How to Address Casual Wedding Invitations
Your guest list is finalized, your stationary selected, and your wedding invitations have arrived and are ready to be sent. No matter how casual the invitations may be, addressing the envelopes requires you to follow specific etiquette. According to the wedding expert at Get Married, traditional steps like hand-writing your envelopes are still "those polite, personal, I'm-a-great-hostess touches that aren't totally obvious - unless they're absent, in which case they're glaring."
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Instructions
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Preparation
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1
Clean and dry the surface of your work table.
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2
Stamp and address your response card envelopes. It is customary to address these envelopes to the bride's mother. Slide a response card under the flap of each prepared response envelope.
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3
Arrange your stationary on the table in the following order: inner envelope, invitation, extra enclosures (such as a map), response envelope, and outer envelope.
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4
Place your guest list, address list, and a pen in easy reach.
Inner Envelope
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5
You may have opted not to use an inner envelope for your casual invitation. If so, skip to step 3.
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6
Label your inner envelope with just the recipients' names. A casual invitation can be informal ("Jane and Patrick") rather than using titles, full names, and honorifics.
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7
Stuff the inner envelope in this order: invitation on the bottom, extra enclosures in the middle, and response card on top. All text should face the opening of the envelope. (If you are not using inner envelopes, stack your stationary in the same order in preparation for stuffing the outer envelopes.)
Outer Envelope
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8
Write recipients' full, formal names (no abbreviations) front and center on the outer envelope.
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9
Write the recipients' address below their names. For a casual invitation, it is acceptable to use numerals and abbreviations for the street address rather than spelling these out ("18 Langley St." instead of "Eighteen Langley Street"). Use official U.S. Postal Service abbreviations for state names.
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10
Affix proper postage to the top right corner of the outer envelope.
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11
Flip over the outer envelope and write your return address centered on the back flap.
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12
Slide the inner envelope (or stacked stationary) into the outer envelope. Writing on the inner contents should face the opening of the outer envelope.
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13
Seal and mail your invitations.
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Tips & Warnings
Even the most casual invitation should be hand-addressed. As Get Married's wedding expert writes, "I really like the idea that someone so wanted me to come to their wedding that they painstakingly wrote my name and address on the envelope." If you have too many invitations to address yourself, ask your attendants to help you address them by hand, rather than resorting to using printed labels.
This may seem like many steps for a "casual" invitation. Keep in mind that a truly formal invitation requires specific rules about professional titles and honorifics, spelling out all numbers and abbreviations, hand-calligraphed envelopes, blind embossing, and more.
References
- Photo Credit Fountain pen on letter and envelope image by Paul Hill from Fotolia.com
