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Etiquette Series | Common Grammar Mistakes in Wedding Stationery

Heather O'Brien Design | Wedding Invitation Etiquette | Amalie Orrange Photography

Why is it that I can so vividly remember all of my English teachers?? From Ms. All in elementary school to Ms. Peterson in high school. Those were always the strictest and toughest classes, but looking back, I know exactly why they were doing it. Grammar is SO important in our lives. It not only reflects how we were raised, but it says so much about how we run our lives. I am so appreciative of those hard classes and strict teachers, even though at the time I would have given anything to get out of the class.

Nothing drives me crazier than a word being improperly used or a poorly formatted email. Don’t get me wrong, I am farrr from perfect (please don’t scrutinize this post…). But there are a few things we can do to make sure we are putting our best foot forward when it comes to our grammar. So I figured today I would go through some of the common mistakes I see when it comes to the wording of wedding invitations and stationery.

StationEry

Let’s just get this one out of the way. When you are referring to invitations or paper goods, it is spelled stationEry. When you are referring to something that is not moving, it is stationAry. Wedding stationery is stationary. You’re welcome.

Honor/Honour or Favor/Favour

Adding the U in honor and favor is usually just preference and a little more formal/traditional. It could be considered the British spelling of the words, and it is oftentimes seen when the wedding ceremony takes place in a house of worship.

When Referring to Hotel Blocks

A lot of times if you have an accommodations card, you are listing out blocks of hotel rooms as recommendations for your guests. There is usually a sentence on there that goes something like this: A block of rooms has been reserved for our wedding. It is proper to use the word HAS versus the word HAVE since you are referring to a singular block of rooms.

Aisle not isle

Generally, for your ceremony, you walk down an Aisle, not an Isle. 😉

Fiancée and Fiancé

Fiancé, with one E, is a man who is engaged to be married. Fiancée, with two Es, is a woman who is engaged to be married. They are pronounced exactly the same.

Spelling Out Your Wedding Year

If you choose to spell out your wedding year on your invitation (two thousand twenty-three), there should not be an “and” in between (two-thousand and twenty-three).

RSVP

RSVP stands for “répondez, s’il vous plaît,” which means “please reply” in French. So if you have a sentence on your response card that says something like “please RSVP by May fifth” it is redundant. Instead, you could just say something like “please reply by” or “kindly respond by”. I do find that if you want to use a larger RSVP as more of a design element on the top of the response card, as opposed to having it in the actual sentence, that works too.

Another big tip for wedding stationery as a whole. It is a formal occasion, no matter how “informal” your wedding is. It is still a wedding. It is proper to spell out as much as you can, full names, streets, states, PO Box, the word apartment, titles, etc. Try not to abbreviate if you can help it.

Hope these grammar tips help!

-Heather

Image by Amalie Orrange Photography

  1. Brenda says:

    Useful post about grammar mistakes, It’s best to learn from other’s mistakes than to feel the urge to commit one by oneself & then think of learning. I think we’ve all made some of these mistakes to some degree or another.

  2. Stacey says:

    When limiting the number of guests on your invitation how would you word it? For example; “2 seats has been reserved in your honour”…..or “2 seats have been reserved in your honour”

    • Heather says:

      Hi Stacey! Great question! I generally word it like ” we have reserved ___ seat(s) in your honour.” This allows it to flow easier/correct if there is just a 1 in that space and not having to deal with has/have. I hope this helps!

  3. Kendall A Jennings says:

    Hi! Is it “adult-only event” or “adults-only event”

  4. Etiquette Matters says:

    Today, most people do not regard grammar to be very important in our lives. I’ve seen horrible examples of wedding invitations this past year that confirm just how lazy and ignorant people can be. But do you really need to showcase this when you are getting married? It’s so tacky to see that with all of the information available at our disposal online, that a bride or groom cannot search how to properly phrase or spell something. I actually received an invitation that had THREE misspelled words on it! They could not take time to proof their invitations and spelled “accommodations” and “Hors d’oeuvre” wrong. They also spelled the name of their hotel room block incorrectly as well, not realizing it’s spelled as “Marriott” (despite the fact that they set up the room block and finalized this for guests.)
    From that moment on, I knew it was going to be a less than stellar event, despite them claiming it would be an elegant wedding. It’s not elegant if you cannot properly spell out basic words on your invitations. Other wedding websites seem to give brides a complete pass, stating that people need to get over it and it’s not a big deal.
    That’s just as lazy and ignorant as not taking time to make sure your invitations are flawless.
    So, yes… it does matter. It isn’t something to flake on.

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