. Your invitations will be sent to family, friends and other people you want to attend your wedding. There are some basic tips for inviting people.
If you have a large church wedding, inviting guests from both the bride and groom side of friends and family is required
If you invite business associates, they should be invited because of friendship and not business contacts
If you have a smaller house wedding, you can narrow the list down to close friends and family
You should consider the amount of people who can comfortably be allowed in the reception area

The General Rules

Both formal and informal weddings follow a general set of etiquette for wedding invitations.
The invitations must convey the mood of the event; this would be formal, whimsical, intimate or low-key
You must provide information about the proceedings of the event.
Invitations must be sent well in advance to allow for response and planning
Guests invited to the wedding should also be invited to the reception
The language and meaning needs to be clear about the times, locations, attire, directions and any other information concerning the wedding

Wedding invitations today can be sent in many different ways and depends on the formality of the occasion. Etiquette for formal wedding invitations as an example requires paper invitations sent out by regular mail.

Differences In Formal And Informal Etiquette

Both formal and informal styles of wedding invitations have their own etiquette. Formal is the older style for etiquette of wedding invitation. This style is mostly used for planning a large elaborate or church wedding. Smaller family weddings and events with not much planning use the etiquette for informal wedding invitations.

Rules for Formal wedding invitations:
Names of guests are written out in full including the middle name
The use of British English is the more common form
Spell out all words including the time, date and year as well as all street addresses
Spell out all numbers or use Roman numerals
The use of two envelopes is required; one for sending and one for responding
Church weddings "request the honour of your presence"; non-church weddings "request the pleasure of your company"

Rules for Informal wedding invitations:
The use of hand written invitations are acceptable as well as email or telephone invites
A less formal tone and wording is allowed
Use a simple statement of the time, date, place and how to get there as well as who is being married

The wording of the wedding invitations follows the etiquette of either the formal or informal rules, but not both. The wording is used to show the tone and seriousness, or a lack of seriousness, of the wedding.

While formal invitations are the most common; informal invitations have provided more innovation and freedom of expression. In either case, standardized formats are a part of wedding invitation etiquette. Wedding invitation kits can be of great help in regards to this.