Wording library
Words you can
lift directly.
Wording is where most people stall, because the conventions are real, unwritten, and noticed by exactly the guests you would least like to get it wrong in front of. Here they are, written down.
What order does invitation wording go in?
Host line, request line, whose event it is, then the particulars — date, time, place. The host line comes first and says who is welcoming the guest; it is the line most often muddled. Dress code and replies never appear on the invitation card itself; they belong on the details and reply cards.
01
By occasion.
Wedding
Every host situation — parents, the couple, both families, divorced parents, second marriages.
Engagement party
Warmer and shorter than a wedding invitation, with one trap that causes real hurt later.
Rehearsal dinner
Who traditionally hosts, and how to make clear this is not the wedding.
Bridal shower
The one invitation where a registry belongs — and the guest-list rule with no exceptions.
Baby shower
Wording that fits the actual situation: a first baby, a second, an adoption or a surrogacy.
Christening & baptism
Naming godparents, and making clear who is invited to the service and who to the reception.
First communion
When the child is old enough to do the inviting, and how a shared parish Mass changes the card.
Bar & bat mitzvah
The Hebrew date, the Torah portion, and why the service and party usually need separate cards.
Quinceañera
Spanish and English, naming padrinos and the court, and how to handle a bilingual suite.
Sweet sixteen
In her voice or her parents' — plus the practical lines the reading parents need.
Kids' birthday
Written for a child, read entirely by adults. Drop-off or stay is the line that matters.
Milestone birthday
Thirtieth to hundredth, surprise parties, and the version that never prints the number.
02
By situation.
Adults-only wording
Formal, modern and plain versions — plus the harder case where some children are invited and others are not.
Dress code wording
What each code is really understood to mean, how to print it, and how to describe a formality with no standard name.
Wording generator
Build wording from the occasion, the host and the register — and see which convention it follows.
Free tool02
Two conventions worth knowing.
- "Honour" or "pleasure". By convention, the honour of your presence is used for a ceremony in a house of worship and the pleasure of your company everywhere else. Small, old, and noticed by the people most likely to be at a formal wedding.
- Formal suites spell things out. Dates, times and numbers in words — "Saturday, the fourteenth of June, at four o'clock". Modern suites need not, and numerals often sit better in a modern layout. What matters is that the invitation, details card and reply card all make the same choice.
This library is being built out. The plan is wording for every occasion the house designs for, across formal, modern, hosted-by-parents, bilingual and second-marriage variants. If the one you need is not here yet, the generator will get you most of the way — and if it does not, ask us and we will write it.
Words are half of it. The other half is how they are set.
The same sentence reads completely differently engraved, letterpressed or set in a modern face. Evorrah designs the suite around your event and sets your wording into it.
See how a suite is designed