Wording Guidelines and Ideas

Wording Guidelines for Announcements and Invitations

Party Invitations (wedding, birthday, christening, etc)

What To Include:
-Begin with a short introductory poem or quote
-Include what the event is about (Katie's birthday party, the marriage of..., etc.)
-Date of the event including what day of the week (Saturday, April 22nd)
-Time
-Place: name of the location and address
-If you are having a reception at a separate location also give that information
-RSVP name, phone number, and date to reply by
-End with a closing like "we hope you can come! John, Kristy and Sasha Riverton" or "May the presence of your company be your only gift to us"
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Wedding and Engagement Announcements

What To Include:
-Begin with a short introductory poem or quote. Example: "Love lights the hearts of those who share it. John and Kristy announce..."

-Include couples names. There are many ways you can address whose last name the wife will adopt. If the wife has taken her husband's name you can say "John and Kristy Riverton are delighted to announce their marriage..." If the wife will be keeping her maiden name or hyphenating with the new last name, you could do something like: "John and Kristy happily announce their marriage" then at the bottom in small print say "John Riverton and Kristy Smith-Riverton reside at...."

-Details of your event that you want to share. For wedding announcements you can include date and place of marriage ceremony and where the new couple will reside. Engagement announcements you might want to include the date of the proposal and where it took place, and the date of the upcoming wedding.

-For second marriages or older couples, you'll probably want to signal to your recipients that you don't expect a gift. You can do this with something like "We wish to share our happiness with you, our family and friends. Please let your good wishes be your only gift to us." It's never appropriate to list where you are registered.
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Birth and Adoption Announcements:

What To Include:
-Begin with a short introductory poem or quote. Example: " Babies are miracles that bring joy to our lives. We are delighted to announce the arrival of..."

-Child's first and middle name or the full name. If you will be calling your child by a nick name other than their given first name you can word your announcement like this: "Announcing the arrival of Kenneth George Pace. Kenny arrived on December..."

-Details of the announcement. For birth announcements you might want to include baby's weight, length, birth date, time, and city of birth (if unique). For adoption announcements you might want to include date and place of birth and date and place of adoption.

-End with a closing that includes the parents and siblings names. Example: "Proud Parents John & Kristy Riverton and Delighted Big Brother Zach"

-Closing wording ideas: Proud parents..., Proud family..., Delighted new parents..., Happy new parents..., Our circle is complete..., etc.

-For grandparents: it's a wonderful idea to put the grandparents names after the parents names so that the grandparents can send out announcements to their own friends that may not know who the child's parents are. Give them their own bragging rights.
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Gifts

There are instances where your recipient will receive an invitation or announcement and not know whether they should bring/send a gift. A second marriage is a great example. It is perfectly appropriate to extend your generosity by declining gifts on an invitation or announcement. As a loose rule, if nothing is mentioned about not bringing a gift, then a gift will not be refused. If you decline gifts, the wording should be at the lowest part of your card in small print. Mentioning on the invitation the stores where you are registered is tacky and should never be done.

Here's a few wording ideas for declining gifts:
-"May your good wishes be your only gift to us"
-"No gifts please"
-"May the presence of your company be your only gift to us"
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R.S.V.P.
(an abbreviation of the French phrase: réspondez s'il vous plaît, literally meaning "respond if you please"):

There are several ways you can word your R.S.V.P. You can follow this wording by the name, phone number or email address they should R.S.V.P. to and the cut-off date they need to respond by. Here a few ideas:

-"The favor of a reply is requested"
-"Kindly reply to"
-"Regrets only"
-" R.S.V.P. by"
-" R.S.V.P. regrets only by"
-"Just call Mom to R.S.V.P. so that she'll know how many there'll be"
-"We hope you can come. R.S.V.P. by _____"
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Abbreviations:

We don't like abbreviations. If you've gone to the trouble of creating a very special invitation, the text should look well thought out and carefully scripted. If space allows, you should always spell out commonly abbreviated words such as street, avenue, saint, months, days of the week, etc. This gives a better flow to the wording and gives a deliberate and thoughtful presentation.

Sounds a little rushed:

Join Jack and Sandra for a luncheon
in celebration of their engagement
Jan. 22, 2008
11:30 am
Blue Moon Bar and Grill
1322 E. Central Pl.
Hyattsville, CA

Sounds more thoughtful:

Join Jack and Sandra for a luncheon
in celebration of their engagement
Sunday, January 22, 2008
half past eleven o'clock in the morning
Blue Moon Bar and Grill
1322 East Central Place
Hyattsville, California

The time can also be written like this:
11:30 in the morning
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Punctuation:

Ending punctuation (usually periods) is used only when words requiring separation occur on the same line, and in certain abbreviations such as Mr., Dr., R.S.V.P., etc.
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Envelope Addressing Tips:

In the USA, we write addresses in minor-to-major order, with the most specific (smallest) item (e.g. person's name) at the top, proceeding to the most general (largest) item (i.e. country name) at the bottom.

In cases where the street name and number might be too long (e.g. for a database field, or for an automatic reader), any part of this line that denotes a sub-part of the main address (e.g. an apartment or suite number) can or should be put on a separate line above the street name and number.

The US Postal Service prefers envelopes to be:

-Typed, not handwritten
-Typed in all UPPERCASE letters for all fields (for ease of automatic scanning and application of bar codes)
-Commas and periods omitted
-Two spaces between the state abbreviation and zip code
-Addressed in large enough type to be read from an arm's length away
-Do not spell out state names. Instead use the proper two-letter abbreviation
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