wording

lupinaria

the issue with invitations is that the traditional syntax seems too formal or stand off-ish to come across as a family celebration. I would prefer the wording to let the guests know the ceremony and reception will be a blend of traditional with off-beat quirks from our interests and personalities thrown in. hence my invitation wording would be more short, humorous and to the point e.g. 'Give us a hand. We're getting hitched!' along with our names, date, time, venue. Any suggestions on how to marry the offbeat with the traditional in the invitation wording?

Jen4948

lupinaria said:

the issue with invitations is that the traditional syntax seems too formal or stand off-ish to come across as a family celebration. I would prefer the wording to let the guests know the ceremony and reception will be a blend of traditional with off-beat quirks from our interests and personalities thrown in. hence my invitation wording would be more short, humorous and to the point e.g. 'Give us a hand. We're getting hitched!' along with our names, date, time, venue. Any suggestions on how to marry the offbeat with the traditional in the invitation wording?

No ideas to offer, sorry.

I'm sorry that you don't like the traditional wording, but I've heard about too many instances where being quirky and humorous in the wording of a wedding invitation confused the guests as to what they were actually being invited to.

Wedding invitations have specified purposes.  They are not meant to "honor" anyone other than the guests, map out the family tree, indicate who paid for what, or showcase the egos of the senders.  They are meant to inform the guests that a specific type of event is happening at a specified location and time and the guests are being honored by being asked to attend.  Nothing more, nothing less.  No "cuteness," "humor," "quirkiness," etc.  Save those elements for the reception-not the invitation.

theartistformerlyknownas

Why do people need to be informed ahead of time that your wedding will be "a blend of traditional with off-beat quirks"? Won't they figure it out pretty quickly once they get there? Will they be any more likely to attend after being informed that it's a quirky wedding, or wouldn't the same people attend either way? I've never gotten an invitation and thought "oh goodie, this looks quirky, I'm definitely going to go to this wedding."

You can let your personalities show with the design of the invitations. Colors, graphics, fonts. The wording just needs to get your message across that they're:

- invited to something

- it's a wedding 

- for these people 

- on this date and time 

- at this address

- the reception will be at either the same place or this other place.

That's all. I'm ok with SOME spin on tradition, as long as it's still very straightforward - not humorous/witty/etc. But I associate "give us a hand" with "help us out with something" which would send me running for the hills. Not the message you want to send.