Bar/Bat Mitzvah Invitation Wording: Unique Samples + Examples (2022)

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What’s the recipe for the “perfect” Bar/Bat Mitzvah?

Unfortunately, the answer is a little more complicated than “Add two cups of sugar, 2 tomatoes, a pinch of pepper and bake till golden brown” (what the hell am I baking?!)…

And I’m sure as hell won’t bother answering it in an article about Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation wording… that’s a topic that can fill an entire book.

But one thing is for sure: no matter what you do – you can’t celebrate your child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah without guests.

And unlike your neighborhood Pizza shop – you’re not just inviting any guests… you’re inviting friends, family and loved ones…

So with all due respect to Luigi and his delicious Kosher Pizza – the last thing you want to do is invite your guests with a generic Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation that looks (and sounds) like those Pizza advertising flyers you end up throwing in the trash (sorry Luigi).

No…

You want your guests to look forward to your child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah… 

How do you do that?

1. Choose a beautiful Bar Mitzvah invitation design (or Bat Mitzvah invitation if it’s for your girl’s Bat Mitzvah) that matches the party theme.
2. Write the invitation text. That’s exactly what you’ll do today (you don’t have to reinvent the wheel – just copy the examples in this guide)!
3. Send em’ out

Easy-peasy, right?

OK, enough babbling… let’s go draft (and craft) a beautiful invitation!

The Anatomy of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Invitation Text – The 5 W’s

When it comes to the Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation – less is more. Save your witty jokes for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah speech.

Trust me – nobody likes to get a declaration of independence in the mail (unless it’s the actual declaration of independence).

Ideally, your Bar or Bat Mitzvah invitation design should do most of the talking. The wording itself should be short and sweet – like the dressing on a salad.

There’s only a handful of things every Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation should include. I call it the Five W’s:

1. Who: Who is celebrating?

Write your child’s name in BIG bold letters, so your guests can instantly relate to the Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

Also, don’t forget to include the names of the parents! 

You can either start the invitation with the parent’s names…

Something like: “Michael & Shirley Cohen invite you to share in their joy as their son…”

Or, you can sign off the invitation with the parent’s name.

For example: “Hosted by the proud parents – Michael & Shirley Cohen”

2. What: What are you celebrating?

This one is pretty self-explanatory.

3. When: When is the event?

Don’t let your guests look for the date of the event. Make it stand out so auntie Bracha can instantly book an appointment with the hairdresser.

Some invitations are written formally – with the date and time spelled out (e.g Saturday, the twenty-eighth of April, twenty nineteen), while others are written informally – using numbers and figures (e.g Saturday, April 28th, 2019).

There’s no right or wrong here… choose the style you prefer.

4. Where: Where is the event?

Is it a Torah reading at a synagogue?

Is there a Bar/Bat Mitzvah luncheon afterward? Where exactly?

What about a Bar/Bat Mitzvah party?

5. Wear: What is the dress code?

This one is often overlooked, but it’s crucial… especially if you’re inviting non-Jewish friends who have never stepped foot in a synagogue or never attended a Bar/Bat Mitzvah before.

Just to give you an idea – thousands of people read (and share) our Bar/Bat Mitzvah attire guide every month.

This tells us two things…

1. People have no clue what to wear to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony
2. Our website is awesome! 🙂

Bottom line? You don’t want some poor guest accidentally wearing a party dress to the Torah reading, now do you? (A-w-k-w-a-r-d)

6. (Bonus) Welcome: Personal greeting welcoming the guest

This one is optional, but common in many invitations.

Often, invitations start with a personal greeting – inviting the guest to participate in the Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebration.

Here are a few examples:

• “With great pride, joy and love we invite you to join as our son/daughter is called to the Torah as a Bar/Bat Mitzvah”
• “With endless love – we invite you to join us in our Simcha…”
• “Our world reflects a rich tradition of yesterday and the bright promise of tomorrow as our son/daughter is called to read from the Torah”
• “With great pleasure and gratitude to Hashem, we invite you to join us as our dear son/daughter is called to read from the Torah…”
• “From generation to generation, connected by a legacy of faith, love, and tradition – we invite you to join as our son/daughter…”

You can also address the guest from the Bar/Bat Mitzvah’s perspective to give it a nice personal touch:

• “My family and I invite you to join us in our Simcha…”
• “I’m celebrating my Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and I invite you to join me…”
• “Hi! It’s David Grossman, son of Arnold and Shoshana Grossman. I would like to invite you to my Bar Mitzvah…”

Or, you can start the invitation with a relevant biblical quote (in English or Hebrew):

• “I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted it for me. Likewise, I am planting for my children.” – Talmud, Taanit 23a
• “And the boy grew up and the LORD blessed him.” – Judges 13. 24
• “She is a tree of life to those who grasp her, And whoever holds on to her is happy.” – Proverbs 3. 18

Styling the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Invitation Wording

Writing the invitation text is only half the battle. The other half is choosing the right style.

Imagine getting a beautiful Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation card in the mail… but when you open it – you discover a huge wall of text. No formatting, no whitespace, no nothing.

That’s not exactly eye-friendly, now is it?

It doesn’t matter how stunning your card is, or how thoughtful the wording is… If the invitation is unappealing, don’t be surprised if some guests all of a sudden get “sick” (read: they preferred to stay home and watch Netflix) and don’t attend your child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

Remember – the invitation is your guest’s first impression of the event. In your guest’s mind – the Bar/Bat Mitzvah doesn’t start at the Torah reading… it starts the moment they open the invitation.

Now, lucky for us – most of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation templates were designed by professional designers… so you don’t have to the “heavy lifting” yourself.

That being said – you might decide to tweak your invitation just a little bit. You know, “play” with the cosmetic stuff: colors, text, alignment.

When you do that – keep these key principles in mind so your Titanic doesn’t turn into a shipwreck.

1. Align the text to the center

In most invitations, you’d want to align the text to the center of the page. Besides the fact that it looks good – it also focuses the reader’s attention on the details. After all, what good is it if your invitation is pretty when it distracts your guests so much that they end up forgetting (or not “registering”) the date of the event?

The exception is when there’s a design element on either side of the invitation (often a picture of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah) – in which case the text will be aligned to the opposite side of the design element.

2. Capitalize the text

You’ll notice many invitations are written in ALL CAPS. While this is considered a big no-no when you send someone a tweet or a text message – in invitations, it’s acceptable. Because the text is usually short… so it tends to space out nicely.

Some invitations are written in all lower case (I DON’T recommend it). Others offer a hybrid of both lowercase and uppercase – which is used to emphasize important details (like the name, date, and location.

3. Combine different fonts

Just because the invitation wording is short doesn’t mean you have to stick to just one font style. You’ll notice many invitations combine two (sometimes three) types of complementary fonts that play nice with each other.

A personal favorite of mine is using a serif font for the text, and a hand-written font just for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah’s name (you’ll see some of those later).

4. Whitespace is your friend

White   space  looks

WEIRD

In Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitations – not only is it weird, it’s necessary. As long as you keep to the golden rule of Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation wording and keep your text short – you’ll have no choice but to be generous with whitespace…

Otherwise, certain parts of your invitation will be clogged with text, while others will be totally abandoned.

Use whitespace to balance things out.

5. Use Complementary Colors

Most invitations allow you to get creative and change the colors. Should you mess with it? And if so, how do you choose the right color combinations?

The answer: complementary colors.

I’m not going to go too deep into color theory here… just remember that if you want your invitation to look good – you have to make sure the colors compliment and “play” together nicely.

We at Amen V’Amen use Paletton to find complementary colors for our lovely designs and images. Simply choose the main color of your invitation, and enable the “add complementary” switch at the top left to find out what color compliments your main color.

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Invitation Wording: Examples & Samples

Finally – the moment we’ve been waiting for: Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation wording examples!

These invitation samples have been used by hundreds, if not thousands of Jewish families so far… that means you’re getting a template that has been fully vetted in the “real world”. So that’s one less thing to worry about!

That said – no Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation wording is set in stone. They are just examples…Feel free to adjust, update, modify or even combine several Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation wording ideas into your dream invitation.

• If you already have an invitation set in mind – simply copy the invitation wording below over to your invitation.
• If you don’t have an invitation in mind yet – I added customization options for each sample so you can easily customize the invitation on the spot… If you want more cool invitation ideas – check out these Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah invitations.

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Invitation Wording – Example 1

Customize for Bar Mitzvah

Customize for Bat Mitzvah

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Invitation Wording – Example 2

Customize for Bar Mitzvah

Customize for Bat Mitzvah

Bar Mitzvah Invitation Wording – Example 3

Customize for Bar Mitzvah

Bar Mitzvah Invitation Wording – Example 4

Customize for Bar Mitzvah

Bar Mitzvah Invitation Wording – Example 5

Customize for Bar Mitzvah

Bat Mitzvah Invitation Wording – Example 6

Customize for Bat Mitzvah

Bat Mitzvah Invitation Wording – Example 7

Customize for Bat Mitzvah

Bat Mitzvah Invitation Wording – Example 8

Customize for Bat Mitzvah

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Party & Reception Card Wording

You invited your close friends and family to the Bar/Bat Mitzvah service. So far so good…

Now, what about the Bar/Bat Mitzvah party?

There are three ways to invite your guests to the reception:

1. Add the reception details on the invitation itself (only if there’s room on it)
2. Include a Bar/Bat Mitzvah reception insert card in the invitation
3. Send a separate Bar/Bat Mitzvah reception invitation

“Which of these options should I choose?”

It depends (stay with me here):

• If you’re having the reception or a Kiddush luncheon immediately after the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony – go with option #1 or #2.
• If you’re having the Bar/Bat Mitzvah party at a separate date, and you’re inviting the same people to the service and the reception – go with option #2.
• If you’re having the Bar/Bat Mitzvah party at a separate date, AND you’re inviting some people only to one of the events – go with option #3.

“Gotcha. And what do I write in the Bar/Bat Mitzvah reception card?

If you’re choosing option #1, write something like:

• “Reception to Follow”
• “Kiddush reception following services”
• “Kiddush following davening”

If you’re choosing option #2 or #3 – write something like:

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Reception Invitation Wording – Example 1

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Reception Invitation Wording – Example 2

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Reception Invitation Wording – Example 3

Bar/Bat Mitzvah RSVP Wording

Wouldn’t it be great if you knew in advance how many people will show up to the Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebration? It’ll surely help you plan things like the Kiddush luncheon, what Bar/Bat Mitzvah decorations to get and how many Bar/Bat Mitzvah favors you need – without having to guess.

Good news – you can!

Simply ask your guests to RSVP, and it’ll get you pretty close.

Traditionally, parents used to add an RSVP insert card to the invitation – asking the guests to accept/decline the invitation by a certain date. That made sense before the internet and mobile phones came along. These days, needless to say – nobody is going to schlep over to the mailbox just to send your nifty RSVP card. People are lazy busy!

Instead, simply ask your guests to RSVP via phone, email, Google Forms, or even a website. It’s much faster, easier, and more reliable.

“OK, genius… but how do I invite them to RSVP?”

Two ways:

1. Add an RSVP section at the bottom of the invitation
2. If there isn’t enough room on the invitation or it looks too cluttered – include a separate RSVP insert card

“Cool. And what do I write in the RSVP card/section?”

Ask them to RSVP either via email, text or phone by a specific date.

For example:

“Please respond by August 10th to Rebecca Cohen at 222.345.6767 or [email protected]”

If you’re using something like Google Forms or even setting up a website for the event – then you can even gather even more “intelligence”. You can ask things like:

• How many are attending?
• What are their meal preferences (vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, etc’)?
• Do they need transportation assistance?

Conclusion

Congratulations! You’ve got one less thing to worry about 🙂

The way I see it (and by I, I mean the entire team of Amen V’Amen) – planning a memorable Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebration for your child is a lot of work, to begin with.

There’s no reason whatsoever to add extra homework to your already busy plate.

So if we’re able to make things easier by helping our readers, even if it’s by a measly 1% – you bet we’re going to do it!

Today, (hopefully) we did it by helping you write your Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation. Tomorrow – it might be something else (don’t forget to come back tomorrow 🙂 )…

That’s our goal here at Amen V’Amen – to help improve our reader’s lives by 1% at a time.

You might be thinking: “Pfff, 1%? That’s nothing!”.

But when you add those 1% incremental improvements over time – things start to add up real quick.

Remember – life is a marathon, not a sprint. And the same goes when you’re planning your child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah: take things one step at a time – and slowly but surely – you’ll put together an unforgettable event your young Bar/Bat Mitzvah will thank you for… forever.

Mazel Tov!