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Andrew
Just Said Yes August 2020

How to address wedding invitations - family with children

Andrew, on February 15, 2020 at 4:24 PM Posted in Etiquette and Advice 1 4

Going to send out wedding invitation soon. While I am clear:


1) For married couple, we write:

Mr. John and Mrs. Mary Doe

Mr first concern is: not all married couples have the same last names. Would they be offended if I send all of them with shared last names?


2) For unmarried couple living together, we do:

Mr. John Doe

Ms. Mary William


3) For a single parent and a kid (mom or dad passed away), we do:

Mr. John Doe

Mr. Jason Doe


4) My second concern is here.

For married couple with 3 children (living together) and one of a child's boyfriend invited. Children are around age of 24 to 28 and they are working now.

I am debating how we should address it:

a) Mr. John and Mrs. Mary Doe

Betty, Kelly, Jason and Tom (Betty's boyfriend)

or

b) Mr. John and Mrs. Mary Doe

and Family

or

c) Mr. John and Mrs. Mary Doe

Betty, Kelly, Jason and guest

or

d) The Doe Family

John, Mary, Betty, Kelly, Jason and Tom



Please helppppppp Smiley heart TYYYYY

4 Comments

Latest activity by Gen, on February 15, 2020 at 7:20 PM
  • Andrea
    Master January 2021
    Andrea ·
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    To answer your first question, I don't think married couples who don't share the same last name should be offended if you are using their own last names on the invitation.

    To answer your second question, I would say it would be between A & D

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  • Caytlyn
    Legend November 2019
    Caytlyn ·
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    1.) You should address the envelope just like a couple who lives together and isn’t married. It’s impossible for us to know what will offend them, so I would just follow etiquette.
    Mr. John Doe and Ms. Jane Smith
    Child One Child two.
    2.) Adult children should receive their own invitations. One for parents, one for single adult child, one for adult child and boyfriend.
    • Reply
  • Kari
    Master May 2020
    Kari ·
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    Why would you go through the effort to use unique names for unmarried couples living together but not give the same consideration to married couples with different last names?

    I'm not planning on changing my name after marriage and while I generally wouldn't get offended if I was ever referred to casually as Mrs. [FH's Last Name], I am making a conscious decision to keep my maiden name
    . I feel like if you would take the time to get to address unmarried couples using the correct last names why not show the same respect for someone who is married and chose not to change their last name?

    I feel it's one thing to make a name assumption (like a school teacher calling the parents of a kid Mr. or Mrs. [Kid's Last Name]) but it's another to just refer to a woman by her husband's last name if you know she has a different one.

    Using the name a person has chosen is a sign of respect.
    We are using the legal last names of every guest on our list, regardless of their marriage status. It didn't take that long to check in with all of our recently married friends to determine which last name(s) each person is now using. I feel that if these people are important enough to us to invite them to our wedding, I want to honor what names each of them have chosen for themselves.

    As a side, I work at a college and we have a small road race for students and families as part of our family weekend events. One year a student and his parents all ran the race, and when the parents crossed the line I didn't know their names but knew they were the parents of this student so I wrote down "Z's Dad" and "Z's Mom". When I went to ask them their names for the results list, I asked the mom her name and she told me her first name and then I asked "[Z's last name]?" and she said, well no, I didn't change my name, but that's fine. I told her "No, I'm getting married and not changing my name, what's your name?" and we had a complete bonding moment over it. She so appreciated that I cared about HER name.

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  • Gen
    Champion June 2019
    Gen ·
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    1) correct

    I think they would be annoyed if you used the man’s last name for a couple who doesn’t share a last name. I would do Mr John Doe & Mrs Mary William

    2) For unmarried couple living together,

    I would do Mr John Doe & Ms Mary William (on the same line)

    3) Correct

    4) I would send an invitation to each of them separately. 1 for the parents, 1 for the one adult “child” and her SO, and then 1 for each of the other adult children

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