Invitations & Announcements in New York

The whole wedding planning is hard enough without having to think of all the different ways you could word your invitations. Here are a couple of the most common ways to word the invitation.

Bride's Parents Hosting:
Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Brown
are pleased to announce the marriage
of their daughter
Melissa Jane
to
Thomas Brian Smith
son of
Mr. and Mrs. Michael G. Smith

Both Parents Hosting:
Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Brown &
Mr. and Mrs. Michael G. Smith
are pleased to announce the marriage
of their children
Melissa Jane Brown
to
Thomas Brian Smith

Couple Hosting:
Miss Melissa Jane Brown
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Brown
and
Thomas Brian Smith
son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael G. Smith
are pleased to announce their marriage

All of these examples would then be followed with something similar to this:

On Friday, the 21st day of June, 2006
At six o'clock in the evening
At the Royal Inn Restaurant
Rochester, New York

Reception to follow

Remember, you should decide yourself what form you prefer the most- it might just be a mix of two of these examples. Don't worry too much about the wording- all people really need to know is that you are in love and you're getting married.

Here are some variations of "are pleased to announce the marriage":
"Request the honor of your presence at the marriage"
"Request the pleasure of your company at the marriage"
"Invite you to celebrate the marriage"
"Invite you to share in the happiness of the marriage"

There are many different ways to word your invitations. Just make sure that you don't get caught up in the wording and miss the date for sending the invitations out. It's more important to get them out to your guests in time than to have the perfect wording.

First of all, how are you going to write all those addresses? If you are like most couples planning your wedding in New York, you'll have hundreds of invitations to address. Here are your options along with pros and cons:

Calligrapher:
Pros: You will get a beautiful, formal look that everyone will compliment.
Cons: Calligraphers may be expensive, and sometimes hard to find.

Write them yourself:
Pros: You can get it done at your own pace- plus, you can have friends and family help out.
Cons: Not everyone who is willing to help has beautiful handwriting, or even legible handwriting at that.

Print them:
Pros: You will get it done fast, with a uniform font that can match your invitations.
Cons: You'll need a good quality printer, or get it done some place professionally to have it look perfect.

DO NOT, whatever you do, print labels and stick them on. Not only does it look cheap, but it is much too impersonal as well. Also, it is near impossible to get each label exactly straight, which means needing a lot of extra envelops for mistakes, or a lot of crooked addresses.

Of course, it wouldn't be a wedding task if there wasn't something traditional you had to do. In the case of invitations, you must spell everything out- no abbreviations. The only abbreviation allowed is for titles (Mr., Mrs., etc.). Here's how to do it:

Married Couple:
Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Miller
345 Greentree Drive
New York, New York 12345

Couple with Different Last Names:
Mrs. (Ms.) Nicole Hansen and Mr. Frank Roberts
65 Riverbank Avenue
New York, New York 23456

Couple with Children:
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Potter
and family
974 Redwood Court
New York, New York 34567

The inner envelope can be addressed much less formally:

Married Couple:
Suzanne and Gregory Miller

Couple with Different Last Names:
Nicole Hansen and Frank Roberts

Couple with Children:
Janet, Richard, Paula, and Nathan Potter


Whatever you choose to do, make sure you give yourself enough time to address the invitations before your deadline to send them out.