Lightening Up Your Invitations: 5 Most Common Grammar Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Like all the other invitations—wedding, corporate event, or party—word is as important as face. A pretty-looking invitation is wasted if the real invitation contains spelling errors. Not much face; errors on an invitation have the potential to give the wrong impression of mood for the event, or worse, cause the invitee to forget.

Good grammar will not only make your invitation look neat—it is a mark of respectfulness, legibility, and professionalism. Below is the guide where we will outline five most usual grammatical errors in invitations and lead you step by step on how to do it.

Why Writing Matters in Invitations

Invitation comes before the wedding. It conveys the theme, formality, and level of message detail. Suppose you received an invitation which was the following:

"You're invited to our wedding reception. It will be an amazing experience, please RSVP back ASAP!!"

Contrast with:

"You're invited to our wedding reception. It will be an experience you'll never forget. Please RSVP at your earliest convenience."

Isn't the second one gentlemanly and elegant? All that is good word magic is all about.

Okay, let's declare the most frequent grammatical mistakes you need to stay off—and how to correct them.

1. Apostrophe on Names

Apostrophes are perhaps the most frequent mistakes, particularly when applied on names in invitations. Most individuals have been misled by applying an apostrophe wherever conjugating name plural, such as in the following:

"The Smith's Invite You to Dinner."

It is incorrect because the apostrophe signifies possession, not number. The correct one is the one which reads:

"The Smiths Invite You to Dinner."

Rule of Thumb:

Add -s to most surnames when they are plural (The Smiths, The Johnsons).

Add -es to surname when surname ends in s (The Joneses).

Never add an apostrophe except when indicating possession (i.e., "The Smiths' Home").

2. Incorrect Verb Tense

Verb tense lends tone and rhythm to an action. Changing between tenses will make the invitation ridiculous or bewildering. Example:

"We invited you to our wedding, which we had last month."

Since the event is already given, you would not invite anyone to it. Even with inviting to some action in the future, however, there must be continuity from you:

Wrong: "We invited you to come and hope you will have a good time at our wedding celebration."

Right: "We invite you to come and hope you will have a good time at our wedding celebration."

Pro Tip: Don't forget to position your verb tense so that it will fit on the activities calendar. Since it will be in future, thus use present or future tense.

3. Inconsiderate Word Choice or Word Repetition

Guest Manager's RSVP request must be polite but firm but some overstate the declaration or words used. Some of worst offenders are:

"Please RSVP back." (You don't have to use the word 'back'.)

"At this present time" (Simply use the word 'now' or leave out.) 

Clearness and brevity always triumph. You must include necessary information—what, when, where—but not overfill the declaration.

Once the text appears perfect and neat, the only other thing which you would be concerned with is presentation. Everyone prefers putting personalized invitations on the printer

so that the neatly typed words of you will jump on good-quality paper. Neatly printed invitation gives quality high to words by you, so that it will be remembered and is personal. You can easily print invitations with Adobe Express to ensure your designs look professional and polished.

4. Capitalization Mistakes

And once more so also a very common mistake is wrong or excessive capitalization. Some put the capital letters on every word on the invitation, and some do not even capitalize proper names on the invitation. The rule:

Capitalize these ones – these ones which are proper names, i.e., names, names for activity or event, places.

Don't make words in the sentence with an arbitrary capital in order to make words 'look pretty.'

Example:

Incorrect: "You Are Invited To Join Us For Our Summer Celebration At The Park."

Incorrect: "You are formally invited to our summer festival in the park."

Too much capitalization looks strange and is hard to read. Use it where absolutely necessary.

5. Overelaborating the Message

Invitation is concise, but the majority of hosts overdo it and become poetical or formal and write pretentious, unreadable sentences. Compare the following:

Too Wordy

"Your esteemed guests are kindly invited to celebrate the wedding with our lovely little one."

Simple & Pretty:

"David and Emily are getting married. Join us in celebration."

For your invitation you're creating, readability comes after. If you have to insert pizzazz into it, well jazz it up, but not at the expense of readability.

Final Pre-Send or Print Checklist

Do this handy list when it's time to send the invites:

✔ Names: Correct spelling and sequence.

✔ Date & Time: As distinct as a bell with AM/PM or set 24-hour clock with time indicated.

✔ Venue: Full address with directions where needed.

✔ Grammar & Punctuation: No spelling mistake, puffy language or doubt about tense.

Wherever possible, ask someone else to read the words. Fresheyes will catch teeny-tiny mistakes you won't.

Why Trouble

Invites are not piece-of-paper (or screen pixel) declarative statements. They're an appetizer of what's to follow. Wedding, business lunch or age milestone, a nicely written, well-designed invite is a word.

Commit the cultural nationalists to books to commit professionalism and loyalty. Insert a final word in it, an alphabet to be its friend. If words and form are wedded, then the invitation that you are sending is something that guests would bring with them—not reminding everyone 'n sundry of a function but wanting it remembered.

Avoid cringe-worthy grammatical faux pas in word-for-word work that you'd otherwise/repeatedly do on a daily basis to create magical, jaw-dropping invites. Obtain words precisely accurate, then put them together in an organized fashion to create an effect that would last. Because an invite is not an announcement—are a whisper of something that the guests would conceive ideas of long, long in the future.