Help for invitaiton wording for deceased parent?

Can someone tell me the proper etiquette?
I am planing on:

Mr. and Mrs. XXXX
request the honor of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
XXXXXXX
to
XXXXX
son of
Mrs. Jane Doe and the late Mr. John Doe

Question is:
should there be a Mrs. and Mr. in front of Jane and John Doe or should it be:

son of
Jane Doe and the late John Doe

Thanks for the help!!

Re: Help for invitaiton wording for deceased parent?

Greetings,

I checked three references -- Emily Post's Etiquette, Miss Manner's Guide, and the Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette as revised and updated by Lettia Baldridge.

I found no examples or references to your precise circumstances.

Technically a deceased person has no need for an honorific ('Mr.'), but to me it would look awkward and perhaps even inconsiderate to drop the honorific for your late father in law to be, while maintaining it for his wife.

Also, note that newspapers that use honorifics at all (I'm a journalist by trade) do use honorifics before the names of deceased persons.

You could correctly write 'son of Mr. and Mrs. John Doe' but then of course you would have many people who don't know your new family asking you, 'So where is Mr. Doe tonight?' and that would not be good.

To use an honorific for your parents and not for your new in-laws would also strike me as inappropriate.

So, I would use the wording you have proposed. In any formal communication, when in doubt it is always safer to use a title ('Senator') or an honorific than to refer to a person without it.

My two cents,
--Karla.

Re: Help for invitaiton wording for deceased parent?

I appreciate your help. Thanks!