When my fiancé and I started planning our wedding invitations, I was unsure how to handle mentioning parents. Tradition says to only list the bride's parents as hosts. But my fiancé's generous parents contributed equally to our wedding costs. I wanted to honor both families appropriately on our invites.
Here's what I learned about modern wedding invite etiquette:
If one set of parents pays entirely, only list them as hosts. This occurred at my cousin's wedding.
If both families contribute significantly, list both sets of parents. For us, this was the right choice.
If you self-fund the wedding, you can omit parents altogether. My friend did this for her small city hall wedding.
For informal weddings, like destination weddings, etiquette rules loosen. Do what feels right for your style.
While wedding invitation tradition has long dictated rules, I realized what matters most is showing appreciation for those who helped make our day possible. Will and I chose a warm, lighthearted invite wording that mentioned both our sets of beloved parents.
The parents were touched to be acknowledged, regardless of tradition. When in doubt, speak from the heart!
