Sunday, February 20, 2011

Addressing Etiquette

I'm at the point of wedding planning where we're tightening up our guest list. We're making all of our final additions and subtractions and going over the list with each family (future MIL, I know you're reading this....be expecting a call) to make sure there's no one missing. Once the list is 100% complete I get to start the daunting task of collecting addresses. Thanks to Christmas cards I have pretty much all of our immediate family in my book, but some of my friends are constantly moving so I need to track them all down.....fun.

Anyways, weddingwire.com (my obsession) has an awesome "Guest" tool that is super helpful for entering and keeping track of guests, their addresses, phone numbers and e-mails (if you need them). On top of that it has a "Invitation" feature where you can write how you choose to address the guests envelope and it automatically adds the address below the names. So, when it comes time to do the invitations I will have all the information right there and I can easily move from guest to guest. I have been starting to use this "Invitation" feature (because why not?) and it's already bringing up a lot of questions in regard to addressing etiquette. I figured all you wonderful blog friends could help me out with this.

Here's what I know:

Married couple:
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hanks
123 Green Mile Road
Hollywood, CA 90210

Married couple with children:
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hanks and Family
123 Green Mile Road
Hollywood, CA 90210

Unmarried couple who lives together:
Miss (or Ms.) Rita Wilson
Mr. Thomas Hanks
123 Green Mile Road
Hollywood, CA 90210

Single man:
Mr. Thomas Hanks
123 Green Mile Road
Hollywood, CA 90210

Single woman:
Miss Rita Wilson
123 Green Mile Road
Hollywood, CA 90210

Professional Title:
Doctor, The Honorable, Reverend, Professor and Mrs. (or Mr. if the woman has the title)
Thomas Hanks
123 Green Mile Road
Hollywood, CA 90210

Married couple who both have professional titles:
Doctor Thomas Hanks and
and The Honorable Rita Wilson
123 Green Mile Road
Hollywood, CA 90210

Same sex couple:
Mr. Brad Pitt
Mr. George Clooney
11 Oceans Drive
Hollywood, CA 90210

Single woman with children:
Ms. Rita Wilson and Family
123 Green Mile Road
Hollywood, CA 90210

Couple not living together:
*Same format as "living together" but address and send it to who you are closer with or add "and guest"

*Children over 18 receive their own individual invitation
*DO NOT abbreviate addresses or titles (this is a mega pet peeve of mine)
*Invitations should be handwritten

OK, so here are my questions:

*How would you address an envelope to a single woman with just one child? Is it still "Ms. Rita Wilson and Family"???

*Do you address "Save the Dates" formally?

*I don't have to put "and Guest" on the STDs to my single friends, right? I want to wait until the invites go out because not everyone is getting a guest and I want to make the final call as late as possible.

*Should you hand stamp the envelopes?

*Can the return address be printed instead of handwritten?

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