WHEN LLOYD AND Peggy Owen's son Kevin married June Nyman last March, they decided the traditional invitation didn't quite capture their feelings. Kevin is a handsome young man, but he's 33 years old, and so his parents had, you know, times of uncertainty.
Kevin and June went with a formal, traditional, embossed announcement - but with somewhat unusual wording: "Mr. and Mrs. Monte S. Nyman joyfully announce the long awaited marriage of their daughter June to Kevin Owen, son of the relieved Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Owen."Lloyd says, "We had calls from everywhere. An announcement with a little humor in it. How wonderful! One couple said they were sorry they missed the reception, but they had taken the invitation to work to show colleagues and forgot and left it there. There was not one negative comment."
There were some people, on the other hand, who were fooled by the traditional format. They read the names and dates and missed the new words. It was only when someone else called it to their attention that they reread it and got the message.
That's because most people are wedded to a strict format - and marriage, after all, is an institution marked by tradition. Utah is also notable for its numerous reception centers, such as the Shalamar and Seven Oaks, both of which symbolize elegance.
Their receptions and invitations tend to closely follow traditional styles. Rebecca Burdick, owner of Seven Oaks, says Utah was "the forefront leader in photo invitations," even though the majority of invitations she sees follow the more traditional embossed, printed style without a photo.
Loy Cleverly of Reliable Office Supply, a company that prints large numbers of invitations, says "it is mostly the LDS who have preferred the photo-style invitation. Utah is the most popular area in the country for photo cards. But even that is starting to fade now, with border cards and contemporary wording increasing in popularity."
A number of people, he says, use poems and express personal feelings on their invitations, some "in their own handwriting and reproduced on wedding stock."
Shalamar's Diana Legare believes today's trend is formal, "going back to the real traditional. People are going away from having couples pictured on invitations. They are sticking to traditional invitations, then having nicer food at their receptions."
A traditional wording usually names the parents of the bride and says they "request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of their daughter Betty Louise to Mr. William Ray Cameron."
A contemporary format takes more liberties of style and is usually a little more gushy, such as the parents "joyfully" announcing the "the beginning of a life of sharing, caring, a love of endless giving together" - or "The most joyous of occasions is the union of a man and woman in celebration of life."
Most of the time, young people and their parents are less likely to experiment when it comes to tying the knot. It is only the occasional brave couple who branches out - like this one:
"We came. We saw. We said, `yes.' And as a result, on the twenty-first day of the sixth month in the year one thousand nine hundred and eighty-five, Colleen, firstborn female child of the Fosters,' shall leave her mother, Barbara, and her father, Tom, and cling unto Jonathan Daniel Thomas, thirdborn male child of Jess and Diane Thomas. And all that will begin in the St. George, Utah LDS Temple. `So let it be written. So let it be done.' - Yul Brynner as Pharoah.' "