How should wedding invitations be handled when a couple may separate?

[2026letsgo]

My friends son is getting married at the end of this year and save the dates were sent out at the beginning of new year.
They knew one couple were rocky but both are good family friends. The wife is closer to friend and son. The husband has helped the son with renovations on the house and good friends with many guests. The son went to theirs.
It really looks as it won’t last until the date.
My friend and I were discussing how to send invites which are imminent. We thought joint until the split is official.
If they split up after the invite, does the son re invite both or let the couple thrash out the joint one themselves ?

Has either person said they are splitting up or is it just speculation?

send to their house addressed to them both and let them work it out. If they are splitting, this will be a drop in the ocean

Don’t overthink it until it happens.
if they split up the invite still stands to both of them. No reinvitation required. Let them hash it out. I wouldn’t invite them individually with a plus one.

Joint invite, as they are still together, and if they split up in the interim, they will have to work it out between them.

Joint invite for now. In the event they do split before the wedding, I might send a message with condolences and reiterate that they are both still welcome but definitely not new invites.

I’d let them figure it out between themselves. Friends of ours split up after being sent the invitation to our wedding. We didn’t uninvite either but said we would be supportive of whatever they wanted to do. In the end one of them decided to decline the wedding but still came to my hen do so she could still be part of the celebration.

If they are going through marriage difficulties, the idea that people are chatting about their marriage and who to send invites to etc… would just add another layer of stress.

Send the invite to their shared home. And let them sort between them. If they really are splitting, they are going to have to get used to sorting things out between them much much bigger than a wedding invite.

Thank for everyone’s ideas.
I think my friend was always going to issue a joint invite.
It was more deciding on how to tackle the (potential) aftermath without dividing loyalties etc. As you say, they’re adults and aside from putting them on different tables perhaps theres no much she can do,

It’s your friend’s son, not really any of your business so not sure the point of this

What’s strange is you getting involved In your friend’s… son’s wedding invite.

“She” won’t be issuing the invites

her son will be

Joint invitation. They can hash it out between them if they split. We had a couple who split in the 2 months from when we sent our invitations and when we got married. They sorted themselves out. The one who was closer to Dh came and the other bowed out. No big deal. They’re adults. You don’t need to micromanage them.

Unless they've actually told B&G they're splitting then you assume they are a couple and invite both.

If they split before the wedding I'd expect them to either both turn up as planned or to contact B&G to let know know who will/won't be attending.

My ex and I split after receiving and accepting the invitation. I rang the bride’s mum and explained, and offered to drop out. She said we were both still welcome, they’d put us on separate tables, and the only thing she asked was that we remained civil to one another. It was all fine (except for the bit where my 40 year old ex tried to chat up a 15 year old bridesmaid in front of his 13 year old daughter, and she told him he was disgustingly!)

If it was a good friend and I knew they were rocky I would speak to her and see if she'd rather I sent a joint invitation or the invite to her with a plus one. Men rarely want to see the actual invitation, she could put it on the calendar and then if they split tell him it was a her plus one invitation and that would solve the problem.