All families that have different of types members in them, some modern ones that wedding books and etiquette guides are struggling to keep up with. How can you include everyone in such a way that all are equally important?

To a certain extent, you can not. There's only so much room on an invitation to include everyone in your life, but for those that you must, there are ways to handle the step parents in an invitation.

When it comes to step parents, most couples feel that  although they are  different from their biological parents, they want to incorporate them into the invitation as well. And while traditionally, the parents are included, how do you put in everyone's name?

Most invitations start off with 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith  would like to announce the marriage of their daughter Sandra to John, son of Mr. and Mrs. Brown.' In order to include both sets of parents, you can just add them in at the beginning and end, denoting it with son of Mrs. Smith and her husband Bill or Mr. Whatever and his wife Something.

If there is a parent that has been absent for the child's life, then they do not have to be put into the invitation.

If one of the couple members would like to include their parent that has passed on, they can say something to the effect of 'son of Mr. Smith and the late Mrs. Smith.' That works just fine. If both parents are deceased, you may want to note that as 'son of the late Mr. and Mrs.'

If someone has recently passed away, then you may want to include it in your wedding invitations as a separate note  a good way to let your guests know and avoid any awkward moments. This is especially true if it was a recent event.

When in doubt do what feels right for you. A lot of the time, you can write and rewrite the wording to include everyone and still satisfy only you. Read your words aloud then can see what something sounds like to a reader, and judge your choice from there.

Article courtesy of Helen Doyle from Gibson Doyle Specialist cards