Wedding Advice - Invitations

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Invitations

My daughter is getting married in July next year and we want to send out cards, or similar, asking people to save the date in their diaries. Could you please give me some idea of how to word the cards?

If you haven’t already and it’s not too late to send out engagement announcements, this could be done on the same card. Alternatively, you could either send out a note stating the date of the wedding to the guests, explaining that you are sending them the date in advance as it is during the holiday season, or even drop them an e-mail or text if appropriate.

I'm getting married to my husband to be in June and the invites are coming from my parents. I was wondering how we should title the invite to my Nan who is my dad's mum.

It really depends how formal the invites are. Usually they would be worded "Mr. & Mrs. X (your parents) would like to invite Mr. & Mrs. X (name of guests) to..". However, it's your wedding, so if you want to put "Nan", then there's nothing stopping you - it could sound quite endearing!

We're having a civil wedding ceremony at a hotel and holding our reception there afterwards. I don't know how to word the invites. Do I just state the venue, date and time and make no mention of the reception afterwards, or will the guests think we are not going to feed them?

The best way to word the invites is to state the date, time and venue of the wedding itself as you would normally, then at the bottom of the invite state that the wedding ceremony will be followed by a reception at the same venue.
Something along the lines of: ‘A reception will follow the wedding ceremony at (perhaps name the room of the suite/function room the reception will be held in e.g. the Forester Suite at Woodlands Hotel)'.
This way guests cannot be confused about the venue of the reception, and they will also be able to find the correct room in the hotel.

Our evening bar will not be a free bar. Should I let guests know on the invitations that they will need to pay for drinks?

I do not think it is necessary to inform guests that there will not be a free bar, as this isn’t generally the norm, unless you are very lucky! Most wedding guests expect to pay for their own drinks.

We're not having any food in the evening, and would like your advice on wording the whole invitation around this basis?

I would suggest wording your invitations as you normally would, and then on the bottom have a line saying ‘Food will not be available’. This will fore warn guests to eat before they arrive, and should also avoid people asking you about food during your reception.

We're getting married abroad, and we've decided that it should be just the two of us. When we return we are holding an evening reception for all our family and friends. We would like to send invitations out from us inviting people to the event. How should these be worded?

The invites could be structured as a standard wedding invitation, and state that: ‘Louise and (your fiancé) would like you to join them for a celebration of their wedding which was held on (date) at (venue/country), on the (date of reception) at (venue)’.
This gives the guests information as to where you were married, therefore personalising it a little more.

If invited guests do not answer the formal wedding invitation, even though a response card was supplied, should I phone them to find out if they will come or should I just assume they are not coming?

If you are comfortable with it then give them a call. It may be that they sent a reply and it got lost in the system or they may have just forgotten. If they don’t give you a positive answer at this stage, assume they will not be coming.
If you feel really awkward about it then make sure there is a place for them at the reception. It’s better to have a bit of extra food left over than to risk the embarrassment of them turning up on the day with nowhere to sit!