Archive for August, 2006

My father recently passed away and I would like to include his name on my wedding invitations. How can I do that?
While it is a lovely sentiment that you would want to include your
deceased parent on your wedding invitation, there really isn’t a way to
properly do that. The purpose of the invitation is to invite […]

My mother is a widow who has not remarried. She prefers the use of
her first name. Can her name read, “Mrs. Karen Marie Sampson on my wedding invitations?”
A widow who has not remarried to be proper should use her deceased
husband’s name, preceded by “Mrs.” (A divorced woman should use “Mrs.”
followed by her first, maiden, and […]

When one of the bride’s parents is deceased, her wedding
invitations are issued by her surviving parent. His or her name appears
alone on the invitations line. In most cases the stepparent’s names are
not included. An exception would be if the stepparent helped to raise
the bride from a young age and she is close to that stepparent. […]

My mother is divorced and has resumed using her maiden name. What title
should she use in my wedding invitation?
Her name should appear without a title which means that all other titles
should be omitted as well for consistency.
Why isn’t “and” used between the names of divorced parents on wedding invitations?
The word, “and” connects the two as […]

My parents are divorced and my father is paying for the wedding. How can we indicate that in the wedding invitations?
The wedding invitation is not the forum for that. Its purpose is to
invite family and friends for a celebration of the giving away of the
bride by the family to her new husband. The center of […]

I’m afraid that if I don’t include the name of my father’s wife on my wedding invitations, it might hurt her feelings.
As I just mentioned yesterday, the importance of wedding invitation etiquette should never
out weigh the importance of relationships. The purpose is to build
relationships, not to harm them.
I can think of a couple of suggestions […]

If my parents are divorced and my father has remarried, where does his wife’s name appear on the wedding invitations?
Traditionally, it is your natural parents who “give you away.”
Therefore usually it is only their names that appear on your wedding
invitations.
There are exceptions, of course. If the bride was adopted,
then of course it would be […]

These are some of the most difficult wedding invitations for which to
create the proper wording without hurting someone’s feelings, so you
may have to opt for a less formal way of presenting the information.
There are some rather simple and straightforward rules to handle these
situations and I will address them here, but if emotions take over, you
may […]

I am marrying for the third time. How should my name on my wedding invitation read?
Your first name, maiden name, and your second husband’s name are used.
I am divorced and getting remarried. May I use “Ms.” instead of “Mrs.?”
No, “Ms.” is never properly used on wedding invitations. It is
reserved for business correspondence only. It […]

Statistically, about half of all Americans will divorce and
remarry. Consequently, many of the wedding invitations being issued today are
for second marriages. When either the bride or both the bride and groom
are marrying for the second time, the wedding invitations are sent out
by the bride and groom themselves. If it is the first marriage for the
bride […]