Whose parents do you put on a wedding invite?

Question

When you send a wedding invitation they generally say, Mr and Mrs Smith request your presence......

Do you put both the bride's and groom's parents? Or just the bride's, since her parents are paying for it?

Answer 1

My husband's parents did not contribute financially, but we still needed to make it known who my husbands parents were on the invitation.  We did this because often times they might not have any clue who "Kevin Smith" is but would know who "Mr. and Mrs. Dan Smith" are.  We worded ours as follows:

Mr. and Mrs. John Doe request

your presence at the wedding of their daughter

June Doe

to

Kevin Smith

son of Mr. and Mrs. Dan Smith

...

This way if they didn't exactly know the couple getting married, they know who the parents of the couple are.  Make sense?  The groom's parents are included, but this way it doesn't look like they contributed financially.  I wasn't about to give my in-laws any credit that wasn't deserved.

Answer 2

Both

Answer 3

The brides, since usually they are the ones paying for it.  

Answer 4

Either or, or none, here are some ideas:

http://www.invitationconsultants.com/sw-...

Oh, and in response to your last question, the bride's parents and name normally go first since it traditionally is the bride's family that puts on the wedding and reception

Answer 5

brides go first you can put grooms after it.

enjoy your wedding day

Answer 6

The brides parents go first and then the grooms.That way you are covered.

Answer 7

well it's however you want to put it some people usually put the brides parents but others go with both... I'm doing the following, using both....

Parents of bride names and Parents of groom names request the honor of your presence at the wedding of their children my name and his name.

Answer 8

i think i'd just put your name, its your wedding in the end, so your the one desciding the guest list

alternativly i could see if it was share pay, that each side invited their own guests, hence your parents name on the invites to your side of family, and his on his side of family

Answer 9

You're supposed to put both the bride's parents and the groom's parents name on the invite.

Answer 10

Traditionally, it is the bride's parents who issue the invitation to the wedding.

Mr. and Mrs. John Doe request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter Jane to Robert Smith ....

more recently, I have been seeing more invitations issued by both sets of parents (since they are often sharing the costs).

Mr. and Mrs. John Doe and Mr. and Mrs. John Smith request the honor of your presence at the ceremony uniting their children Jane Doe and Robert Smith in marriage ....

It is also common for the couple to send the invitations in their own names since they are often the ones paying and may be too old to have their parents sending the invitations.

For example

Jane Doe and Robert Smith invite you to share in the joy when they exchange marriage vows ....

Answer 11

If her parents are paying for it then it should be her parent's name only.  Something like this:

Mr. and Mrs. So and So

request the honour of your presence

at the marriage of their daughter

Ms. So and So

and

Mr. So and So

Now, if you want to be kind and add your parent's name you can say:

Mr. and Mrs. So and So

request the honour of your presence

at the marriage of their daughter

So and So

and

Mr. So and So

son of

Mr. and Mrs. So and So

Answer 12

Usually which ever parents are paying for it.  But if you are paying and hosting it yourself you put your own name on.  And it sounds stupid but proper wedding etiquette says that you have to send invitations to the other set of parents too.  Don't ask I didn't make the rules!!

You could put

Mr and Mrs Smith request the pleasure of your company at the wedding of their daughter Sarah Smith to John Brown etc

Something like that!

Good Luck

Answer 13

Just use "Together with our parents" That's what we're doing.

Answer 14

I thought you just put your name on it :S

Answer 15

If the bride's parents are paying, you list them first, but it's still nice to include the groom's parents. Since you have step-parents, this is how I would do it:

Mr. and Mrs. John Smith (bride's dad and stepmom)

and Mr. and Mrs. James Clark (bride's mom and stepdad)

request the honor of your presence

at the marriage of their daughter

Susan Jane

to Robert William Jones

son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Jones (groom's dad and stepmom)

and Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Walker... (groom's mom and stepdad)

and then you give the details of date, time, location.

It really depends on who you are close to. If you have good relationships with all the parents, it would be really nice to include all their names - and it might save you a lot of family drama when someone gets upset that his or her name was not on the invitation.

If that's just too many names, here's a suitably formal alternate wording:

Susan Jane Smith and Robert William Jones, together with their parents, request the honor of your presence...

Or

The families of Susan Jane Smith and Robert William Jones request the honor of your presence...

Answer 16

The bride's parents go first and then the groom's parents go second. If your are not sure there is a web site called Expressions.com and they have many different invitations verses to help you decide how to word yours.

Answer 17

For your situation, maybe:

Betty Bride

and

George Groom

Along with their Parents

Request the honor of your presence

etc.

Answer 18

Well if the brides parents are paying you put them like this: Mr. and Mrs. Joe Doe invite you to witness the marriage of their daughter  Mary Jane to Joe Don. but if it were the two families paying you put just the bride and grooms name like this: Mary Jane and Joe Eugene Don request you to be present at their joyful event where they will exchange vows......

and if the bride and groom are paying you can do whatever! good luck hoped this helped

Answer 19

Depending on your relationship with your step-parents, it may be a good idea to include them.  I've seen families where the step-parents get a bit upset because their names are not on the invitation.  If one of set of parents is hosting the event, then they should be the ones formally doing the inviting, so it would read:

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Schmoo

request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter

Ms. Elizabeth Schmoo

daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Smith

to

Mr. Ryan Doe

son of Mr. and Mrs. John Doe

and Mr. and Mrs. Michael Jones

Now, two sets of parents are hosting then you could do the following:

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Schmoo

and

Mr. and Mrs. Mark Smith

request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter

Ms. Elizabeth Schmoo

to

Mr. Ryan Doe

son of Mr. and Mrs. John Doe

and Mr. and Mrs. Michael Jones

This same type of layout can be used even if one set of his parents are hosting with your parents.  You would simply change the wording from "daughter" to "children" and continue to list the non-hosting parents beneath your names.

Personally, I think it's a really good idea to list all of the parents on the invitation because some people may not realize that your last name is different from one of your parents and having all the names listed is helpful in that regard.  I know that I've been surprised on more than one occasion to discover that a good friend's child has a different last name than I thought.  

One of my fiance's nieces even falls into that category.  I've always assumed that her legal last name was her mother's maiden name, but discovered recently that they have had a horrific time getting the child's name changed from that of her uninvolved biological father, so even though she is using her mother's married name for most social events, she's still technically stuck with the biological father's name.  

In the end, it's your decision, but you may want to include them just to keep the peace.

Best wishes!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 20

You can do it either way. It all depends on your & your parent's preference.  You could do any of the following:

The parents of

Jane Smith

and

John Doe

request the honor of your presence...

OR

Mr & Mrs Jack Smith

and

Mr & Mrs Phillip Doe

request the honor of your presence

at the marriage of their children

Jane

and

John

OR

Mr & Mrs Jack Smith

request the honor of your presence

at the marriage of their daughter

Jane

to

John Doe

on Saturday...

Congratulations on your marriage!

Answer 21

I have seen always both parents on the invite.  Ive been to six different weddings in the past three months.  Usually the parents that are paying for most of the wedding (ex. bride) are on the invite first and the (ex. "groom..Mike son of So and So)

Answer 22

Traditionally, the bride's parents are the hosts of the wedding, since they traditionally pay for the affair. However, in this day and age, it is completely aceptable to place both the bride's and groom's parents on the invite. Here is an example of an ivite with both parents names:

Mr. and Mrs. Sean Ormonde

request the honour of your presence

at the marriage of their daughter

Sarah Louise

to

Derek Wilkenson

son of

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Wilkenson

On Saturday the 14th of August 2005

at two o'clock in the afternoon

in the church of Saint Michael the Archangel, Leitrim

and thereafter to a reception at The Hunters Moon, Carrick on Shannon