What to write on the wedding participations

Immediately after planning the date of the ceremony and the location where the reception will take place, the next step in the wedding organizing process is to prepare the wedding participations.

How to prepare them? What to write? When to send them? Don’t panic! In this article, we will explain you all!

To start, it is good to clarify the difference between invitation and participation. The participation is sent to acquaintances to “participate” in the joy of wedding, that is only in the wedding ceremony, while the invitation is intended for people invited to the reception: in ancient times participation and invitation were sent together, however today send only the participation could generate some doubts in the guests, therefore it is preferable send only the invitation with hour and date of both ceremony and reception, so as to avoid misunderstandings.

To personally invite guests must be the spouses, whose names must be written as follows (according to italian tradition):

• Name of the groom in the upper left
• Name of the bride in the upper right

On the website Pinterest, you might find many nice and creative ideas for your participation, despite the invitation setting is not typically italian.

After writing the names, of course it will be necessary to provide the basic information, so:

• Ceremony and reception date
• Ceremony and reception hours
• Related addresses
• Phone number, e-mail or website to get in touch with the spouses or with the wedding planner

In addition of these basic information, there may be other possible type of information to provide, like:

• The dress code–> in this case the most suitable formula could be “it is welcome a touch of…”, in order to make the guests understand that yours is an advice and not an obligation. It is not elegant to impose something on the guests, especially if with too particular requests they are forced to buy clothes not really close at hand.
• a small coordinated note in which the wishes of the spouses are specified –> this type of attachment is no doubt more refined and is a good alternative to the wedding list, as inserting it directly in the invitation would mean “you can come to my wedding, only if you give me what I say”. So instead, you don’t make mistakes and let the guests understand what might be welcome presents, without requiring any commitment.

The invitations must be delivered, respectively, to relatives, friends and acquaintances, preferably by hand (even if we are now in the digital era and everything is allowed), at least eight or six months before the date set for the ceremony. The most commonly recognized formulas are:

“Very kind Mr. …”                              “Very kind ladies/gentlemen …”

“Very kind Mrs. …” 

Inserting the name and the surname of the guest next to it; if instead a married couple is invited it will be necessary to write NAME OF HIM + NAME OF HER and the shared surname, for example:

“Very kind Mario and Alessia Rossi…” (adding possible names of children before the surname).