Is putting 'dinner party' on an invitation uncouth?

[Tailfeather]

I'm getting an invitation designed for my husband's and my joint 40th birthday. We're having caterers in and we're planning on canapés and cocktails followed by a 3-course supper. Would I invite people to a 'dinner party' or just invite them for supper or just invite them to a party?

(I do realise this isn't a massive issue in the grand scheme of things! But google hasn't helped, so I'm just looking for some opinions).

Thanks!

Just use your usual ‘at home’ cards and write ‘supper 8pm’

Sometimes, MN is like another world to me. 😂

Hahaha at At Home cards
I got some printed when DH and I first got married. How my friends laughed, and we are all what you might call quite posh

I think At Home cards can only be used with irony in this century, and that is a shame because I love stationery!

I love this thread. Love a “usual ‘at home’” card

Please come and help celebrate Fred's birthday with us on (date) at home.

Then in bottom left corner 'Drinks and dinner' with 8pm under it and on bottom right corner RSVP (tel no) with address under it....

If you are having proper invitations to send out, might as well make them 'proper'

It's a special evening so I think the invitation should make it sound special not just "food".
Why not say what you put in the OP?
You are invited to a dinner to celebrate the 40th birthdays of ...
Cocktails and canapes will be served at x pm , dinner at y pm
Obviously I'm no etiquette expert. But guests need to know what sort of evening you have planned .
It sounds lovely !

What time for carriages?

Please join us on xdate for cocktails and dinner to celebrate both our 40th birthdays.

Hope you can make it

I want "at home" cards now 😩

This is not an ‘At Home’ because the hostess is also one of the parties being feted. One does not give a party in one’s own honour, darlings .

The usual wording would be “[Host] and [Hostess] request the pleasure of your company at a party to celebrate their 40th birthdays.” You’d then write the date and your address below, and in the bottom right hand corner you’d write 7pm Drinks (or Cocktails if you prefer, although if you do use that term, the expectation will be that you’ll have a professional mixologist behind a fully stocked bar) then 8pm Dinner underneath, then Carriages at Midnight underneath that. You never have Carriages after Midnight in your own house unless you have no neighbours- which takes you into whole new realms of poshness

Not 'uncouth', rather 'non u'. Invitation should read 'Please join us for dinner to celebrate...........at our house.............at 7.30 etc.

Professional mixologist? Is that a thing?

MM18 I really enjoyed that 😊 I want to be like you when I grow up.

I think if you're going to be so formal with your invitations then you also need to make it clear what your dress code is!

I'm arranging dhs birthday and have texted or messaged everyone. I need to up my game :o

I always thought carriages at midnight was a bit of a pisstake. I had no idea it was serious.

At home cards???? WTF?!

Sorry OP nothing useful to add, in my (obviously common) circle we'd just text or wats app.

I've just Googled at home cards. Until that point if I'd received one I wouldn't have known what to thibjband would have wondered if my friends were telling me they were having a night in watching TV in their pajamas. I would wonder why they needed to tell me that.

‘Dinner and Drinks’

I had no idea that "at home" cards were an invitation. I'd heard the phrase "at home" in period dramas or in books but always used when a visitor called to ask/ indicate whether or not they were receiving guests.
It used to amuse me when a butler would say " Lady Snodgrass is not at home" when they physically were. The posh way of hiding behind the sofa with the lights off to avoid unwanted guests

I think if you are doing dinner you need to let them know that.

Drinks and dinner to celebrate birthday?

"Professional mixologist? Is that a thing?"

Indeed it is, MsAdorabelle. At a significant birthday party of one of DP's cousins, which was held at their house, he'd engaged a professional mixologist for the evening for those who wanted fancy cocktails. The guy was working flat out all night!

You absolutely must tell people that it's a proper dinner (and when!), else some of them will rock up casually at 8:30 and you'll be pissed off.

“Usual at Home cards”

I haven’t heard of these since reading an etiquette book my dad used to have. It would have been printed in the 1930s. Give that 99% of my social life these days consists of playdates I might hold off on ordering a set.

You're invited for
Cocktails, Canapés and Supper

That's what I'd say
Sounds a lovely party