If you're having a very intimate ceremony that will include only immediate family members, you might be tempted to dispense with the invitations, reasoning that your mom doesn't need a reminder to show up in Honolulu on November 12 for your wedding. Fair enough. Just keep in mind that wedding invitations are more than the paper they're printed on — they become part of the whole feel of the wedding, something that marks this event as incredibly significant, and something that will become part of your prized wedding mementos.

How Destination Invites Differ

An invitation to a destination wedding offers the unique opportunity to reflect the theme of the wedding. “What theme?” you ask. “We aren't having a theme!” Yes, you are, even if you don't know it. The beach is a theme. A castle is a theme. The mountains are a theme. Las Vegas is a theme. Stationery companies have embraced destination weddings, so it should be easy to find an invitation that reflects your chosen location. You also should be able to find just about any type of card stock online or at your local printing shop.

Wording an invitation for a destination wedding is a breeze. Parents' names may take up several lines on an invitation to an in-town wedding, but most often only the bride's and groom's names will appear on the destination invitation.

For example:

Note that the site of the wedding can also be somewhat abbreviated if it is a major local landmark. If you've chosen a less popular spot, make sure that you include the street address, like so:

Invitations that clearly lean toward being formal and traditional spell out every single word — “street,” “road,” time of day (no “A.M.” or “P.M.”), and the date. The one area that is starting to fall into a gray area is the actual street address. The old rule of thumb was to spell out the number. However, more and more, formal-looking invitations will arrive with numerals in the street address. (It's really not that big a deal, and nothing that anyone will take you to task for.) Using the other common abbreviations, though, just doesn't look right on a formal card. Zip codes are never used on the invitation itself.

For a cruise ship wedding, give the name of the boat and its home port:

Offering Information

How will your guests know, for example, whether the cruise mentioned in the previous invitation lasts for one hour or five days? You can tack this information onto the invitation itself, but it would be infinitely more helpful to precede the invitation with a mailer that explains travel logistics. As mentioned in Chapter 5, this information really should be included with your save-the-date cards, which ideally should be mailed six months prior to your destination wedding so that your guests will have plenty of time to negotiate vacation time from work and find the best airline rates.

Assume that your guests know nothing about the place where your wedding will be held. Your goal is to let them in on any information that will sway them into accepting your invitation and make their trip as much fun (or as relaxing) as possible once they arrive. In order to do this, of course, you have to educate yourself. Embrace your role of travel director! You might be surprised at how much interesting (and little-known) information about the area you can come up with, which will only serve to make your trip more memorable as well.