Wording The Date On Your Wedding Invitation: A Guide

When writing a wedding date on an invitation, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, the level of formality of the wedding and invitation should be taken into account. Formal invitations for black-tie weddings tend to follow more traditional language, while casual invites can be more relaxed and informal. The day of the week is usually capitalised and followed by a comma, e.g. Saturday,. The date is then written out in full, followed by the year on a separate line. For example, Saturday, the twenty-sixth of October two thousand twenty-four.

Spell out the date for formal invitations

When writing the date on a formal wedding invitation, it is customary to spell out the date, day of the week, and month in full. For example, if your wedding is on the 26th of October 2024, you would write:

> Saturday, the twenty-sixth of October, two thousand and twenty-four.

Day of the Week

The day of the week should be capitalised, unless your wedding invitation font is already in all uppercase or lowercase letters. There should be a comma following the day of the week. For example, "Saturday," or "Friday,".

Date

If your wedding falls between the 21st and 31st of a month, use a hyphen between the tens and the units, like "twenty-eighth." The date should be preceded by the word "the," and there should be a comma after the date. For example, "the twenty-ninth," or "the twenty-eighth,".

Month

The month should be capitalised and written out in full without abbreviations. There is no comma between the date and the month. For example, "of October," or "of April".

Year

The year is usually written on a separate line from the day and month. Write out the number in full, for example, "two thousand and twenty-four." There is no need to include the word "and" in the year, and no hyphen between "two thousand." However, there should be a hyphen between the tens and units in the year, like "two thousand twenty-four."

Additional Tips:

• You can choose to omit the day of the week or the year, but including them is recommended.
• For a more casual wedding, you can write the date more informally, for example, "Saturday, May 17th, 2025".
• Be consistent with the date formatting on any enclosures, such as RSVP cards.
• If your wedding is on a date that is easy to write in numerical form, you may choose to do so as a design choice.

Include the day of the week

When writing the date on a wedding invitation, it is important to include the day of the week. This is part of the traditional format for wedding invitations and helps to ensure your guests have zero confusion about the date of your wedding.

The day of the week should be written in full and capitalised (unless your wedding invitation's font is all uppercase or lowercase). For example, if your wedding is on a Saturday, you would write "Saturday". There should be a comma after the day of the week.

If your wedding is taking place on the 21st to the 31st of the month, there should be a hyphen between the tens and the ones place in the date. For example, if your wedding is on the 26th of the month, you would write "the twenty-sixth".

The month should be written in full and capitalised, without any abbreviations. For example, if your wedding is in October, you would write "October".

The year is usually written on a separate line and is optional, but it is recommended. The year should be written in full, in numerals, and there should be no comma between the month and the year. For example, if your wedding is in 2024, you would write "two thousand twenty-four".

Write out the year

When writing out the year on a wedding invitation, there are a few things to keep in mind. Firstly, the traditional way to write the date on a wedding invitation is to spell out the numbers instead of using numerals. For example, if your wedding is in 2024, you would write "two thousand twenty-four". There should be no "and" in the year, so avoid writing "two thousand and twenty-four". Nothing in the year should be capitalised.

The year is usually written on a separate line from the day and month, and there is no comma between the month and the year. For example, if your wedding is on Saturday, October 26th, 2024, you would write:

> Saturday, the twenty-sixth of October, two thousand twenty-four

You can also write the date more informally, especially if you're having a casual wedding. For instance, for a wedding on Sunday, May 17th, 2025, you could write:

> Saturday, May 17th, 2025

It's important to maintain consistency in the formatting of the date across all enclosures in your wedding invitation suite, including the response card. For instance, if you're using traditional wording and your RSVP deadline is April 17th, write:

> Kindly respond by the seventeenth of April

You can also be more informal on the RSVP card, such as:

> Please reply by April 17th

In summary, when writing out the year on a wedding invitation, spell out the numbers, omit the "and", and use lowercase letters. The year is typically written on a separate line from the day and month, and you should maintain consistency in the date format across all enclosures.

Include the time

When it comes to writing the time on your wedding invitations, there are a few things to keep in mind. Firstly, consider the formality of your wedding and invitation. For more formal invitations, you should write out the time in full, using the placement of hands on a clock, for example, "half after three o'clock" or "four o'clock". It is also worth noting that formal wedding invitations traditionally use the phrase "half after" instead of "half past".

You should also specify whether the wedding is taking place in the morning, afternoon, or evening. You can do this by writing, for example, "at four o'clock in the afternoon". You don't need to include "in the morning," "in the afternoon," or "in the evening" if your wedding is taking place between 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., as this can be assumed. However, if your wedding is at 8, 9, or 10 o'clock, you should include this information to avoid confusion over whether it is morning or evening.

If your wedding is more casual, you can be more relaxed in how you write the time. For example, you can use numerals and write "4pm" or "5:30pm". Just remember to match the style of the time with the style of the date. If you write out the date in full, write out the time as well.

If your wedding reception is not immediately following the ceremony, be sure to include the time of the reception on your invitation. This can be written as "Reception at six o'clock in the evening" or "Dinner and dancing at six o'clock".

Finally, if you want to ensure your guests arrive on time, you can print an earlier start time on the invitations. For example, if your ceremony begins at 5:15 p.m., you could write 5:00 p.m. on the invitations. However, it's best not to pad the time by more than 15 minutes to avoid having your on-time guests get bored.

Write out the time of day

When writing the time of day on a wedding invitation, there are a few different ways to format it depending on the desired level of formality.

For formal invitations, it is customary to write out the time in full, using the placement of hands on a clock. For example, if the wedding is at 3:30 p.m., the invitation would say "half after three o'clock". It is also worth noting that formal invitations traditionally use the phrase "half after" instead of "half past" and do not include "a.m." or "p.m."

Additionally, for formal invitations, it is recommended to specify whether the event will take place in the morning, afternoon, or evening. This can be done by writing something like "at half after four o'clock in the afternoon". The morning is typically considered to be the hours before 12 noon, the afternoon is from 12 noon to 5 p.m., and the evening is any time after 5 p.m. (although some sources suggest that 6 p.m. is when the evening begins).

For more casual weddings, it is also acceptable to use numerals and write the time as "4pm" or "5:30pm". However, it is important to maintain consistency between the formatting of the date and the time.

It is also worth considering that many couples choose to put an earlier start time on their invitations to account for potential lateness. This is a controversial practice, with some guests expressing frustration at having to wait for the ceremony to begin. If you do choose to do this, it is recommended to pad the time by no more than 15 minutes.

Frequently asked questions