Helpful Tips

Make sure you count the addresses and not the guests when budgeting for your invitations.

Wedding invitations need to be sent out 6-8 weeks before the wedding.

The response cards must always be sent with postage. Make sure you have the right amount of postage on the response cards. If you are unsure, ask your local postal worker for help.
You should never assume you are putting the correct postage on your invitation. Take one of your completed invitations to the post office and have it weighed. The correct postage will ensure prompt delivery with no postage due.

Enclosing gift registry cards with wedding invitations should never be done. Your family can send out the message about where you are registered.

Hand canceling your invitations is always a nice touch. It looks nicer and the envelopes tend to not get as damaged in the mailing process. Your local postal worker will frequently assist you with this.

During the week mail gets set aside and sometimes misplaced so it best to mail invitations to your local guests on a Thursday. By doing this your guests receive them on a weekend and will be more likely to take the time to read and enjoy the invitation. Send invitations to out of town guests earlier in the week to allow for the extra mailing time.

Always include your return address. This will guarantee that you know if your guest has not received their invitation.

It is much more personal to hand write your addresses so we always recommend doing so. If you do not want to do them yourself you can hire a calligrapher or have a friend or family member address them for you.

Make a master invitation list on which you record, by number, those to whom you've sent invitations, their responses, and the total number of guests attending.

Be sure to review your guest list to make sure that all of the addresses are current and that all the names are spelled correctly.

Always spell out the full name and address without using abbreviations. The only acceptable abbreviations are Mr., Mrs., Ms., and Jr.. Junior is always preceeded by a comma.

If your single guest is bringing a date the best approach is to send their date a separate invitation. If this isn't possible, add their dates name to the same envelope (ie. Ms. Susan Thomas). You can add the guests name underneath the main recipient. If you don't know the name of the date you can add 'plus guest' after the recipients name. This is quite impersonal so it is not recommended.

Roommates that aren't partners should receive a separate invitation.

Single Recipient:
Mr. Anthony Kaneko
578 Third Avenue West
Portland, Oregon
97229

Married Couple, Traditional:
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Fulgham
345 Pine Court Lane
Seattle, Washington
98104

Married Couple/Partners, Modern:
Michael and Susan French
465 Pacific Street
etc.

Married couple with different names or unmarried couple living together:
The names should be listed in alphabetical order
Ms. Erin Wellington
Doctor Joshua Hernandez
14 181 Northeast K Street
etc.


Children:
Ideally, children over 12 should receive a separate invitations. You can however, add them underneath the parents' name on the envelope. If you are using an inner and outer envelope, the children would not appear on the outside envelope.
Mr. and Mrs. Thandeous MacMillan
Alexandria Macmillan
5746 Pleasant Hill Road
etc.