Destination wedding invitation wording
You are not inviting people to an afternoon. You are asking them to book a trip.
A destination invitation is the only kind where the wording has to sell something. Guests are being asked for flights, several nights of accommodation and days of annual leave, and they will decide within a minute of opening the link. What earns a yes is not the picture of the coastline; it is being able to answer, in one sitting, how many days, which airport, roughly what it costs and by when they must say.
It also changes the timetable. Send a save the date eight to twelve months ahead so people can buy flights sensibly, send the invitation about three months before, and set the RSVP deadline six to eight weeks out rather than three, because a guest who says yes is booking something they cannot easily undo.
Examples you can copy
The invitation itself
Eleanor and Thomas
are getting married in Puglia
Saturday 14 June 2027
Ceremony at 5:00 pm, Masseria Le Torri, Ostuni
Dinner under the olive trees to follow
Please reply by 1 April
The invitation stays short. The logistics go in their own section, below.
The travel details section
Getting there
Nearest airport: Brindisi (BDS), 40 minutes by car
Bari (BRI) is 90 minutes and often cheaper
We'd suggest arriving Friday and leaving Monday
Rooms at the masseria from about $150 a night,
held for us until March 1 (quote "Whitfield-Hale")
Four facts: the airport, how long from it, how many nights, what a room costs. This is the part that decides the answer.
When you are making a weekend of it
Friday 13 June: welcome drinks at the masseria, 8:00 pm
Saturday 14 June: ceremony at 5:00 pm, dinner and dancing
Sunday 15 June: long lunch by the pool, come and go as you like
Nothing is compulsory except Saturday
"Nothing is compulsory except Saturday" is the line guests are most grateful for.
A small destination wedding, party at home later
We're getting married in Puglia on 14 June
with just our parents there,
and celebrating properly with everyone
on Saturday 12 September in Kingsbridge
Save that date; the invitation is on its way
Says clearly which event the reader is invited to, and avoids the most painful misunderstanding there is.
The gift line for a destination wedding
You coming this far is the gift.
If you'd like to do something anyway,
there's a honeymoon fund in the details below,
but please don't feel you should.
Guests who have paid for flights should hear explicitly that nothing more is expected.
What to watch for
Answer the money question before it is asked
An approximate room rate and a booking deadline do more for attendance than any other line on the invitation. Guests are not deciding whether they like you; they are working out whether they can afford four days in June.
Name the airport, and the second-best airport
A guest who finds a cheaper flight to an airport ninety minutes away will take it, and be grateful you mentioned it. Give the drive times from both.
Say which events are optional
Guests who have traveled will attend everything out of politeness, including the things you arranged casually. Telling them plainly what is compulsory is a kindness, and it makes your own numbers more accurate.
Pin the venue, not the town
Rural addresses abroad defeat maps apps, and a wrong pin on a wedding morning is a genuine disaster. Use a maps link or coordinates rather than a typed address. A digital invitation takes either and opens the guest's own maps app directly.
Put your wording into a real invitation.
Build it free →Questions
How far ahead do destination wedding invitations go out?
A save the date eight to twelve months ahead, and the invitation about three months before the wedding. Set the RSVP deadline six to eight weeks out rather than the usual three, because guests are committing to travel, and you need the numbers earlier.
Should we pay for our guests' accommodation?
There is no obligation to. What is expected is that you make it easy and predictable: a held block of rooms, a stated price range and a booking deadline. Most couples cover the welcome drinks and the wedding day itself and leave travel to guests.
How many guests usually come to a destination wedding?
Expect a noticeably lower acceptance rate than a wedding at home: as a rough planning figure, around half to two thirds of those invited. Giving people the date very early is the single biggest thing that improves it.
Do guests need the time zone spelled out?
The calendar buttons handle it: a guest adding your ceremony from another country gets the correct local time rather than a converted one. It is still worth writing the times in the venue's own local time on the invitation, with no conversions offered.
The wording is only half of it: a guest still has to reply, find the venue and put the date in their calendar. On a digital wedding invitation all three live under the wording on the same page, in any of 35 designs.
Written by Leon Bogičević, Founder, Say Yes at Say Yes Digital Invitations.