LDS temple wedding invitation wording gets tricky fast, and not because the wording itself is hard. The hard part is that you are usually not inviting every guest to the exact same part of the day.
Some people may be invited to the sealing. Many others may be invited to the reception, open house, luncheon, or ring ceremony only. That is why generic wedding invitation advice usually falls apart here. A normal wedding invitation assumes one ceremony, one guest list, one obvious flow. Temple weddings do not always work that way.
The good news is that this can absolutely be handled well. In fact, it usually works best when you stop trying to make one invitation do everything. The cleanest approach is to give each guest clear wording for the part of the celebration they are actually invited to attend. That keeps the wording respectful, avoids awkward explanations, and helps non-LDS or non-member family and friends feel welcomed instead of managed.
For PrintInvitations couples, this is exactly the kind of wedding suite that benefits from matching pieces. A clean main invitation, a separate details or enclosure card, and a coordinated RSVP card can do a lot of work here. You are not just printing a pretty card. You are solving a communication problem in a way that still feels warm and polished.
Why LDS temple wedding invitations need a different setup
The core issue is simple. A temple sealing is not the same as a public ceremony. So the invitation wording should not pretend that it is.
That is where many couples get stuck. They feel like they need to explain everything on one card, or they worry that a reception-only invitation will feel incomplete. But for LDS weddings, that is usually the wrong mindset. The invitation should be clear about what the guest is invited to, not overloaded with every detail of the full day.
In most cases, the best structure looks like this:
- a main invitation for the event most guests can attend, usually the reception or open house
- a separate insert or enclosure card for those invited to the temple sealing
- a details card if you need to explain timing, locations, dress, or a ring ceremony
- an RSVP card only if replies are needed for the event listed on that guest’s invitation
That keeps things much cleaner. It also avoids the weird problem of putting temple details in front of guests who cannot attend the sealing. Most of the time, that does not make people feel included. It just reminds them that they are excluded.
A better move is to let the main card focus on the event they are being invited to attend. Then, if certain guests are also invited to the sealing, you can give them that information separately. That is one of the biggest reasons coordinated [wedding details cards and enclosure cards] make sense for LDS temple weddings. They let you keep the main invitation simple while still handling the day properly.
What to put on the main invitation
For many LDS weddings, the main invitation should invite guests to the reception, open house, or ring ceremony, not the sealing itself.
That may feel backward at first if the temple sealing is the spiritual center of the day. But from a guest communication standpoint, it is usually the right choice. The main invitation should answer one practical question: what am I invited to attend?
If the guest is not attending the sealing, the card should not read like they are.
One of the easiest ways to handle this is with wording like “following a private temple sealing” or “after a private temple sealing.” That phrase does a lot with very little effort. It gives context. It explains why the ceremony details are limited. And it does not sound apologetic.
Here are a few strong examples.
Reception invitation wording
- Together with their families,
Emma Rose Carter
and
Joshua Daniel Hayes
invite you to a reception in celebration of their marriage
Saturday, the tenth of October
at six o’clock in the evening
Willow Creek Barn
Provo, Utah
Open house wording
- Please join us for an open house
in honor of
Emma Rose Carter
and
Joshua Daniel Hayes
following their marriage
Saturday, the tenth of October
from six until eight o’clock
Willow Creek Barn
Provo, Utah
Private sealing + reception wording
- Following a private temple sealing,
please join
Emma Rose Carter
and
Joshua Daniel Hayes
for a wedding reception
Saturday, the tenth of October
at six o’clock in the evening
Willow Creek Barn
Provo, Utah
Private sealing + ring ceremony wording
- Following a private temple sealing,
Emma Rose Carter
and
Joshua Daniel Hayes
invite you to a ring ceremony and reception
Saturday, the tenth of October
at five-thirty in the evening
Willow Creek Barn
Provo, Utah
That last version is especially helpful when you want non-LDS or non-member family and friends to see a meaningful public moment without trying to recreate the temple sealing itself.
What to put on the sealing insert
If some guests are invited to the sealing, that information usually belongs on a separate insert card, not the main invitation.
This is where you can be more specific and more traditional. The wording can be formal, direct, and brief. You do not need to explain temple policy on the card. Guests who receive this insert generally already understand why the sealing invitation is separate.
Here are a few solid examples.
Traditional parent-hosted sealing wording
- Mr. and Mrs. David Carter
request the pleasure of your company
at the sealing of their daughter
Emma Rose
to
Joshua Daniel Hayes
in the Mount Timpanogos Temple
Saturday, the tenth of October
at eleven o’clock in the morning
Together with their families
- Together with their families,
Emma Rose Carter
and
Joshua Daniel Hayes
request the pleasure of your company
at their sealing
in the Mount Timpanogos Temple
Saturday, the tenth of October
at eleven o’clock in the morning
Simple modern sealing card
- You are invited to the sealing of
Emma Rose Carter
and
Joshua Daniel Hayes
Saturday, the tenth of October
at eleven o’clock in the morning
Mount Timpanogos Temple
If you need arrival instructions, parking notes, or attire reminders for temple guests, those usually belong on a separate details card or wedding website rather than on the sealing line itself. The card should stay clean.
How to handle non-LDS or non-member guests without making it awkward
This is the part people worry about the most, and honestly, it is where clarity matters more than etiquette formulas.
The first thing to know is that you do not need to spell out temple access rules on the invitation. In most cases, that just makes the wording feel colder than it needs to. Lines like “Temple ceremony by invitation only” or “Only recommend holders may attend” might be technically accurate, but they usually read badly.
A better approach is to invite people warmly to the part of the day they can attend and let the wording do that job cleanly.
That means reception wording, open house wording, or ring ceremony wording should sound complete on its own. It should not sound like a consolation prize.
So instead of writing something that feels defensive, use language that feels intentional:
- Following a private temple sealing, please join us for a reception
- Please join us for an open house in honor of our marriage
- We invite you to celebrate with us at a ring ceremony and reception
- Together with our families, we invite you to a reception in celebration of our marriage
That is a big difference. It frames the event as a real invitation, not as the leftover portion of the day.
This is also where tone matters. Do not over-explain. Do not apologize in the wording. And do not try to squeeze a mini theology lesson onto the card. If close friends or family have questions, those are better handled personally, not in printed copy.
If you have non-member parents or immediate family who will be present near the temple but cannot attend the sealing, it helps to plan the experience thoughtfully. That could mean arranging a waiting plan, coordinating photos afterward, or directing them to the temple grounds or visitor center where available. That kind of planning does more to reduce hurt feelings than any clever sentence ever will.
And if you want a public moment that includes family who cannot attend the sealing, a ring ceremony can help. The important thing is to treat it as its own respectful moment, not as an attempt to duplicate the temple sealing. In other words, let it be meaningful without trying to make it into a second wedding ceremony.
When a civil ceremony before the temple sealing may be the better choice
This is the biggest change many people still do not realize.
A lot of older wedding advice around LDS wording was built around the assumption that couples had to choose between a civil wedding and a temple sealing, or wait a long time if they did the civil ceremony first. That is no longer the framework couples are working with.
Today, a civil marriage followed by a temple sealing is an authorized option, including in situations where a temple marriage would leave parents or immediate family feeling excluded. For some couples, that is the best path.
This does not mean every couple should do it. And it does not mean the temple sealing becomes less important. It just means you have more than one respectful way to structure the day.
If that is the route you choose, the invitation wording becomes much more straightforward for non-LDS guests because they can attend the civil ceremony itself.
Here are a few examples.
Civil ceremony wording
- Together with their families,
Emma Rose Carter
and
Joshua Daniel Hayes
request the pleasure of your company
at their marriage ceremony
Saturday, the tenth of October
at two o’clock in the afternoon
Willow Creek Barn
Provo, Utah
Civil ceremony + note about sealing
- Together with their families,
Emma Rose Carter
and
Joshua Daniel Hayes
invite you to witness their marriage
Saturday, the tenth of October
at two o’clock in the afternoon
Willow Creek Barn
Provo, Utah
The couple will later be sealed in the temple
Civil ceremony + reception
- Emma Rose Carter
and
Joshua Daniel Hayes
invite you to celebrate their marriage
Saturday, the tenth of October
ceremony at two o’clock
reception to follow
Willow Creek Barn
Provo, Utah
For some families, this option removes a lot of tension. It lets non-LDS and non-member loved ones witness the legal marriage while still keeping the temple sealing central to the couple’s faith.
A few wording rules that make this easier
When in doubt, keep these rules in mind.
First, write to the guest’s invitation, not to your full wedding timeline. The card should describe the event they are invited to attend.
Second, use separate pieces when needed. This is not overcomplicating the suite. It is making the wording cleaner.
Third, let “private temple sealing” do more work for you. It is simple, respectful, and usually enough.
Fourth, do not write in a way that makes non-member guests feel like they need a glossary just to understand the invitation.
And fifth, remember that good invitation wording is not about sounding formal. It is about making people feel informed and welcomed.
That is also why the printing side matters. A good LDS wedding suite often needs more than one card type, and the pieces need to look like they belong together. At PrintInvitations, that usually means matching wedding invitations, details cards, and RSVP cards, with wording that can be customized to fit a sealing, reception, open house, or civil ceremony setup. Free digital proofs also help when you are working through multiple versions of the same suite and want to make sure the wording reads right before anything goes to print.
Final thoughts
The best LDS temple wedding invitation wording is not the most ornate wording. It is the wording that makes the structure of the day feel clear and gracious.
For sealing guests, that usually means a separate insert. For non-LDS or non-member guests, that usually means a complete and warm invitation to the reception, open house, or ring ceremony. And for couples trying to include close family more fully, a civil ceremony before the sealing may now be a very real option worth considering.
That is the real goal here. Not to force every wedding into one template, but to choose wording that fits your beliefs, your family, and the actual flow of the day.
If your invitation suite does that well, it is already doing a lot of heavy lifting.