I’m a gocco addict. I gocco’d my own invitations for my wedding(which I now tell everyone to never ever do- waaaaay more work than I could have even dreamed of). Heather Jeany, one of our amazing pro-gay vendors on our site, does mostly gocco invitations that are on the funky/fun side of things. She was kind enough to share some on the invitations she has done for gay couples in the past:
Posted on December 1st, 2009 by Emily Kate. 2 Comments
Invitation wording has been harder than I expected for some reason. We’re just ordering our invites online (they aren’t something that falls high on our priority list so we’re going for simple, cheap, and already addressed since both of us have terrible handwriting), so I’ve been trawling through option after option for wording suggestions.
They seem to fall into three categories: super-religious—
“We request the honour of your presence as we celebrate the love we’ve found and are united for eternity in Christ”
Way too cutesy-
“Our course is set, it’s full speed ahead; we’re sailing toward, the day we’ll be wed!”,
or fairly straightforward (we’re going that route).
The difficulty has been deciding how to actually word a few key points. First: parents. Both of our sets of parents are divorced. Mine have each remarried, while Lynn’s mother has a long-time partner and her father is currently single. Some of them are contributing to the wedding financially, and all of them will be present to support us and help out, so we want to acknowledge them. But listing all of those names is ridiculous, so we’ve opted for the generic-but-inclusive ‘together with their parents’ line.
Then there is the murky so-called etiquette code of what you are being invited to, exactly. I read something that told me an invitation requesting “the honour of your presence” is for a wedding in a church, which isn’t the case for us, so it’ll be “the pleasure of your company” which is more what we’re hoping for anyway. We’d rather enjoy the pleasure than the hono[u]r, in the end.
And finally, the part that took the longest to decide: what to call the thing. Should we call it a wedding? A commitment ceremony? A ‘celebration of our love’? Our ‘special day’? I was worried that some of our relatives might be offended by us calling it a wedding, but then I realized that I would be more offended by anyone having that reaction. Since it is a wedding, that’s what we’re going to call it. Anyone who has an issue with that fact can choose not to come, but I don’t want to make things more palatable for any closeted bigots in the family—especially at our expense (both literally and emotionally). Honestly, this is one of those things that I think we worry about a lot but that in the end probably isn’t a big deal at all. Straight people ask people to “celebrate their union”, watch them “get hitched”, and all sorts of weird permutations and no one wonders whether they’re having a wedding or not. I need to remember to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to assume that they’ll have no trouble understanding our invitations, either.
After that, the rest was pretty straightforward: date, time, and location. So, putting it all together we got:
Together with their parents
Emily Kate and Lynn
request the pleasure of your company
at their wedding
on Saturday, the twenty-seventh of February
two thousand and ten
at four-thirty in the afternoon
(address)
Katie Fischer has long been a LGBT ally. She came by and helped out couples at our booth at NYC Pride. She was was one of the first invitation designers I found who had an invitation directed at the LGBT community with her two brides invite.
As an independent invitation designer, I have the pleasure of attracting clients already in the market for something different. Most are uncomfortable with the stock phrases and stuffy designs typically associated with wedding invitations. The truth is there are no rules. Just remember, the invitation is the first thing your guests see. It communicates the tone and mood of the wedding. With that said, you should do and say what feels right to you and your partner.
So You’re EnGAYged asked me to share some of my favorite same-sex wedding invitation wordings I’ve seen over the years:
Jason Andrew Bessier and Phillip Jeremiah Bachman request the honour of your presence as we celebrate a public declaration of our love and commitment to one another
Marie Claire Hoffman and Allison Elizabeth Cantor invite you to celebrate their love and eternal commitment to one another
Together with their families, the pleasure of your company is requested at the union of Kenneth Lawrence MacLean and Daniel Gregory Lopez
More after the jump:
Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Kelly. 2 Comments
Sara from Stinkerpants Designs is both a So You’re EnGAYged pro-gay vendor and an amazing ally(she designed and offers the coolest gay marriage bumper sticker ever- both Lara and I have it on our cars!). So when we needed help with ideas for wording gay wedding invitations, I promptly emailed her.
Wording for wedding invitations can be a laborious process of answering questions like, “who is paying for this wedding?” and “do we include my ex-step-dad?” At the end of the day, the wording for wedding invitations tends to matter most to people in your immediate family (read: the people who think their names should be on the invitation and may be offended if they’re not). But because weddings are usually about family, sometimes it’s best to err on the side of honoring your close family members.
If you’re a non-traditional couple, things might be a bit easier for you because you’re not concerned with formalities. In case you’re curious, you can find a full list of the “correct” etiquette for wedding invitation wording from Martha Stewart. Meanwhile, I’ll share with you guys some of the choices my previous clients have used, and a few of my other favorites:
Short and Sweet:
Together with their parents
The Couple
invite you to celebrate their wedding
Date, Time
Location
Dinner and Dancing to Followor
The Couple
invite you to share in their love
as they celebrate their marriage
on Date at Time
at Location
located at Address
Reception to followor
The Couple
joyfully request the pleasure of your company
at their wedding celebration
Date, Time
at Location
Address
Dinner and Dancing to Follow
