Addressing Wedding Invitations - Etiquette For Addressing Formal Wedding Invitations

Depending on who you are sending a wedding invitation to, there are various etiquette rules for addressing the inner and outer envelope. The outside of the envelope is usually more formal than the inner envelope. The outer envelope uses the tile and full name of the invitee. Since the outer envelope is usually formal, how should you address this envelope to various guests?

Usually, when you address an outer envelope to a couple that is married, use the husband’s full name and use Mr. and Mrs. For example, you would address an envelope to a married couple: Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Chandler. However, you would not use such formal etiquette on an invitation that you send to your close relatives. If this is the case, on the invitation you send to a close loved ones by the name you typically call them such as Aunt Katie and Uncle Vincent.

What if you want to invite a couple that is not married but they are living together? There is still etiquette that you can use in order to address the inner and outer envelopes of the wedding invitation. On the outside of the envelope, use Miss for the female instead of Mrs. On the outer envelope you can write Miss Daphne Horten and Mr. Alex Doe.

If you would like to address the invitation to your wedding to the couple as well as their children, there is another format that you can use. You would address the outer envelope as described above but you would also add the first name of the children under the names of the parents on the inside envelope. Remember that the proper etiquette is to use only the first names of the children on the wedding invitations.

If you are inviting a single female, use Miss Daphne Horten and if you are inviting a single male friend, use Mr. Alex Doe. On the inside envelope you can indicate whether they can bring a date by writing their name and adding "and Guest." If you do not want to have an extra person at the wedding that you might not know, leave the "and Guest" part off of the inner envelope. If you have a single friend that is divorced, use the name that she kept. If she decided to go by her maiden name, you may put Miss and not Ms. in front of her name.

If one of your guests has a title such as judge, doctor or any military title, use the proper title in front of the individual’s name on the outside envelope. Etiquette states that only the title and last name should be on the inside envelope.

Wedding envelope etiquette may seem confusing in the beginning but writing addresses on wedding envelopes is actually not that hard. It might help you to list your guests according to who is married, who is living together, those with a title and so on so you do not have to switch formats too often.