Mailing Invitations In The Outer Envelope Only
A Married Couple
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Everson
A Married Couple with Different Last Names
Mr. Robert Everson and Mrs. Jennifer Power
A Married Couple where the Woman has Hyphenated her Last Name
Mr. Robert Everson and Mrs. Jennifer Power-Everson
An Unmarried Couple Living Together
Mr. Robert Everson
A Same-Sex Couple
If the couple is married and shares the same last name, list the names on the same line:
Mr. Rob Brown and Mr. Carl Brown
If they are married but kept their own last names:
Mrs. Celine Elgin and Mrs. Jennifer Power
If they are unmarried, list them alphabetically by last name:
Ms. Celine Elgin and Ms. Jennifer Power
A Married Woman Doctor or Two Married Doctors
If a woman uses her maiden name professionally and socially:
Dr. Jennifer Power and Mr. Robert Everson
If she uses her husbands name socially:
Dr. Jennifer and Mr. Robert Everson
If both parties are doctors:
The Doctors Jennifer and Robert Everson
An Unmarried Couple Living Together
As with a married couple, both names should be included on the envelopes, but in this case, each name gets its own line.
Mr. Robert Everson
A Widow
Traditionally, a widow retains her husbands name until she remarries. Some widows prefer to use their own first name as well. In this case, it is best to ask what she prefers.
Mrs. Robert Everson
Children under 18 and Families
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Everson
Miss Carolyn, Master Bobby, and Miss Gail
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Everson
Carolyn, Bobby, and Gail
and Family
Wedding Invitations Etiquette: How To Address Host From Bride And Groom
When it comes to wedding invitation address etiquette, You may be wondering how to address modern wedding invitations if you are paying for your own wedding it can be tricky because you dont want to offend parents. The most common thought on how to address wedding invitations if a couple is hosting is to put the brides name first and grooms second.
Meghan Markle
request the honour of your presence
at their wedding
If you are paying for your wedding but are looking for a way to avoiding offending sensitive families, you could try:
Meghan Markle
at their wedding
What If Your Handwriting Is Not Nice Enough For Hand Addressing
If your handwriting isnt the nicest, thats OK. You can hire a calligrapher to do it for you.
We recommend Eloquence Design and Co. as one resource. Heres an example of her beautiful work below:
get yours done here
If you dont want to hire a calligrapher, you can print the addresses on your wedding envelopes .
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Outer And Inner Envelopes
Sending out an invitation in two envelopes ensures that each guest will receive a pristine envelope, even if the outer one has been torn or soiled in the mail. Still, the two are not necessary you may omit the inner envelope if you wish. The outer envelope includes all of the information the postal service needs for delivery. The inner envelope should have the names of the invited guests in the household .
How To Stuff The Envelopes
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Option : Print Addresses On Envelopes
Getting your envelopes printed is an easy and completely acceptable way to hand address invitations without actually writing them by hand.
However, not all printing is the same. The key is to make the envelopes look addressed by hand. The best way to achieve this look is with invitation envelope printing at Minted.
You can get wedding envelopes printed for free with your guests addresses, names, and return address. You can choose the fonts used, the color envelopes, and more.
These look so similar to hand addressed wedding invitations that no one will notice.
Plus you wont run into common pitfalls of printing wedding invitation addresses yourself at home, such as:
smeared ink if you dont use the proper envelopes
inconsistent and expensive ink cartridges
you have to hand-type each address
These look amazing and the envelopes even coordinate with your invitation suite. Here are some examples to give you ideas on how your wedding invitations can be hand addressed or look that way! without any of the hard work.
What About Aunty Sue & Uncle Bob
Confused about how to address wedding invites to those family members? Should you use their first name or Mam, Dad, Aunty, Uncle etc? The rule of thumb is to think about who the invitation is coming from and how would the person doing the inviting address the guest in question.
If the invitations are coming from you as a couple and you feel comfortable using Aunty Sue & Uncle Bob then do! If the invites are from the parents of the bride then using Aunty or Uncle then becomes irrelevant.
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How To Address Wedding Invitations When One Parent Is Deceased
Getting married is already emotional enough without adding the stress of how to honour a loved one who has passed away. We do have some suggestions on alternate ways to honour them, but if you would really like to include their name on the invitation, you definitely can. It is important to make sure that you dont make it sound like they are hosting or helping host the wedding, as this can cause painful confusion.
An example of alternate wording:
Cassandra Elsa
daughter of John Bourke and the late Elsa Bourke
son of Michael and Jessica Kane
request the honour of your presence at their wedding
Other ways to honour a deceased loved one at your wedding:
- A poem or song during the ceremony
- A photo and inscription on the ceremony order of service
- Lighting a candle
- A mention during speeches, or reading of a letter
- Sharing a short memory during the ceremony
How To Ask For The Address
It seems straightforward but we have outlined a list of options for obtaining addresses for your wedding invitations:
- White pages online
- Facebook direct messaging
- Using parents address book, or having your parents ask around for you
- Use a site like Postable to get your guests to fill in their own addresses
- If a close family member has recently gotten married, use their list of addresses to get you started
- Email or call people
- Text message
- A small note on the bottom of a digital Save The Date requesting postal addresses to be sent to a certain email address
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Treat Married And Unmarried Couples The Same
There are increasing numbers of people who enter into long-term commitments without ever tying the knot, so the modern and new etiquette rule says to treat them all the same: If they’re a couple, write them on the same line. If their names don’t both fit on the same line, write them on separate lines.
Our Envelope Addressing Service
At Hummingbird, we offer an envelope printing service. Send us your guests names and addresses as you would like them to appear and well print them for you. Itll add a beautiful finishing touch to your invitations and save you hours of handwriting, the heartache of spelling mistakes and leaking pens!
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Addressing Wedding Invites To Roommates
Etiquette says that each roommate over the age of 18 should receive their own invitation. If they are family members, you can technically combine them in one invitation, but put each sibling on a different line . If females are under 18, they are referred to as Miss but after 18 they are Ms. and men have no title until the age of 16, when they become Mr.
This also applies to children still living at home if theyre over 18, they should receive their own wedding invitation.
If you invite Mr. Ross Geller and Ms. Monica Geller it assumes that they are romantically involved . Heres a better way to do it.
Example:
Ms. Monica Geller
To Be Or Not To Be: Mrs / Ms / Miss
All singles ladies can use either Ms. or Miss. But we think its more appropriate for the crowd over 20 to go as Ms.
And for married ladies, you also have two options, Mrs. of course, but Ms. can be used for both unmarried and married women. We prefer Ms. as it doesnt identify a woman by her marital status.
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Inviting The Whole Family:
There are a few ways to address the family based on your formality preference and whether or not you are using an inner envelope. Options here:
If using only an outer envelope:
Address the invite to The Armstrong Family. This implies that you will be inviting the whole family and that all family members are invited to both the ceremony and reception.
If using an outer and an inner envelope!
You only need to address the adults on the outer mailing envelope. Then, utilize your inner envelope to spell out exactly who is invited.
On the inner envelope, include the name of the parents with the children listed below. The formal Emily Post etiquette suggests using Miss for young girls and Master for boys under the age of thirteen. ????
Address Wedding Invitations To Spouses
Spouses are fairly straightforward! The only tricky thing to remember is that a mans first name should never be separated from his last name. Check it out below:
Formal: Mr. and Mrs. Jack Conrad Geller
Still formal, but less so: Mr. and Mrs. Jack Gellar
Same-Sex: Mr. Chandler Bing and Mr. Joey Bing or Mr. and Mr. Bing
PS: The plural of Mr. is actually Messrs. so a same-sex male couple would be Mr. and Mr. Bing or The Messrs. Bing
Same-Sex Less Formal: Monica and Rachel Green / Mrs. and Mrs. Green
For same-sex couples, you can address either person first. We recommend starting with the one you know better, or if you cant decide, alphabetical order is a good way to go!
Technically, having both spouses names in a male/female relationship is not proper such as Mr. and Mrs. Chandler and Monica Bing. It separates the man from his last name, and separates the titles from the right spouse. This is also A LOT on an envelope and can make the spacing tough! If you want both first names to appear, you can use something like Monica and Chandler Bing although its slightly less formal.
Another one I see sometimes is Mrs. Monica and Mr. Chandler Bing. It doesnt follow traditional etiquette, and is still a lot to put on an envelope, but its more correct than the example above as it keeps titles where they should be! Frankly, if youre set on including female first names, Id recommend Monica and Chandler Bing as it feels more natural.
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How To Address Wedding Invitations Without An Inner Envelope
Traditional wedding invitations have both an outer mailing envelope, which contains the mailing address, postage, and return address, and an inner envelope. The inner envelope is printed with only the recipients names, and contains all the pieces of the invitation suite: the invitation, RSVP card, RSVP envelope, and any additional enclosures such as a reception card, a map with directions, or invitations to additional weekend activities. When two envelopes are involved, the outside envelope is addressed more formally while the inside envelope is slightly more casual and frequently incorporates first names.
If you choose to send wedding invitations without an inside envelope, which is more common these days, simply focus on properly addressing the outer envelope. Below, we provide guidelines for how to address invitations with a single envelope vs. an inner and outer envelope for your reference.
Addressing Wedding Invitations Can Seem A Bit Confusing Here The Basic Rules
Q: Ive heard so many different rules about addressing wedding invitations that I cant get it straight. It seems so confusing. Where do I begin?
A: Youre rightaddressing wedding invitations can seem a bit confusing, but the rules are relatively simple for most of the people on your guest list. Spell out titles and degrees , and always use Mr. and Mrs. for married couples. If a couple is unmarried but living together, or is married but uses different last names, put their names on separate lines in alphabetical order. And, if a guest is in the military, the title of an officer whose rank is equal to or higher than a captain in the army or a lieutenant in the navy is placed next to his or her name with the branch of service below. You should also include titles for retired high-ranking officers, inserting after their names. And the branch of service should always be listed below the names of reserve officers on active duty, noncommissioned officers and enlisted persons.
As for children, it is unnecessary to include their names on the outer envelope of a wedding invitation. Instead, list them on the inner envelope with their parents . The absence of a childs name altogether implies that he or she is not invited. However, many guests may not realize this and assume their children are invited. If you dont want kids to come, be sure to spread the word that you can only accommodate adults at your reception, and do not leave a space with Number of guests to be filled in.
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Wedding Invitation Wording Etiquette
For a formal invitation to a married couple, classic envelopes incorporate social titles and the husband’s first name on the outer envelope, and only the titles and last name on the inner one. Note that all the words-including the state and the house number, because it is less than twenty-are written out. The writing doesn’t have to be aligned on the left- often stagger the lines in eye-pleasing ways. For some couples, omitting wives’ first names feels too old-fashioned including the first names of both husband and wife after their titles is appropriate. The house number, even though it is less than twenty, can be written as a numeral for a less formal feeling. And in keeping with a more personal style, the couple are addressed by their first names on the inner envelope.
When partners have different last names, the wife’s name is traditionally written first. Connecting the couple’s names by the word “and” implies marriage. For an unmarried couple that lives together, names should be written on separate lines without the word “and.” On the inner envelope, both are addressed by their titles and respective last names.
