Wedding Invitation Q&As

Composing wedding invitations involves complex-and beautiful-etiquette guidelines. We RSVP to your urgent questions.

Inviting Dates of Guests to Reception Only

Q: The church where my fiancé and I plan to marry is very small. We both have large families and there just isn't room for extra people. How do we inform our single friends of our 'no date to the ceremony' policy even though they are more than welcome to bring dates to the reception? —Evans, Georgia

A: It's all in how you word your invitation. If only a certain number of people can be accommodated at the ceremony then your formal invitations should be sent to all guests inviting them just to the wedding reception. The wording would be:

Mr. and Mrs. James Flynn
request the pleasure of your company
at the wedding reception for their daughter
Sally Ann
and
Mr. Mark Wilmot
Saturday, the twelfth of August at six o'clock
(name the reception site and location)

To your single friends, be sure to write '… and Guest' on the inner envelope so they know dates are welcome at the reception. And for those also invited to the church ceremony, you can either extend the invitation orally or write a personal note to be sent separately or included in the formal invitations. That way, there should be no confusion.
 

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I have a few friends who included a Save the Date magnet in their wedding announcements. It was pretty helpful - I attached the invitation to my fridge using the magnet provided, and then on the day of the wedding, when I was scrambling to get out the door on time, I was able to quickly locate the invitation for directions. For my Save the Dates, I did a postcard. However, I still like the idea of including a magnet in the actual invitations. My invitations will have a pocket for the RSVP card, and I was thinking of including a magnet of my fiance and I there. Would this be OK, and if so, what would be the proper wording on the magnet at this point - would "Save the Date" still be OK?