Twelve traditional invitations you can copy, plus the etiquette behind every line: who hosts, when to write “honour” instead of “honor,” and why formal invitations never use numerals.
The classic structure: hosts, request line, names, then the details — third person throughout, everything spelled out, no abbreviations except titles.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Whitfield request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter Eleanor Rose to Mr. Thomas Ashby Saturday, the twelfth of June two thousand twenty-seven at half after four in the afternoon Saint Andrew's Church Charleston, South Carolina Reception to follow
Doctor and Mrs. Alan Beckett request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of their daughter Marianne Claire to Mr. Julian Reyes Saturday, the third of October two thousand twenty-seven at six o'clock in the evening The Ashcroft Estate Hudson, New York Dinner and dancing to follow
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Lindqvist and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Cole request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their children Annika Lindqvist and Samuel Cole Friday, the ninth of April two thousand twenty-seven at five o'clock in the evening Grace Cathedral San Francisco, California
Together with their families Amelia Grace Hart and Julian Reyes request the honour of your presence at their marriage Saturday, the eleventh of September two thousand twenty-seven at four o'clock in the afternoon The Willow Barn Hudson, New York Reception to follow
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Osei request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their son Kwame Daniel to Miss Priya Anand Sunday, the twenty-second of August two thousand twenty-seven at two o'clock in the afternoon The Old Chapel at Fairmount Providence, Rhode Island Black tie
Mr. and Mrs. Victor Almeida request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of their daughter Sofia Isabel to Mr. Andrew Kealoha Saturday, the fifteenth of May two thousand twenty-seven at half after six in the evening The Beaumont Hotel Savannah, Georgia Black tie optional Kindly reply by the first of April
The generator spells out your date and time, picks the right request line for your venue, and hands you a printable version and a text-message version.
Same structure, same gravity, fewer assumptions. These keep the traditional cadence while using first names, dropping titles, or naming both parents individually.
Helen Whitfield and Charles Whitfield request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter Eleanor Rose to Thomas Ashby Saturday, the twelfth of June two thousand twenty-seven at half after four in the afternoon Saint Andrew's Church Charleston, South Carolina
Together with our families Rowan Michael Avery and Devon Blake Carrow invite you to share in their joy as they are married Saturday, the seventh of November two thousand twenty-seven at five o'clock in the evening The Conservatory Portland, Oregon Dinner and dancing to follow
Eleanor Rose Whitfield and Thomas James Ashby request the pleasure of your company at their marriage Saturday, the twelfth of June two thousand twenty-seven at four o'clock in the afternoon The Hallowell Library Boston, Massachusetts Reception to follow
Ana Beatriz Salgado and Marcus Chen together with their parents Rita and Paulo Salgado Wei and Grace Chen request the honour of your presence at their marriage Saturday, the twenty-ninth of May two thousand twenty-seven at three o'clock in the afternoon Kettle Hollow Farm Asheville, North Carolina
With joyful hearts Nadia Haddad and Elias Fournier request the pleasure of your company at their marriage Saturday, the eighteenth of September two thousand twenty-seven at half after five in the evening The Fern Room Montreal, Quebec Cocktail attire Kindly reply by the first of August
The honour of your presence is requested at the marriage of Miriam Adler and Jonah Reyes Sunday, the fourth of July two thousand twenty-seven at eleven o'clock in the morning Temple Beth Shalom Chicago, Illinois Luncheon reception to follow
Formality lives in six small choices. Get these right and the invitation reads as traditional even if you have bent the structure elsewhere.
No numerals, no abbreviations: “Saturday, the twelfth of June, two thousand twenty-seven, at half after four in the afternoon.” Titles like Mr., Mrs., and Dr. are the exception, and street addresses are simply left off.
On a formal invitation the traditional spellings signal register. Use “the honour of your presence” for a ceremony in a house of worship and “the pleasure of your company” everywhere else.
Hosts request, the couple marry, guests are invited. “We can't wait to see you” belongs on a casual invitation — a formal one never addresses the guest as “you” beyond the request line.
If the bride's parents host, she is named first and her fiancé follows after “to.” When the couple hosts together, either order works and “and” replaces “to.”
Venue name, city, and state — not the street address, not the hotel block, not the registry. Everything else moves to a details card so the invitation stays uncluttered.
No end punctuation on lines, and no periods after the date or venue. Commas appear inside a line (“Charleston, South Carolina”), never at the end of one.
Every one of these turns up on otherwise beautiful letterpress invitations that have already gone to the printer.
“Saturday, June 12th, 2027 at 4:30pm” next to “request the honour of your presence” reads as a mistake rather than a choice. Pick one register and hold it for the whole card.
“Reception to follow” is all a formal invitation says. Cocktail hour times, shuttle schedules, and the after-party belong on the details card.
Guest counts are communicated by the envelope's inner names and by the RSVP card, not by a line on the invitation. Put an adults-only note on the details card or your website instead.
Set to formal with parents hosting. Change the tone or the host line and the wording rewrites itself — including the spelled-out date and time.
Separate two families with a semicolon.
A phone number, a website, or “reply to this text.”
Both are correct English; the difference is register. Traditional formal invitations use the British spellings “honour” and “favour,” which is why you see them on engraved and letterpress stationery in the United States. If the rest of your invitation is modern, “honor” is perfectly fine — just be consistent.
When the ceremony takes place in a house of worship. For a hotel, garden, barn, or any other venue, the traditional phrase is “the pleasure of your company.” A few couples use “joyfully invite you to” as a warmer third option that still reads as formal.
Spell everything out and skip the year's “and”: “Saturday, the twelfth of June, two thousand twenty-seven.” Times are written as “at four o'clock in the afternoon” or “at half after four in the afternoon” — never 4:30 p.m. Our generator does this for you when you pick the formal tone.
Traditionally whoever is hosting the wedding. That may be one set of parents, both sets, the couple themselves, or the families and couple together. If more than one family hosts, each family gets its own line. Divorced, remarried, and blended families follow their own conventions — we cover those on the divorced parents page.
No. If the wedding is black tie, putting it in the lower right corner of the invitation is traditional and helpful. Anything less formal than black tie optional is usually better placed on the details card or your wedding website.
Yes, and thousands of couples now do exactly that — usually alongside a printed invitation for older relatives. The generator gives you a condensed text-message version of the same wording so the two match. Our text message wording page has examples written for a phone screen.
Text My Wedding sends your invitation by text, collects RSVPs and addresses automatically, and chases the stragglers for you. Try it free.
