Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Word

Wow, I have to tell ya, I never thought much about invitation wording. I contacted a calligrapher, the famed Michele Clark, many moons ago about hand-writing our invitations. I know she is going to do a fabulous job, and every time I see a calligraphied invitation it only confirms my absolute love for their simple elegance. source

I have been so caught up in the look of the invite, that I've completely disregarded the actual text. Our whole wedding is comprised of the perfect marriage of formal and casual. While calligraphy is consistent with a traditional, formal wedding, the fabric sleeve gives it that home made, rustic edge.
source

So how to merge the two with the wording? I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the traditional "honour of your presence" wording. I've always loved the more personal, celebratory language. My personal favorite is "...request the pleasure of your company" because really, that's what we're doing. We're only inviting the people that we really want to be around while we make the biggest commitment of our lives. As for the rest, I'm not sure. I'd like as little wording as possible so that the calligraphy can really shine.

Also, since we're doing the fabric pocket, with part of the invite peaking out, I'd like to start with our names. Technically, my parents are hosting our wedding (we are paying for certain details ourselves) but since I'm trying to go with as little wording as possible (especially up top) I decided against including their names. My parents were completely understanding and seemed like they could care less.




Here's what I have so far:

Amy ... .... & B... ..... .... (this will be up top, peaking out above the fabric pocket)
Together with their families,
Request the pleasure of your company
at their wedding ***
Saturday, the blank of October
Two Thousand and Nine
at half past blank in the afternoon***
Taber Ranch
Capay California
Drinks, Dinner, and Dancing to Follow***



***these are the lines I'm not sure about. Suggestions wanted! What time does afternoon end and evening begin? 5:00pm? Do you like the drinks, dinner and dancing line? I'm just a fan of the alliteration and think it will be so pretty written out. I'm going to send this over to Michele soon. Your feedback is appreciated!

7 comments:

  1. 5 PM is definitely when "evening" begins.

    LOVE the drinks, dinner and dancing line.

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  3. According to Peggy Post, "request the honour of your presence" refers to a wedding in a church or other place of worship, whereas "pleasure of your company" is when it's not at a place of worship (such as at a ranch).

    Of course, she also goes on to say that any respectful invitation that conveys the mood of your wedding is acceptable, as well.

    So I say go with pleasure of your company, or whatever you like.

    My invitation says:

    My parents
    and
    His parents
    request the honour of your presence at the wedding of

    Krista
    and
    Wade

    at the church
    and afterward for dinner, dancing and merriment
    at the reception location

    (Of course the date and time are also in there, but in order to avoid clutter, I left the concept of our wording.)

    I love the non-traditional "merriment" but that's just me! But I think dinner and dancing is fine - if you're having dinner and dancing, it's presumed drinks will be involved most of the time.

    I see no need to include mention of "drinks" on the invitation.

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  4. Again, according to Peggy Post and Martha Stewart, when something is held half past the hour, the formal way of writing it on an invitation is:

    half after five o'clock

    Sounds weird, but that's the proper way, apparently.

    P.S. I like alliteration, too.

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  5. I'm with Krista on the "half after" not "half past"... apparently in (crazy and bizarre) older times, writing "past" mean much more literally "dead" and was a way for the parents of the bride to indicate that they didn't approve of the marriage and therefore the daughter was now dead to them. I can't tell you where I read that, but it's so out there that it stuck with me! Ha!

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  6. I like all of your wording. I'm thinking of going with something similar.

    Also, I nominated you for the Great Attitude/Gratitude Award.

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