Destination wedding invitations: wording, timing and what to include

• Nine to twelve months before: the save the date, with the place, so guests can book leave and flights while fares are low.
• Ten to twelve weeks before: the invitation, with the travel details people need to act on.
• Six to eight weeks before: the reply deadline. Venues abroad often want numbers earlier than at home, and transfers and boats need booking.
• Two weeks before: a short last message with times, transport and the weather.

• Formal: "Together with their families, Chloe Laurent and Andreas Pappas request the pleasure of your company at their marriage on the island of Paros, on Saturday the eighteenth of September, two thousand and twenty-seven, at five o'clock in the afternoon."
• Relaxed: "Come to Malta with us! Sophie and James are getting married at Villa Bologna on Saturday 3 June 2028. Welcome drinks on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, a long lunch by the sea on Sunday."
• A weekend: "Join us for a long weekend in Tuscany, 14 to 16 May 2027, as Hannah and Tom get married."
• A celebration at home after: "Having married in Santorini with our families, we would love you to celebrate with us at home on 9 October."

The five lines of any invitation are still there: who invites, the request, who is marrying, when, where. A wedding abroad adds a sixth: what the trip looks like.

Most weddings abroad are more than one event: a welcome dinner, the wedding, a lunch or a beach day after. Name each one with its day and time, and say who it is for. If the welcome dinner is for everyone, say so; if it is family only, the people not invited should not find out from the schedule.

Give each its own dress code if they differ. "Friday: relaxed. Saturday: garden formal, flat shoes for the cobbles. Sunday: swimwear under something."

• The nearest airport, and how long it takes from there to the venue, by car or by ferry.
• Where to stay: the hotel with your group rate, the code, and the date the rate ends.
• Who pays for what: "We have arranged a group rate at the Aliki" reads very differently from "your rooms are on us". Say which it is.
• Passports and visas for guests from outside the country's region.
• The weather, and what that means for shoes, jackets and the sun.

This is too much for a card and exactly right for the invitation's own pages, where guests can look again on the day they book.

A wedding at home needs to know who is coming and what they eat. A wedding abroad needs to know when they land. Ask for the arrival date, and the flight if you are arranging transfers; ask whether they need a seat on the coach or the boat; ask which of the weekend's events they will come to.

On MyEventOS those are questions you switch on, flight details and arrival dates among them, with a link to your places to stay beside the reply.

A wedding abroad often gathers guests from three or four countries. An invitation each guest can read in their own language saves the cousins who do not speak yours from guessing at the times. Every drawn design on MyEventOS reads in English, Greek, German, Hebrew and Russian, and the guest chooses.