Invitation Etiquette?

1.) I would buy inner envelopes. They are addressed differently, and prevent you from seeing the invitation through the outer envelope. Esp. if they are dark and the outer envelope is white.

2.) printer is fine

3.) On the back side of the flap, just put your address. No name required.

Michelle is exactly right on with the printing and return address labels. (I did not do inner envelope since my wedding is more casual.)

We're not using inner envelopes. What we have is going to keep us from having to get the 61 cent stamps. If we'd have used the extra envelope, we'd have had to get them.

And we're using the printer to print out the envelopes. We're not using a calligraphy font, but instead using the same font that was used on the invitation itself. Honestly, I think as long as your font is the same as your invitation, or complimentary, it should be fine, but I don't know the true etiquette either.

We didn't use inner envelopes, nor a response card; instead an online RSVP here on WW. I have received numerous wedding invitations with and without the inner envelope. It is traditional and where you can put the personal name with "and guest", so that your invitee knows if you have included a +1 for them. But really you can do all that on the main outside envelope. I have seen that a number of times, too.

In terms of printing or handwriting them, that is up to you. Most of these rules are passé anyway. If you are super traditional then do them all by hand, but really anything goes these days. Don't stress about it. Hardly anyone will notice these little details anyway. As long as they know who is included in the invitation you are good!

1. Your kit's single envelopes are for casual or semi-formal events. If you want the double envelopes you will need to find a slightly larger size than what you have in your kit. It is much harder to find an inner size to fit the card and still fit inside the provided envelope. Try www.paper-presentation.com or envelopes.com for standard sizes.

2. Yes you can print your addresses, the Post Office actually prefers this. Any standard font is fine, it is best to choose something readable. I like to use a pretty script for the names and a nice block letter for the addresses. {You will need to merge your excel file with a Word Document custom sized to fit your envelope.} If you have trouble with this, then I would suggest that you just print labels or hand-address them. You can buy standard Avery Labels at any office supply store and use the Label Wizard in Word to create the file.

3. Your return address does not have to have a name at all, but I typically address them as Ms. Bride's Name

If you're not overly concerned w/ formality... we went without an outer envelope and indicated the number of seats reserved on the RSVP card so they knew if they could bring along a guest.

But Michelle made a good point about being able to see the invite through the envelope. I'd check that first.

Another alternative to the print v. handwritten question is: use both! You can print in light ink and then go back over w/ a dark pen. Tip: be sure to print out a couple fonts/sizes and play around. You might find some fonts more tediuous than others. Really thick or really thin fonts might not work as well (depends on the pen you're using)

We used the envelopes that came with our kit as the inner envelopes and bought another set of envelopes that were ever-so-slightly larger to use as outer envelopes.

Double envelopes: totally unnecessary in this day and age! If you want to go super formal and traditional then sure, but it's money and paper saved if you don't have them. If the invitation set came with nice envelopes, they should be thick enough not to see through them.

Addressing: there are no real rules to this unless you want to follow really strict etiquette. As mentioned in PP, most rules are passé. It could be written, printed in sans serif font - honestly, it's up to you.

Return address: on both the RSVP envelope and the invitation envelope - you can include your name or not include, both your first names, just your fiancé's last name... again, it's up to you!!

1) Inner Envelopes: Not necessary. My reply card covered up enough of the invitation so the details could not be seen.

2) My fiancee and I both have atrocious hand writing so we opted for a calligraphy style font to print invitation labels.

3) Again, bad handwriting so I used labels for the return address and had them addressed to both of us, including the name change so people would know what to call us after the wedding.

1. not necessary

2. girl who made our invites also did digital calligraphy so we added that to the package. with that said... you can use your printer. Monotype Corsiva font is closest to calligraphy.

3. again, printer is fine. i used only my name for return address.

Our guests are split between people like my southern grandma, who has a parlor and separate china for thanksgiving and christmas, and my college roommate, who could care less about that sort of thing, even if she knew the etiquette.

my kit didn't come with inner envelopes either, and I hate handwriting things if i don't have to. so we're only doing handwritten addresses and inner envelopes for the super traditional family members (30 invites out of 100), and we bought a set of 50 slightly larger envelopes to use as the second envelope for the traditional people.

For the other invites, I'm going to write the guests names on the on the RSVP card.