The day when two people are united to spend the rest of their lives with each other, the day when two souls become one, the day many months prior to which, creams and castles in the air are built, the one D-day people look the most forward to and the one day that is the most beautiful and unforgettable in their lives…
Yes, we are talking the Wedding day and all the excitement and love it brings along. But we aren’t going to talk about “wedding wedding” today, but one thing that has the potential of giving the most sorted person a hard time – it’s the wedding invites and the task of how to address them to the people they are being sent to. You don’t want to offend your invites by addressing them with the wrong names, do you? Of course not!
So today, we are covering a topic that will not only put you at ease but will also avoid the unnecessary worry lines. Read on to learn how to address wedding invitations in different instances properly.
How to Address Wedding Invitations
For Married Couples
For Unmarried Couples
How to Address Wedding Invitations with Children
Honoring the children is as important as honoring their parents. The most important thing to consider here is that if you sending the invites to children who are 16 years or older, you must send them a separate invite with their names on it. Technically speaking, and going by the trend, the children’s names are not written on the outside of the envelope and in case you want the children below 16 years to attend the wedding, then you must write their names on the inner envelope. Put the names of the children in order of their age i.e. from the eldest to the youngest. Here’s an example:
Mr. and Mrs. Will Smith
Rick, Amy and Sam
If you don’t write the children’s names on the envelopes or don’t send the elder children separate invites, it only means that the children are not being invited to the wedding. Although, a lot of people specifically mention that, but it’s up to you to state whether or not you choose to invite children on your day.
How to Address Wedding Invitations to a Family
Sending wedding invitations to a family can be quite tricky for there are so many rules to follow, one can really go bonkers. But, we will give you a simple to remember guide below that will make writing wedding invites to a family the easiest task.
- If you are inviting a couple who has no special distinction of any sort, then they can be addressed as ‘Mr. and Mrs. Will Smith’. Earlier people used to write Mrs. First only because they didn’t want to separate Mr. and the name. But these days, pretty much everything goes.
- If you are inviting a couple where one spouse holds a distinction like that of a Doctor, in such a case, doesn’t matter whether it is the wife or the husband, Doctor always comes first – ‘Dr. Will Smith and Mrs. Tina Smith’.
- If you are addressing it to a family with children, please refer to the ‘Addressing Wedding Invitations with Children’ section.
- When you list the name of a woman separately, please remember that her name would always come first.
- If you are addressing the invitation to a couple who has different last names, then address them in different lines. For example:
Mrs. Jenny Walter
Mr. Will Smith
How to Address Wedding Invitations with no Inner Envelope
The outer envelope has to do include the names with specific distinctions (if any), the names of the children (if invited) and the address. Please keep in mind that except for regular abbreviations like Mr., Ms. and Mrs., all other abbreviations have to be avoided. If you are addressing to a family with a Doctor, don’t abbreviate the word Doctor, write it in its complete form. You have to refer to your guests by the titles as the outer envelope is usually and only for mailing purpose. Here’s what an outer envelope looks like:
Mr. and Mrs. Will Smith
Kevin, James and Phil
6574, Walter Street,
New York – 140603
Of course the address and names are all hypothetical, but you get the idea, right?
How to Address Wedding Invitations with Inner Envelope
To use an inner envelope or not to, really just depends upon your personal choice. Where some prefer sending their wedding invitations with inner envelopes, others prefer to send just a single invite (read with no inner envelope). So if you happen to be one of the former ones, then here’s what you have to do – Inner envelopes were basically added only to protect the content of the invites. If, say, the invite was damaged from the outside because of whatever reason, the insides would still be intact. The inner envelope has nothing more than the names of the invites that have already been mentioned on the outer envelope. The words on the inner envelope go something like this:
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
How to Address Wedding Invitations with Guest
Always keep in mind never to address anyone as “Guest” on your wedding invites. That’s just plain wrong. Of course there are people who do, but wouldn’t you feel nice if you didn’t do it. Plus, it just shows that you respect the person in question when you address him by his name and not just as “guest”.
First off, a guest is typically invited with a single person’s invitation. And you should try your level best in finding out the name of the “guest” he or she will be bringing along. If, despite efforts, you can’t, then go ahead and use the term ‘Guest’ on your invite.
Moreover, ‘And Guest’ is used for people who are close to you. You don’t necessarily have to invite you cousin’s daughter’s boyfriend if you don’t want to. Plus, if your cousin’s daughter isn’t in a committed relationship with her boyfriend, then you don’t have to invite him anyway. And this was just an example that we referred to. Here’s how you can address them when you don’t know the guest’s name:
Ms. Tina Smith and Guest
How to Address Informal Wedding Invitations
As far as informal wedding invitations are concerned, you are at the liberty of choosing the wording that you want to write on the invites. Really, you can make it fun and creative and in the way you like the most. Depending upon who you are sending the informal invite to, you can be pretty open with your writing style. The best thing about addressing informal wedding invitations is that you don’t have to worry about not honoring your guests as not a lot of etiquette apply to this rule.
Given the fact that you decide how you have to address the person you are sending the invite to, you can simply write the names of the people how you like to call them. For example, if you have a friend named Samantha and you call her “Sammy” or “Sam”, then it’s perfectly fine to address the wedding invite with Sam or Sammy written on it. Not many rules apply when it comes to informal wedding invites. So if it is “cupcakes” “sugar bum” “Tweetie” you like to call your to-be-invited friends/guests, go ahead and use those names on your invites.
On a side note, make sure you send the invitations at least six to eight weeks prior to the wedding day because a number of times it may so happen that the invitees may not get the invitation delivered on time. So for that, you must keep an advantage of a few weeks (just to be on the safer side, you know. You don’t want to end up unintentionally not inviting one of your closest relatives). Also, if the invitations are hand-written, it is all the more better.
Good luck with sending the invites and have a super wedding!
