Wedding Invitations By Religion

Different religions embrace distinctive wedding traditions. This article exams three primary religions and how they differ from contemporary weddings.

Roman Catholic Weddings
Before a wedding is conducted in the Roman Catholic Church, the nuptials are publicly announced three times via the church bulletin or pulpit. These announcements are referred to as banns.

Catholics can marry in a simple wedding service or during a nuptial mass. If the ceremony is to be held during a nuptial mass, this information should be included on the wedding invitation because mass will take about an hour long. In the past, nuptial masses were not performed after noon. Today, however, that is not the case. Also, a nuptial mass may not be conducted during Advent or Lent unless the bishop grants special permission.

Church of Latter-day Saints Weddings
Weddings held in the Church of Latter-day Saints are only open to members of the church because they are held in the church’s temple. Temples are only open t faithful members of the church. During the ceremony, the groom and bride are “sealed for time and eternity.”

Mormon wedding ceremonies are typically very intimate and small. Close friends and family members attend the actual ceremony.  A large reception then follows. Since more guests attend the reception then the wedding ceremony, it is common for the couple to utilize wedding invitations as reception cards and the actual reception card as the ceremony invitation. In this case, wedding invitations are sent to all the guests and ceremony cards are included for those invited to the temple.

Since families are emphasized in the Church of Latter-day Saints, the bridegroom’s parents are recognized by including their names on the wedding invitation. The parents’ names appear under the bridegroom’s name, preceded by “son of” on a separate line.

Additionally, the wedding reception is also different as friends and family are more likely to “drop in” to congratulate the newlyweds. Therefore, the wedding invitations should state a time frame during which the wedding reception will take place.

Jewish Weddings
Per Jewish tradition, marriages are created in Heaven. Women and men are brought together to marry one another by God. They are connected together in marriage, therefore in this religion, the joining word on Jewish invitations reads “and” instead of “to.”

Additionally, Jewish custom celebrates the union of both families. Therefore, the names of the bridegroom’s parents appear on the wedding invitations. The proper way to do this is to have both names appear under the bridegroom’s name on a line that reads, “son of Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob Solomon.”
If the bride wants to credit the groom’s parents she can place their names at the top of the wedding invitation under the bride’s parent’s names. In this scenario, the bride uses her full name with no title. The bridegroom’s title is also deleted for consistency.

Lastly, Hebrew lettering is frequently used on Jewish invitations. The invitation may also feature a quotation from the wedding blessing, or the entire invitations text may be reproduced on a part of the invitation. In this case, the Hebrew version should appear on the inside page and the English on the front page.