When it comes to traditional wedding invitation wording, the principles tend to be quite different from normal, everyday writing.  These special etiquette guidelines apply to punctuation, spelling, abbreviations and capitalization. 

In regards to proper wording, punctuation and capitalization for the verse on your wedding invitations, here are tips to keep in mind.

• The use of punctuation with a verse can be quite unique.  Periods do not appear at the end of sentences but only after title abbreviations such as Mr. and Mrs.  Commas are placed between the day and date and also the city and state. They are also allowed within sentences when necessary.
• Despite sentences not ending in punctuation, the first word of each sentence is still capitalized as in normal writing. Each line of a verse is not always considered its own sentence since complete sentences may continue to the next line.  This will be reflected by having only the first word of a sentence being capitalized.
• The first letter of all title abbreviations, proper names, days of the week and months are capitalized.  The year, written out as a phrase, most often has only the first letter of the first word capitalized.

  For a more modern look, there are examples in which nothing within the invitation verse is capitalized OR just the opposite where every letter in the verse appears in an upper-case font with the true capital letters being slightly larger. 

• Dates, years and times are spelled out instead of listing them as numbers.
  • Friday, the tenth of June
  • Two thousand and eleven
  • at two o’clock in the afternoon

  Numbers are acceptable when listed as part of a street address (i.e. 10 Main Street).

• There are many ways to phrase the line that actually extends the invitation to guests.  If the word ‘honor’ is used, it is most commonly spelled as ‘honour’ for more formality as in a religious ceremony – ‘request the honour of your presence’.  The spelling as ‘honor’ can be used for an informal or more casual wedding.

Abbreviations have certain rules, as well, when it comes to your wedding invitation wording.  Some of these etiquette guidelines pertain to both your invitation verse and when addressing the envelopes.

• Mr. and Mrs. are non-professional titles that are acceptable abbreviations.
• Professional titles such as Doctor should be spelled out.
• Words such as ‘Street’, ‘Avenue’, ‘Trail’, etc., should be written out along with state names.
• Symbols are not appropriate so the word ‘and’ should be spelled out.

As you can see there are several traditional wedding invitation wording etiquette rules so hopefully these tips will sum them up for you.  The important thing to remember is that if you find yourself in doubt, there are many sample verses to review as examples.