You’ve hired a wedding planner, picked the perfect venue and decided on a date. Now it’s time to actually invite your guests! Gathering your guests’ addresses can be one of the more challenging and time-consuming tasks of planning a wedding. I’ve always found if we are held up on the invitation process, it’s because clients are still trying to collect all their guests’ addresses. My suggestion – start early!

With so many events leading up to the wedding, it’s a great idea to start collecting addresses as soon as you can. Invitations may need to go out for several events – Engagement Party, Save the Dates, Bridal Shower, Wedding Invitations, Thank You Cards, etc. Due to the length of time in between all these events, it’s a great idea to ask all your guests if they plan on moving within this time frame. If they say yes or maybe, create a column in your excel file to remind yourself to go back and ask. It can get very annoying having those pretty envelopes returned to you due to your guest moving!

Not sure how to properly address and format your guest list? Here’s a guide to help explain the best practices for every unique situation!

Single Guest

For a single female guest over the age of 18, it’s best to address her as Ms. on the envelope. If she is under 18, you would use Miss and include her on her parent’s invitation.

Ms. Francesca Connolly

If the guest is a single male over 18, you would use Mr. as the title. Like the example above, if he is under 18, you would include his name on his parent’s invitation with no title.

Mr. James Cooper

If you are extending the invite for a courtesy guest, be specific with the name of the guest. This means if their guest can’t come, the invitation is not extended to someone else. This saves you from having to pay for an extra guest that you did not intend to have at your wedding!

Ms. Francesca Connolly and Mr. James Cooper

If you don’t mind who they bring and are extending the invitation to whom your guest chooses, include “and Guest”.

Ms. Francesca Connolly and Guest

Married Couple

There are a couple of different ways you can address a married couple with the same last name:

Mr. and Mrs. James Cooper

or

Mr. James and Mrs. Elena Cooper

This is more of a preference thing, there is no right or wrong choice between the two options.

If the couple has two different last names, the order does not matter. You can simply put whoever you are closest with first, or by alphabetical order.

Mr. James Cooper and Mrs. Elena Connolly

If one of them has a hyphenated last name, they will always go last. Should one of them be a doctor, they would be addressed as Dr. or Doctor and will be listed first.

Unmarried Couple Living Together

Like a married couple, both names would be listed on the envelope.

Mr. James Cooper and Mrs. Elena Connolly

Families

For formal weddings, every guest should be listed out on the envelope. The children’s names will go on the second line (any child under the age of 18). For more of an informal wedding, you can list the parents followed by “and Family” on the second line.

Mr. and Mrs. James Cooper
Miss Annabelle and Liam

Mr. and Mrs. James Cooper
and Family

Distinguished Titles

If you are inviting guests with a title (doctor, judge, priest, etc) make sure to include their title and list them first on the envelope.

Giving your invitation designer your addresses

If you are having your guest list printed by us, we always prefer to have all addresses in an excel file! To save us from having to retype anything and avoid any mistakes, please make sure to have everything in separate columns. Guest Names (one column), address, city, province, postal code, country. Nothing fancy – just plain and simple so we can merge your file into ours. We will always send out the excel file over to you when we begin the invitation process. Just remember to start early and avoid rushing!