Wedding Invitations

Renew Wedding Vow Invitation Wording

The custom of announcing a wedding with the help of the wedding invitations dates back several centuries ago, more precisely from the Middle Ages, when the majority of the world’s population had no education to write or read so this form of entertainment was practiced only in the private circles of the high class society and royalty, especially by the French and English aristocracy, responsible for making the wedding invitations popular.




The wording etiquette demands the use of a traditional or formal language and in the wedding invitation should be mentioned only the strict and basic information about the wedding such as the names of the bride and groom, the name of the wedding hosts, the location of the wedding reception and ceremony, the address of that location, the time and the date and some other details, relevant for your guests. You can always add a printed map or directional signs if the location of the wedding is not known, make a simple suggestion about how your guests should dress up if you are having a certain wedding theme or an RSVP if you are expecting some attendance responses.



Of course, the wedding invitations as we all know today were very different back in the beginning and sometimes only the wealthy could afford buying and sending them; people from lower social ranks would often issue the invitations in a newspaper, which was a big step comparing to the middle age period when the invitation to a wedding was issued out loud or verbalized.

The alternative to the formal wording is the use of an informal language or to issue the wedding invitations in your own words, sometimes being a humorous and funny wording or simply adding a favorite poem, verse or quote at the beginning of the invitation. The fact is that you can be creative with words and choose the manner or style in which to issue the invitations, just make sure there aren’t any wrong uses of honorifics and other minor spelling mistakes which can cause some embarrassments.

Below you may find some examples of wording for the renewal of the vows.

“The honor of your presence is requested at the reaffirmation of the wedding vows of
Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Stanton, on Saturday, the seventeenth of December, two thousand eleven, at six o’clock in the evening, at St. Mary’s Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”

“Because you have shared in their lives by your friendship and love, the honour of your presence is requested at the reaffirmation of  the wedding vows of Simone and Frederic Stanton, on Saturday, the seventeenth of December, two thousand eleven, at six o’clock in the evening, at St. Mary’s Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”

“We, Simone and Frederic Stanton invite you to share in our continued love as we exchange our vows on Saturday, the seventeenth of December, two thousand eleven, at six o’clock in the evening, at St. Mary’s Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”

“A life of caring, sharing/ A love of endless giving together…
The honour of your presence is requested at the reaffirmation of wedding vows of  Simone and Frederic Stanton, on Saturday, the seventeenth of December, two thousand eleven, at six o’clock in the evening, at St. Mary’s Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”

About the wedding hosts, they are responsible for the planning of the wedding and they also pay for it, so it is seen as a sign of respect to let them issue the invitations or to simply mention their names. The bride’s parents act as the wedding hosts in most cases, but sometimes both families of the bride and groom would like to give their financial support or the couple would like to pay for their own wedding.

There are two options: if you are expecting only for the non-attendance responses you can add the expression “Regrets only” on the invitation cards and a phone number for contact but in general the RSVP is more popular and it is an abbreviation which comes from the French expression of “répondez s’il vous plait”, translated as “please respond”.

The RSVP can be written on the wedding invitation card or on a separate one with a return address.

The wedding invitations are to be sent or mailed out with minimum six weeks in advance before the actual wedding day.