Hi!
I'm writing a text for invitations. I want to ask guests to bring desserts, but without any obligation.
I have two versions how I can word it:
1. Brining desserts is left to your discretion.
2. Any dessert of your choice would be welcome.
Which of them sounds good and correct, if any?
If both are bad, could you please suggest something else?
Thank you!
As a potential guest I would feel rather uncomfortable on receiving either version. If you are issuing written invitations, which makes it a somewhat formal event, then I think it is unsuitable to suggest guests make any contribution to the meal. In a very informal context it is of course absolutely fine to ask people to bring a bottle, or a pud.
In a very informal context it is of course absolutely fine to ask people to bring a bottle, or a pud.
Just a note to non-BrE speakers: pud* is a very common shortening of pudding and is the ordinary or 'homely'** term to refer to dessert. For more on how this course is labelled, see
Pudding or dessert?
*There isn't a strong awareness of the AmE use.
**I have been reminded that I used 'homely' in the BrE sense (= unpretentious or ordinary).
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Just a note to non-BrE speakers: pud is a very common shortening of pudding and is the ordinary or 'homely' term to refer to dessert. For more on how this course is labelled, see
Pudding or dessert?
Thank you, it was new and interesting information.
Still hoping to get an answer to my question 
I'll try the first one: We usually leave choices to your discretion, so you could say:
Which dessert you bring is left to your discretion.
(This last version assumes that they will bring a dessert, so is slightly demanding, unless they have already agreed to do it.)
Whether you bring a dessert is left to your discretion. (I would use this one.)
Discretion humorously formal in this context, and a good word to use if you want to be formal 'just for fun'.
I would revise the second one:
A dessert of your choice would be welcome.
(You don't need both 'any dessert' and 'the dessert of your choice'. In this context, they mean approximately the same thing, and it's odd to put them together.)
This is a little compressed. I am not sure everyone will understand what you are saying, and if they do, it may sound demanding.
Swiss Pete's suggestion is what we would ordinarily say when we are talking to our friends.
