Get Them in the Mail
Once you have received your beautiful wedding invitations, it is time to assemble them and send them on their way. The invitations should be mailed approximately eight weeks before the wedding, with an RSVP date of about three weeks before the wedding. If you're planning a wedding near a holiday, mail your invitations a few weeks earlier to give your guests some extra time to plan.
Address for Success
Before you can get started on the invitations, you must have the proper equipment, and some knowledge of what it takes to properly address your invitations. Here are some simple tips and guidelines to help you. Before you know it, the responses will be pouring in.
NECESSITIES FOR ADDRESSING THE INVITATIONS:
Several black pens
Friends or family members with good penmanship, or the services of a professional calligrapher
A complete guest list with proper names and addresses
Stamps, including the proper postage for the invitation, and a stamp for the response card
Invitations and envelopes
Follow these standard guidelines when addressing the invitations:
Use black ink.
Address the invitations by hand, whether that is by you, a friend, or a professional calligrapher. Many couples also use computer-generated calligraphy directly on the envelope, which is acceptable depending on the formality of your wedding. However, peel-and-stick labels are considered a faux pas.
If several people are helping you, be sure the same person addresses the sets (i.e., the inner and outer envelopes should have matching penmanship).
Always address people formally as Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, or Master.
With the exception of Mr., Mrs., and Ms., do not use abbreviations.
Decide if you will take a formal or slightly more casual approach. A formal approach would read “Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Andrew Jackson” on the outer and “Mr. and Mrs. Jackson” on the inner envelope. A less formal approach would read “Linda and Joseph Jackson” on the outer envelope and “Linda and Joseph” on the inner envelope.
For a married couple with different last names, each person's full name should be on a separate line, with the woman's name listed first. The same holds true for an unmarried couple living together. For a same-sex couple, list the names alphabetically.
For an entire family, the parents' names are on the outer envelope, and their children's names are added to the inner envelope descending by age order.
Never connect two names with “and” unless the two people are a married couple. If the names are too long to fit on one line, indent the second name under the name on the first line.
Never put either “and guest” or “and family” on the invitation, the former is considered rude and impersonal, while the latter denotes the invitee's entire family (cousins, in-laws, etc.).
Pack Them Up and Ship Them Out
When your wedding invitations arrive from the printer, they may seem like a big puzzle. You may be wondering, “What am I supposed to do with all of this?” The pieces are there, but how do they fit together? This task may seem daunting, and slightly overwhelming at first, but you will quickly see that if you're organized, you will be done in no time.
Most wedding invitations require extra postage, either for weight or for size regulations; therefore, be sure to assemble one sample invitation and take it to the post office to be weighed for correct postage. This will avoid the return of your beautiful invitations for insufficient postage. Here are specific guidelines for assembling your invitations:
Place a response card, face-up, under the flap of the response card envelope. Be sure the envelope has the proper postage affixed.
Place the tissue over the lettering on the invitation. (Tissue is not necessary, and in fact, many companies no longer include it. Even if your invitations come with the tissue, you don't have to use it.)
The invitation is stacked from the largest piece on the bottom (usually the invitation) to the smallest piece on top. Begin by stacking the inserts on top of the invitation in descending order from largest to smallest.
Insert the invitation face-up into the inner envelope, which already has the guests' names written on it.
Insert the inner envelope into the outer envelope with the hand-written names facing the back of the envelope.
