Formal Wedding Invitation Etiquette

In today’s modern society, wedding invitations can be given via word of mouth, telephone, or email.  The main goal of the wedding invitation is to make sure that all your guests know the who, what, when and where of your wedding and reception. On a purely practical not, it is much easier to keep check on how many people, and who you have invited if you send out written invitations.  Although wedding invitations are similar to other invitations, there is a certain formality associated with them.  Because of this association there is an etiquette to formal wedding invitations.  This etiquette exists because formal wedding invitations convey the formality and the tone of the event through the paper, font and style of the invitation.  The more formal your wedding, the more formal the invitations need to be.

The Look And Feel Of A Formal Wedding Invitation

Proper etiquette for a formal wedding invitation does not allow for inviting guests via email or phone since these methods are relatively new.  This leaves for the old style paper invitations.  Formal wedding invitations usually have the following characteristics:
They are printed on heavyweight ivory, cream or white paper
They use a classic letter style such as Roman
Formal invitations are usually engraved and most likely written in the third person style.
There are usually two envelopes with the invitation.  The first envelope is the outer envelope which holds everything pertaining to the invitation.  The second envelope is used for the reply card only.

Other Helpful Tips

While the look and feel of a formal wedding invitation has etiquette rules all to itself; there are other helpful rules of etiquette for formal wedding invitations which should be considered during the planning stage.
The more formal and ceremonial the wedding, the less creativity is applied.
If your guest is certain to bring a date or companion it is acceptable to write “and guest” on the invitation when you do not know their name.  Usually this limits the amount of unknown guests brought along by others.
Ceremonies held in places of worship require a more formal set up and thereby more formal invitation than a ceremony held in a nature setting or a home.
Most formal wedding invitations are printed by a professional printing service and then the envelope is hand addressed by either the groom or bride.

When creating the formal wedding invitation, etiquette is a must.  This implies the importance of the special occasion to those involved, unlike other wedding invitations such as wedding shower invitations which are far less formal and more festive.