When To Mail Your Wedding Invitations
Typically you should send your invitations 6-8 weeks before your wedding date. For a destination wedding and for out of town guests, send invitations 3 months in advance to give guests plenty of time to make travel arrangements. You should also allow an additional week or two if your envelopes require hand-canceling by the post office.
How To Address Bridesmaid
If you are wondering how to address a bridesmaid and her husband on wedding invitations, or a single bridesmaid, simply follow the earlier etiquette for married couples and singles if you are using formal wedding invitations. If you are striking a more casual tone or want to specifically honour a member of your bridal party, you could prefix their name with something like to my honoured bridesmaid/groomsman but some people find that a little clumsy.
Addressing A Family With Children
There is always a friend or relative, you would like to invite with a special mention to their children. Instead of writing the name of the couple and covering the children under the umbrella phrase And Family, it is always good to write the names of the individual children without the surname. This creates a more intimate invitation and a one which has more appeal.
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Why Is Any Of This Important
The return address tells guests two things: where gifts are to be mailed and where the response is supposed to be mailed.
If someone is unable to attend your wedding or if they would like to send their gift to you in advance , they should send their gift to the address used on the back flap of your invitation envelope.
Likewise, when a guest mails back the RSVP, they will use the address that is already written or printed on the front side of your response envelopes.
Whose Names Should Be On The Return Address
Formally, only the physical address is listed on the back flap of the invitation envelope. However, you can choose to include names if you wish. Ive seen clients do it many ways, but if you want to keep it traditional, no names here.
The return address on your response envelope should include names, since the post office will deliver this back to you.
Below, Ive listed some helpful samples for return address etiquette.
Invitation Envelope :
Remember, formally, no names are included on the outer envelope. However, it is okay to stray away from this option. If you decide to add names, use the RSVP Envelope suggestions below.
Otherwise, if you love grammar or if youre having a super formal affair, stick with this format for the return address on your invitation envelope:
12 Park LaneMobile, Alabama 36695
rsvp envelope: brides parents return address
Since the brides parents usually host the wedding, they most likely will collect all of your RSVPs as well. If thats the case, there names should be listed as such:
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Johnson12 Park LaneMobile, Alabama 36695
rsvp envelope: bride and groom return address
Nowadays, its not uncommon to see the bride and groom pay for their own wedding or to host the event together with their families. Formally, the bride and grooms names are not supposed to appear together in print before marriage.
If the bride and groom prefer their names listed on the response envelope, here are two formal suggestions for doing so:
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- Depending on your wedding invitation style, you might have both an outer envelope and an inner envelope. The inner envelope should have specific names of those invited, like children and guests.
- Remember that invitations are always addressed to both members of married couples. And as mentioned above, you may want to be specific and research significant others instead of putting and guest to avoid a potentially awkward situation.
How To Address Wedding Invitation Envelopes
Its time to address your wedding invitations. This is one of those wedding tasks that seems quite simple until you begin. Then suddenly, youre hit with all sorts of questions. No worries, weve got you.
A little advice before we get started dont simply dive right in to addressing those envelopes. Youll want to ask yourself a few questions before you begin the process of adding your guests names to those perfectly blank envelopes.
Featured Invitation: Just Love
First, think about the formality of your wedding. This will affect the way you address your invitation envelopes. A black-tie affair might call for one style of addressing while a casual country wedding will use a more informal approach. Weve included examples for both formal and informal addressing below.
And second, decide how youll address those envelopes. Hire a calligrapher, find a generous friend who has fantastic handwriting or create custom printed labels right from your computer.
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Creating The Front Envelope
How To Address To A Married Couple
How do you address invitations to a married couple? If you want to go traditional or formal you would say something like Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Bekken, but if you want to know how to address wedding invites to a married couple in a more casual manner, you could forego the titles and just list the names: Daniel and Jacqueline Bekken. When wondering how to address to a married couple listing both names, the most common option is usually: Mr. Daniel and Mrs. Jacqueline Bekken.
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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.
After You Address Your Envelopes:
- Take your invitations to the post office to have them weighed. Particularly if you have both an inner and outer envelope, they may require extra postage. Youd hate to get your gorgeous envelopes back with Return to Sender stamped on them!
- Triple check for any misspellings.
With these guidelines, learning how to address wedding invitations should be a total breeze! If it still seems like too much of a project, just hire a proyour envelopes will have beautiful calligraphy, and you can trust them to follow the rules of etiquette.
If you are learning to address wedding invitations on your own, use this handy infographic from our wedding planning toolkit to keep everything straight!
P.S.: Not sure if you want little ones at your wedding? Read our etiquette for having a kid free wedding.
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Wedding Invitation Series : Envelopes And How To Address Wedding Invitations
If you missed the first post in this series, you can check it out here
Once you’ve got your design planned out, the next big step is to get everything safely into the hands of your guests! Addresses need to be collected, and a properly formatted list needs to be created before you actually put all the details onto the envelopes.
Assuming you have your guest list sorted and know who you’re inviting , you need to make sure you have updated addresses for each person on your list. Make sure you start this process before your invitations are ready! In fact, as soon as you start finalizing your guest list, you should create a spreadsheet and start populating it with information about each person you’re inviting.
Your wedding invitations are a crucial element of your big day and they provide your guests with all they will need to know. Chances are, if youre like most of us, you hardly ever send out any formal pieces of mail these days if any mail at all. If you’ve got your return address already on the envelope , here’s a little step-by-step list of what else needs to be done:
How To Address Plus
Okay, so once youve decided who is receiving a plus-one, how should you go about communicating this to your guests?
First, its important to consider the wording of your wedding invitations to ensure guests clearly understand whether or not theyve received a plus-one. You can do this by:
- Addressing your invitation to the exact invitee/s. For couples in a partnership, address their invitation using both names. For single guests, address it using their name followed by and guest. For guests who arent receiving a plus-one, simply address it to their name. Read our guide on exactly how to address your wedding invitations here!
- To avoid confusion for guests who dont have a plus-one, you could also include the phrase We have reserved 1 seat in your honour or Number of guests attending: 1 on your RSVP card.
If you foresee any potential awkwardness regarding plus-ones, you can also use your wedding website to set some expectations with your guests. Simply include a simple sentence such as Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate plus-ones due to our venue capacity. We appreciate your understanding, and cant wait to celebrate with you on the day!
Pro tip: Wedding websites are also the perfect place to address other topics such as kids, registry details, and dress codes. Read our guide on exactly what to include on your wedding website here!
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Addressing Invitations For A Casual Wedding
If youre having a casual wedding, its certainly your choice to skip formalities like titles and surnames. Note that if you have older guests expecting formalities, they may be thrown off by a wedding invitation that only includes their first names. Ultimately, though, remember its your wedding, and you get to choose how you address the invitations.
How To Address For Adults Only
Knowing how to address invitations if children are not invited is important so that it can be handled tactfully without feelings getting hurt. It is quite common for wedding receptions to not include children so most people wont be too surprised if their children are not included, especially if they are young. If you are not having any kids at your reception but still want to make nieces and nephews feel special you could do some ceremony invitations that way it makes it clear which part of the wedding they are invited to but also avoids offence.
It is often considered bad manners to state adults only or no kids on your invitations so if your wedding is adults only be sure to write the parents names specifically, rather than just a general invitation. Word of mouth or your wedding website can also be great ways of getting the word out about no kids.
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How To Address To Singles
While single guests at a wedding can be a little tricky, we dont want to make them feel like they are problematic! This section is for if you want to know how to address wedding invitations with a plus one and what to do when addressing a divorcee or someone widowed also what to do if you dont want to offer a plus one.
How To Address Guests On Wedding Invitation Envelopes
Consider this your etiquette cheat sheet, so you can mail the good news using the correct wording.
Wedding invitations are undeniably important: Not only do they inform your guests about when and where the celebration will take place, but they also set the tone for the entire party. And since this is one of the very first wedding-related details your family and friends will see, it’s important that you go about sending your invitations correctly. That’s why learning how to properly address wedding invitations is a key step in the process there’s a lot more to it than you might think. To ensure you get it right, we’re explaining exactly how to address your envelopes based on the different attendees who may be joining you.
Finalizing the guest list is one of the wedding-planning tasks most couples dread, but it’s essential and must be done before you get ready to mail those invites. Still, just because you know who gets an invitation doesn’t mean you know how to address everyone on your guest list. That’s where we come infrom figuring out how to address a judge to the right way to mail an invitation to a family full of doctors, we have all of the information you need to ensure these important pieces of mail get sent out without a hitch. These guidelines can be tailored to your guests’ preferred pronouns, too.
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