Proper Wedding Invitation Wording & Spelling Tips

When it comes to traditional wedding invitation wording, the principles tend to be quite different from normal, everyday writing.  These special etiquette guidelines apply to punctuation, spelling, abbreviations and capitalization. 

Here are certain things to be mindful of when it comes to your wedding invitations in regards to proper wording and spelling.

• Punctuation use within a verse is not always typical.  Periods do not appear at the end of sentences but only after title abbreviations such as Mr. and Mrs.  Commas appear between day and date and also city and state. They are also allowed within sentences when necessary.
• The first word of a sentence is capitalized even though sentences do not end in punctuation. Keep in mind that not every verse line will start with a capital letter since sentences sometimes continue to more than one line.
• All proper names, title abbreviations, days of the week and months are printed with the first letters being capitalized.  The year, written out as a phrase, most often has only the first letter of the first word capitalized.  

For a more modern look, there are examples in which nothing within the invitation verse is capitalized OR just the opposite where every letter in the verse appears in an upper-case font with the true capital letters being slightly larger. 

• Dates, years and times are spelled out instead of listing them as numbers.
  • Saturday, the third of January
  • Two thousand and ten
  • at two o'clock in the afternoon

Numbers are acceptable when listed as part of a street address (i.e. 10 Main Street).

• There are many ways to phrase the line that actually extends the invitation to guests but if the word 'honor' is used it is most commonly spelled as 'honour' for more formality as in a religious ceremony - 'request the honour of your presence'.  The spelling as ‘honor’ can be used for an informal or more casual wedding.

There are also certain things to be aware of when it comes to abbreviations with your wedding invitation wording.  Some of these etiquette guidelines pertain to both your invitation verse and when addressing the envelopes.

• Non-professional titles such as Mr. and Mrs. are acceptable abbreviations.
• Professional titles such as Doctor should be spelled out.
• Names of states as well as the words 'Street', 'Boulevard', 'Avenue', 'Trail', etc. should be written out completely.
• Symbols should not be used so the word 'and' should be spelled out.

As you can see there are several traditional wedding invitation wording etiquette rules so hopefully these tips will sum them up for you.  The important thing to remember is that if you find yourself in doubt, there are many sample verses to review as examples as you prepare your wedding invitations.