You’ve found your perfect wedding invitations but what do you actually need to include on them? Here I share my ultimate wedding invitation wording guide and go through what you should consider including. Pick and choose what suits you and your wedding, but remember to be mindful of how much space you have.

Before we get into the details on what to include, when it comes to wedding invitation wording, the first thing to think about is your tone of voice. Do you want to keep things traditional and formal or more casual and relaxed? Here at Wild Moon I steer more towards the modern, laid-back and friendly tone of voice. If you need specific help on what to write then my invitation samples have some examples on them plus if you book a space in my diary, I can work with you to help write what you want to say.

Here are the 16 wedding invitation wording topics you should consider including on your wedding invitations:

The venue address

Probably the most important wedding invitation wording to include is your venue address so your guests can actually make their way to your wedding! Make sure you provide the full address to all your wedding venues, so if your ceremony is at a different location to your reception, make sure you provide both, including the postcodes, so they can find their way using a sat nav or Google maps, and then if this fails they have the full address to ask someone along the way.

What time guests should arrive and be seated by

The second most important wedding invitation wording to include is what time the ceremony is and what time you would like everyone seated by so everyone is ready and no one is turning up late and disturbing the beginning of the ceremony! For example if your ceremony is at 2.00pm, let everything know you would like them there and seated by 1.30pm so everyone is ready for the big event!

Venue parking

Let your guests know where they car if they are driving, whether there’s parking available at your venue or if it’s a short walk from it. If there’s limited parking let them know that too so they know it’s a first come first served basis!

Transport to your venue

If there isn’t parking available at your venue let your guests know alternative ways they can travel to your wedding, whether that’s via a certain train station, bus or tube stop. If you are providing transport from a certain place to get your guests to your venue let them know where and what time the transport will be.

Whether your venue takes cash or card

Some venues are card only, others have a cash bar. If you don’t have an open bar at your wedding let your guests know how your venue takes payments so they can come prepared! There’s nothing more annoying when you’re trying to buy a drink than having to hunt down a cash machine to pay because somewhere only takes cash and you didn’t know beforehand!

Whether confetti is allowed & what types

Some venues ban the use of confetti all together, where as others only allow natural or decomposable types, such as dried petals or decomposable paper, so check with your venue what they allow and let your guests know so they don’t waste money buying confetti they can’t use or get you into trouble for using! Another idea is to provide confetti to your guests, that way you know only what’s allowed is being used.

Accommodation information

If your venue offers accommodation they might do a discount for your wedding guests to book with them, so check what they can provide and what they have to offer. It’s also a good idea to list 3 or 4 different local hotel options, these might be cheaper options for your guests or have different amenities. List the name of the hotel, the full address and the contact number, to make it easy for your guests to ring up and book.

Including the distance from the venue is also super useful for your guests to make a choice if they need to book somewhere so they can work out how long it will take to travel between their accommodation and you wedding venue.

Local taxi services

Providing the name and numbers of a couple of local taxi services is super helpful for your guests, particular if you know everyone won’t be staying at your wedding venue overnight and need to get back to their accommodation, or if your wedding is out of town for a lot of your guests. This way they are prepared and don’t need to hint down a taxi number at the end of the night, or they can get pre-book one in advance.

The dress code

If you have a theme or dress code you want to let your guests know about, now is the time to do it. Whether you want everyone in a bright colour, a certain tone or black and white, if you want your guests to come smart casual or you just want to remind the ladies (and gents!) not to wear a white dress. Also it’s sometimes a good idea to give your guests a heads up if your wedding is outdoors to they can bring a jacket or umbrella incase the British weather turns on you!

Whether children are invited

Let your guests know whether it’s okay to bring their little ones to your wedding, whether that’s during the day or the evening reception. Most children that are invited are named on the invitation or envelope along with the parents, but if you’re having an adult only event (which is very common today) let your guests know that children aren’t invited and parents can have a day off, so they can arrange child care well in advance.

Gifting information

When it comes to wedding invitation wording it is important to provide information about gifting to your guestsl. Here you can either let them know about a registry you’ve put together that they can select from, or you can include a short message or poem about what you would like to receive as a gift, whether that’s a gift of money towards your honeymoon or new house, or a donation to a charity. Don’t be afraid to include this information to your guests!

A custom map illustration

Not necessarily essential and not wedding invitation wording, but you might want to consider including a custom map illustration of your venue location and the surrounding area to help guide your guests or to point out key locations or attractions. These are especially useful if you have multiple venues, your venue is hard to find, covers a lot of ground or is out of town for most of your guests. Custom or bespoke watercolour map illustrations are available to add on to all invitation collections as an added Finishing Touch.

Menu options

If you are having a sit down meal (or wedding breakfast) for your day guests and need to provide your venue or caterer with a list of who wants what, then including the menu choices in your invitation is a must. Whether that’s on a panel of your concertina folded invitation or on a separate menu card that you include within your invitation bundle. Give your guests all the options so they can RSVP with their choices and you can let the venue know in advance.

A good idea to avoid separate pieces of paper, is to choose a concertina folded invitation and use one of the back panels to list the menu options and use the tear off RSVP postcard to collect the choices. If you need even more room then you can include a separate RSVP postcard instead.

Dietary requirements & allergies

Always ask your guest to provide information on their allergies or dietary requirements! The last thing you want is someone having an allergic reaction or being unable to eat the meal you’ve paid for. These things could include vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and other allergies.

How to RSVP

There are lots of options to collect RSVPs today. A lot of people choose to save money and paper by having electronic RSVPs, setting up a special email address with Gmail so RSVPs can all be collected in one place. You can then also use it for all your wedding planning and supplier emails.

Another option is to include RSVP postcards with your wedding invitations, so your guests can fill in all the information you need and post it back to you. The RSVP postcard option doesn’t require any extra envelopes either, which helps save a little money and paper, being more eco-friendly. These are a good option if you have a lot of older guests who may not have access to a computer for a email RSVP.

RSVP cards might be an easier option if you are collecting menu choices, that way boxes can be ticked or initialed and you can collect the information and input it on a spreadsheet as you get received them back.

Some people choose to give guests the option to either post a card back or drop them an email. The choice is completely yours and how easy and stress-free collecting all the guests replies will be for you.

An order of the day

Some people choose to include a run down of the order of the day, either on the invite or on a separate piece of card which the guests can bring along with them on the big day. I regularly design line illustrated order of the day timelines which are personalised to your wedding day.

Now you know your wedding invitation wording, what’s next?

I hope this wedding invitation wording guide helps you with what information to include on your own wedding invitations. Just pick and choose which information is relevant for you to include based on your wedding, and remember, if you don’t have enough room on the back of of your A5 double sided invite, you can always order matching extra detail cards. Alternatively, you could choose a beautiful concertina folded wedding invitation, with these you get six panels of space and can even have separate RSVP postcards if you need even more room!

Please don’t hesitate to Contact Me if you have any questions or would like to discuss what would be best for your wedding invitations.

Emily x