Formal or Shortened Names on Programs

We didn’t do programs, but we had a list of the wedding party and their relationships to us at the reception. We just asked if they wanted us to use their full name or nickname. Most went with nicknames.

If your wedding is formal, then I would do formal names. If it's casual, then using nicknames should be fine.

FH's name is Christopher, but only me and his mother call him that. Everyone else calls him Chris. That being said, everything wedding related has/will have his full name spelled out (save the dates, invitations, wedding website). Personally, I just think it looks better in our case, also more formal which I like. That and that is his name lol. It's really up to the person!

We’re not doing programs; instead we’ll make a sign with all the wedding party info on it, and we’ll use the names people go by—it would feel weird to us if we used their formal names haha

I will probably do full names for programs since we are having a very traditional ceremony but do their shortened names for place settings etc at the reception

We listed people's full first and last names in both the programs and seating chart. If there's ever a time to use someone's full name, this is it! (One exception was my husband's Aunt Jan who HATES to be called Janice lol).

We did all formal names on the programs.

I did shortened names

We had a formal wedding. But we did not have formal programs. Therefore, we used shortened and nicknames for the groom, groomsmen, and both our dads.

Program - Front

Program - Back

I would ask them what they prefer. People growing up called me Becky but people who meet me as an adult call me Rebecca. I put Rebecca because that's what I prefer

View Quoted Comment Love your infographic style programs!

This was something my husband and I didn't really agree on. Our wedding was formal so I wanted to use everyone's full names on the programs, but he wanted to use nicknames. We ended up using full names for the programs, but nicknames for some of the people for the introductions. For instance, his one groomsman goes by Joey and that's what everyone calls him so we used his formal name of Joseph on the programs, but had him introduced as Joey. On the otherhand, my sister's name is Cameryne, but some people call her Cam. We used her formal name for both the programs and introductions because that's what we call her 85% of the time. My husband's name is Benjamin, but he goes by Ben. We used his full name for both since I wanted to be introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Last Name and I liked it better with using his formal name than his nickname. That being said I feel like it depends on the formality of your wedding.

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This is what I could see doing! We are having a full Catholic mass, so the ceremony is very formal. I feel like it would look more formal if we used full names. I'm definitely planning on using the shortened names for the reception introductions and escort cards.

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I love these programs!! Where did you get them? I think my favorite part has to be Sheriff celebrating from home

View Quoted Comment That's exactly what we did. We had an infographic program like Amber.

View Quoted Comment Ours were very similar and we got them from Etsy.

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Okay, I literally LOVE your programs. WHERE did you do this??

I did both. For example, my brother's name is *Chris (Christopher) but EVERYONE calls him by his nickname *Bud. So in the program I wrote:

Reader - Chris "Bud" LastName ..........Brother of the Bride

*Fake names used

I did that for multiple people that had well-known nicknames and I think it looked fine.

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This is the best thing I've seen today. I'm in love with these programs! Thank you for sharing!

I'm not planning on doing programs, but our wedding website has our full names at the top and everywhere else we have our nicknames. My name is Adrienne but I go by Age and my FH's parents had no clue my real name was Adrienne until we started planning the wedding. Finally my FMIL asked, "Who's Adrienne?" It was pretty funny. I go by both names but prefer Age. Anyway, our wedding party will be listed on the website as well, and I just asked them what they preferred and that's what I put. Some people (like my brother) truly prefer to only be called by their full name unless it's family, and some (like my cousin) like to be called by their nickname.

At the end of the day, I don't think it *really* matters, but it seemed respectful to ask. I wonder if anyone is even going to read all the neat stuff I put on our wedding website or if I'm the only person obsessing over it. TBH it's probably the latter.