Wedding Invitations

The wedding invitation format and wording for weddings involving members of the United
States armed services are the same as non military weddings and the same general guidelines are
used. The only difference is in the use of titles. It gets a little
tricky here. Whereas civilians use “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” and “Doctor,”
military personnel use their military titles, which often include their
rank and even their branch of service. I will give you a link for numerous examples
here to try to explain.

Military titles should not be abbreviated. Officers in the army, air force, and marines with a rank of
captain or higher use their military titles before their names. Navy
and coast guard officers with a rank of commander or higher also use
their military titles before their names when mentioned in wedding invitations. When an officer’s name is
used with his/her spouse’s name, the branch of service is not
mentioned, whereas if his/her name is used by itself, the branch of
service is mentioned on the line beneath their name and the title is
used.

Junior officers do not use any titles before their names (neither
military nor civilian) unless listed with their spouse. When listed by
themselves, their title appears on an second line before the name of
their branch of service. First and Second Lieutenants in the Army both
use “Lieutenant” In the Air Force and Marines, however, “First” and
“Second” are used.

Retired, high-ranking officers generally continue to use their
military titles. Their retired status is noted after their service
designation. When a retired officer is mentioned with his wife, neither
his designation nor is title is used. For some great actual examples go to our wedding invitation etiquette guide at http://beautifulweddinginvitations.com/etiquette.php.