Western & American Wedding Invitation Wording.
The main ceremony invitation — the one everyone receives.
- Who invites
- Historically the bride’s parents; now just as often the couple themselves, or both families jointly.
- How it opens
- No invocation by convention — most Western invitations open with the hosts’ names
- Register
- Ranges from the very formal (spelled-out dates, "the honour of your presence") to entirely your own voice. Note the convention that "honour of your presence" signals a religious ceremony and "pleasure of your company" a civil one.
2 sample wordings
Written as common practice, not prescription. Take whichever is closest and change the parts that are not you — that is what these are for.
Mr and Mrs Thomas Bennett request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter Eleanor Grace to James Whitfield Saturday, the twelfth of June two thousand twenty-seven at four o’clock in the afternoon St Mary’s Church, Oxfordshire
Together with their families Eleanor & James invite you to celebrate their marriage Saturday 12 June 2027 · 4 pm The Barn at Hensley Dinner, dancing and a late finish