How to include Parents Names on invitations (and who to include!)

Even if the parents are paying, the old wording like that bothers me. I'm not sure why. My parents are paying for about half of our wedding but they aren't planning it. It's not like they are throwing us a surprise party or shower or something like that.

We used:

"Together with their parents

Mr. and Mrs. Brides Parents and

Mr. and Mrs. Grooms Parents

Bride and Groom joyfully request your presence at their wedding ..."

There are tons of different ways you can do this that would not only honor your parents, but could also honor your future in-laws. Try Googling the specific language that you like, but you can always be inclusive and say something like "the families of Whatsherface and Thisguy cordially invite you..." OR stick with the shoutouts to each parent with their child; "Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So request the honor of your presence at the wedding of their daughter Whatsherface to Thisguy, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Whatsit".

I did this but a little differently! I love this style of invitation. It went like this:

Mr. and Mrs. John and Anna Smith request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter

Hannah Smith

to

Bill Jones

Son of Mr. and Mrs. Dave and Lucy Jones

blah, blah, blah...

I think it's so special to include the names of the parents. It also has a touch of elegance and formality.

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I totally agree with you-- the old wording makes me feel a bit like I'm being sold off by my parents.

I like your version a lot! It feels inclusive and a bit more modern. Thanks!

When exH and I got married my parents paid for our wedding and his parents paid for our RD. We did “Mr and Mrs Bride’s parents request your presence at the wedding of their daughter, My first and middle name to Groom’s full name United States Army, son of Mr. Groom’s dad and Ms. Groom’s mom”.

We did "The Parents Of"

I just looked up another one and you can also try this. I don't mind the acknowledgement of parents as they did support you in some form or fashion (even if it was just raising you or being a listening ear). But still Google and see what you can find; like the one below:

Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So
and Mr. and Mrs. Whatsit
invite you to celebrate with their children

Whatsherface and Thisguy,

on their wedding day

Our invites say: together with their families. My Fh's parents are divorced and I didn't want the drama of listing his step mom and moms names. It's just easier to use that wording I think.

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Yep! I love this. Considering it for ours, but both of his parents are deceased as is my father. I may just skip it altogether and do a "You are cordially invited to celebrate the union of" instead. Still thinking it over.

We went with the old school wording because I liked the elegance of it (and we have 2 tradituonal Greek families). But the older wording does include the grroms parents as pp mentioned.
So:
Mr and Mrs. Brides parents
request the honour (pleasure if ceremony is not in a house of worship) of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter,
Brides first and middle
to
Groom first, middle, and last
son of Mr. and Mrs. Grooms parents

obviously that can change a little to accomodate any titles (doctors, priests, etc.)
However, I think you should choose the wording that us most reflective of you and your ceremony. Together with their families is perfectly acceptable, although I will say it feels less formal to me.

I would ask your parents what they prefer, since they're paying. Also, in this case, I would use a separate rehearsal dinner insert and put his parents' names on that.

Have you talked with your parents? Do they want to be acknowledged as the hosts of the wedding, just as the FIL's will be the hosts of the rehearsal dinner?

Traditionally both parents would be listed on the invite with the brides parents going first...basically Mr and Mrs Brides Parents request he honor of your presence at the wedding of their daughter to the groom son of grooms parents....

My parents paid for the wedding 100%, but when I say "parents", I mean all 4 of them- mom, stepdad, dad, stepmom. So our invites read:

Mrs. Mom's name & Mr. Stepdad's name

and

Mr. Dad's name & Mrs. Stepmom's name

Request the pleasure of your company

at the marriage ceremony uniting their daughter

Mrs. Fall Bride

to

Mr. Fall Groom

Friday, the Seventh of October, Two Thousand Sixteen, etc....

My in-laws paid for the RD (which was a large group and a more formal dinner), so the enclosure card for that read:

Mr. Fall Groom's Dad & Mrs. Fall Groom's Mom

Request the pleasure of your company

at a welcome dinner in honor of

Mrs. Fall Bride and Mr. Fall Groom

Thursday, etc...

My MIL thanked me when she saw the invites for putting their names on the RD card, so people do pay attention to that. My in-laws are way older (FIL just turned 80), so they fully expected the traditional "whoever pays gets named" type of invite.

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This is exactly how I'm doing mine

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We're traditional Greek families too. High five!

This is what I did

View Quoted Comment I feel the same way. We’ve gotten generous gifts from various family members, and I don’t see how it’s anyone’s business where the money came from. It’s not something I care to advertise. We are putting “together with their families”. There are other, more sincere and private, ways to show your gratitude.

View Quoted Comment While this isn’t the route I went, I do agree with this as well. This way it simply shows who your family is, not who is necessarily footing the bill.

Honestly You need to be blunt with FH and tell him he's not marrying his mother so he needs to stop trying to please her. She either fronts the money or your going to cut her list down to 8 for her. I had a similar issue and FH wouldn't back down so I either told him to tell his mom she fronts the bill for the extras or were pushing our wedding back a year (that is FHs worst nightmare) he got the picture and talked to his mom and hes been more willing to put his foot down