One line of the invitation that has been most affected is the host line. Traditionally, the bride's mother and father paid for the wedding and were the hosts. Over the years, as it became acceptable for the groom's parents to contribute to the event, they also began appearing on the invitation, often on the line directly after the groom's name, preceded by the words "son of." Today they even may be elevated to co-host, with their names directly after the bride's parents'.

All these variations reflect a time when couples married quite young, straight out of their parents' homes. Now that so many get married later, they often want to issue the invitation themselves -- particularly if they're paying for their own wedding. The dilemma is that they may also want to include their families somehow.

If this is your situation, consider the increasingly popular solution of stating your own names first and adding "together with their families." This format is also useful in avoiding the sometimes delicate issue of stepparents. According to Julie Holcomb, owner of Julie Holcomb Printers, a letterpress company outside San Francisco, this style may depart from convention, but not from the essential wedding tradition: sharing your love with family and friends. "The wedding invitation might be the only good way to include everyone, the only gracious opportunity for a couple to acknowledge that these people are important to them," Holcomb says.