Preparing to address your wedding invitations marks a significant milestone in your wedding planning journey. While it may initially seem straightforward, this task often unravels into a whirlwind of questions and considerations. But fear not, we're here to guide you through the process every step of the way.
Before diving headfirst into addressing envelopes, take a moment to pause and reflect. It's essential to consider a few key factors before putting pen to paper. Are you following a formal or informal invitation style? Have you finalized your guest list, ensuring no one is overlooked? What about titles and honorifics – do you know the appropriate etiquette for addressing each recipient?
Taking the time to answer these questions upfront will streamline the addressing process and help ensure that your invitations are both accurate and respectful. So, before you embark on this important task, let's take a moment to review these essential considerations together.
Featured Wedding Invitation: Golden Couple
Before diving into the task of addressing your wedding invitation envelopes, take a moment to consider the overall formality of your wedding event. The level of formality will heavily influence the style of addressing you choose.
For a glamorous black-tie affair, opt for a more traditional and elegant addressing style, while a laid-back country wedding may call for a more casual and relaxed approach. To help you navigate this decision, we've provided examples for both formal and informal addressing styles below, ensuring that your invitations set the perfect tone for your special day.
Once you've determined the appropriate style of addressing for your invitations, it's time to decide how you'll execute this important task. For those seeking a touch of timeless elegance, hiring a professional calligrapher can add a sophisticated and personalized touch to your envelopes. Alternatively, if you have a friend or family member with impeccable handwriting, consider enlisting their help to address the envelopes by hand. And for couples looking for a convenient and efficient solution, custom printed labels offer a practical way to address envelopes directly from your computer, ensuring a polished and professional finish. The easiest way to address those envelopes is to have us do it for you! Yes - you can order printed wedding invitation envelopes.
Whichever method you choose, rest assured that your wedding invitations will make a memorable first impression on your guests.
When it comes to time address your envelopes, there are a few rules you'll want to follow, even if your wedding is on the casual side:
Formal Addressing:
Ms. Samantha Anderson
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, California 28495
Informal:
Sam Anderson
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, CA 28495
Formal Addressing:
Ms. Anderson & Guest
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, California 28495
Informal:
Sam Anderson and Guest
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, CA 28495
Formal Addressing:
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony James
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, California 28495
Informal:
Anthony and Sara James
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, CA 28495
Formal Addressing:
Ms. Sara Trent
Mr. Anthony James
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, California 28495
Informal:
Sara and Anthony
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, CA 28495
Formal Addressing:
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony James and Family
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, California 28495
Informal:
Anthony and Sara James and Family
56 North Ridge Drive
Hartinger, CA 28495
We hope you found this addressing advice and examples helpful! Give us a shout if you need any help as you choose and personalize your wedding invitations and more!
Happy planning, brides and grooms! xoxo
We know that when planning a wedding there are a million and one things to plan, prep and do. Couples have found our ‘Wording Your Perfect Wedding Invitations‘ a really handy guide so we thought we’d offer you a helping hand and put together a simple guide on wedding envelope addressing etiquette. Not a good idea to upset the receiver of your gorgeous invitation before they’ve even opened the envelope!
Just when you think you’ve done the tricky part getting the invitation wording perfect, reflecting you, your day, the time has come to pop your little lovelies inside their envelope, add a stamp and send them on their way! But now there’s another decision, looking at your guest list with a random mix of singles, couples, families, a Doctor, what do you write on the front of the envelope? This isn’t going to be as simple as you first thought, with so many different options to consider (married couples, unmarried couples, singletons, those with plus ones) and titles to get right (Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr. etc).
So here it is; a quick and simple guide to addressing your wedding invitations. Of course, there are old-fashioned traditional rules, but you may feel that the contemporary style suits you better, so we’ve put together examples of both! If you are holding a formal wedding, using the appropriate social titles (Mr, Mrs, Ms) is always recommended. The names of your wedding guests should be written in full (given and surname) on the envelope, while on the invitation just the given name in full (it’s not recommended to use your guest’s nicknames).
If the person is over 18 use ‘Mr’, if not name only.
Traditional: Mr Clarke or Mr Benjamin Clarke
Contemporary: Benjamin Clarke
Traditionally, ‘Ms’ is used by women regardless of their marital status and ‘Miss’ for unmarried women, under 18.
Traditional: Ms Sophie Westbourne or Sophie Westbourne
Contemporary: Sophie Westbourne
The envelope should only be addressed with the name of the person you know, with only the invitation including their name or ‘and guest.’
Traditional: Ms Sophie Westbourne or Sophie Westbourne
Contemporary: Sophie Westbourne
You should use Mr. and Mrs. followed by the husband’s first name and then the last name.
Traditional: Mr & Mrs Smith or Mr & Mrs James Smith
Contemporary: James & Charlotte
Write the wife’s name first and then the husband’s name on the same line.
Traditional: Mrs H Beaumont & Mr N Brown
Contemporary: Hannah Beaumont & Nathan Brown
It is up to you which name you put first on the envelope but most often it is best to list them alphabetically.
Traditional: Ms R Booth & Ms L Harris
Contemporary: Rebecca Booth & Linda Harris
For unmarried couples, living at the same address, include both names on one line, listing the person closest to you first. If you know the couple equally well, add the names in alphabetical order.
Traditional: Mr Benjamin Clarke & Ms Sophie Westbourne
Contemporary: Ben & Sophie
Traditional: Mr & Mrs Stephen Fletcher, Daisy, Charlie & Mabel
Contemporary: The Fletchers
For the children of friends and family, who are over 18 and who may or may not live at home with parents, should receive their own invitation
Traditional: Ms Rebecca Forbes
Contemporary: Rebecca
Traditional: Dr George Murphy & Mrs Maria Murphy
Contemporary: Professor Danielle Keats & Mr Lucas Blyth
If you are addressing a married couple and they are both doctors you can address them by using The Doctors Murphy or Drs Luke & Hannah Parrish.
If the wife is the doctor, you should list her first; Dr Jill Smith and Mr Jack Smith.
Traditional: Doctor Jessica Nichols
Contemporary: Dr Wordsworth
Traditional: The Honourable & Mrs Harry Cleave
Contemporay: The Honourable & Mrs Harry Cleave
If the woman is a judge, you should list her first, The Honourable Emily Cleave and Mr Harry Cleave
Many divorced women will keep their ex-husband’s last names, while others revert to their maiden names, so unless you know for sure it’s always worth asking her or someone close to her which name she prefers before sending an invitation.
If you do not already know you should check with someone close to her what is most appropriate. When addressing an invitation to a widow, it is appropriate to use either her deceased husband’s first name or her own first name, depending upon which you feel most comfortable with.
In our opinion, it looks good to address an envelope in a formal manner, even if you decide on a less formal option for inside the invitations.
Use current addresses, and take care not to use abbreviations for street names, cities, or states, and if you are sending internationally always check the correct layout of an address, not all are the same.
The rear flap of the outer envelope can be printed with the sender’s address. The sender’s name is not included here, just the address.
Handwriting the envelope is always acceptable, especially if your writing is neat, though you might prefer to have the addresses printed in the matching font to your invite or hire a calligrapher to write the envelope for a truly professional look. They should be addressed in black ink to match the invitations.
At Hummingbird, we offer an envelope printing service. Send us your guests’ names and addresses as you would like them to appear and we’ll print them for you. It’ll add a beautiful finishing touch to your invitations and save you hours of handwriting, the heartache of spelling mistakes and leaking pens!
You may need or want to pop your wedding invitation and its envelope inside an outer envelope to protect it from getting marked, bent or a wax seal getting lost in the post. If this is a good idea for your style of invites, the outer envelope tends to be more formal, with your guest’s full name and their full address. The inner envelope can be more informal with just first names, or perhaps given titles Grandma & Grandad, Auntie & Uncle.