Wedding Etiquette

Here are some wedding etiquette tips dealing with the most prevalent mistakes when creating the text for your wedding invitations.

Spell it out

Almost every word on your wedding invitation shall be spelled out. You may use titles like Mr. and Mrs. but you must spell out the wedding date, time and year.
You should also spell out words and numbers appearing in the venue’s address, like court, avenue and street. (House numbers and apartment numbers can remain numbers.)

Zip codes

Zip codes do not belong on invitations or most insert cards. They are appropriate on envelopes and RSVP envelopes.

Year

The year 2018 must spelled "two thousand eighteen". There is no need for an "and". The word "and" in numbers actually represents a decimal point. However, "two thousand and eighteen" has become incredibly common.

Time

Invitations are proper when time is spelled out. (Numerals may be used on insert cards.)

Invitations:
Time should be spelled out.
Time should never be capitalized.
Time, on the hour, should be followed by “o’clock” (Note: lowercase and apostrophe).
Do not use “o’clock” if the time is not on the hour.

Time, not on the hour, should be hyphenated. Example: “five-thirty” instead of “five thirty” or “five forty-five” instead of “five forty five”.

Time should always be followed by “in the morning”, “noon”, “in the afternoon”, “in the evening”, or “midnight”.
12:00 a.m. is midnight
Any other a.m. is morning.
12:00 p.m. is noon.
12:01 p.m. – 5:59 p.m. is afternoon.
6:00 p.m.- 11:59 p.m. is evening.

• The abbreviations “a.m.” and “p.m.” should not be used. Use instead the phrases “in the morning” or “in the evening” can be used  
• The proper reference to a half hour is “half after,” not “half past.” So 5:30 would be written as “ half after five o’clock”. 
• Quarter hours are rarely used on a wedding invitation.

Grammar

Pronouns should be consistent throughout your invitations. Use first person pronouns (I, we, us, our and me), or third person pronouns (them, they, their).

Do not use punctuation at the end of a line, such as commas and periods, in your invitation wording.

Registry

Do not include your wedding registry on your invitations. Your registry info can go with the Save the Date cards, Bridal Shower Invitations, or on your wedding website. It cannot be included on your wedding invitation. Learn more on this article.

Who come first?

Wedding invitation etiquette states the bride’s name comes first.

How to indicate divorced parents on an invitation?

The names of married couples are on the same line. The names of divorced couples are on separate lines.

And? To? The proper joining word.

The word "to" between the bride and groom’s names indicates a Christian wedding while the word "and" indicates a Jewish wedding.
"And" is also used on invitations issued by the bride and groom, and wedding reception invitations.