Stationery 101, Volume 14: How to Write the Bride and Groom Names

For the past few weeks, I've been taking you through each element of the wedding invitation. I started with the overall anatomy of an invitation, and last week I talked about how to include parent's names on the invitation. Today we're focusing on the most important part of the wedding day - the bride and groom.

I love using the names of the bride and groom to create a focal point on the invitation, but making the names pretty is not my only objective. Here are three other things I keep in mind for the bride and groom names.

1- Bride ALWAYS goes first. The name of the bride is always first when it comes to weddings. Their names are first on the invitations, represented first in monograms, and also go first for the return address (if the invitations are being sent from the bride and groom).

2- Don't repeat names. If you are including the names of the bride's parents, you would only write out the bride's first and middle name on the invitation. No need to repeat the last name again. I stick to this rule 99% of the time, but have broken it only if the design itself aesthetically requires the last name.

3- Using only first names is OK, even if parents names are not included. The whole point is for guests to know how "John" and "Jane" are, so as long as you're able to convey that you're the future "Mr. and Mrs. John Smith", versus "Mr. and Mrs. John Casey", you'll be OK. Some ways to do this is to include your last names on the return address and to have a link to your wedding website (which will either have photos of you, or have your full names).

Thank you for joining me in another Stationery 101 post! Don't forget to catch up on past Stationery 101 topics here, such as Letterpress 101, Foil Stamping 101, and Engraving 101.

Sincerely,