Invitations without inner envelopes....

Is there anyway to write out on the response cards who the the invitations are for?

ie:

Mr John Doe

Mrs Jane Doe

Baby Jane Doe

Baby John Doe etc

Or maybe just

Mr & Mrs John Doe

(plus 4 kids)

123 ABC Drive

BKLYN, NY 11682

Can be tricky, but I might just put Mr. and Mrs. John Doe and Family...but only if you will be inviting all of the household and you'll need to be clear about how many are actually invited.

I'm just putting "The Doe Family." It's probably incorrect but we're having a casual affair and most people won't realize it's wrong.

I probably broke every etiquette rule when we sent invitations... everything i read online just sounded like too much of a hassle and i don't think either of our families would know the difference or be offended if it was wrong. For the most part we didn't have too many families to invite... most were couples... but when we did have a family we did "Mr. John Doe & Family".

*side note - my situation might be a bit different since we are having a DW in the DR and people need to book travel through our agent... so we are relying on guest deposits more than rsvp's to get a final headcount

We addressed ours like this on the actual mailing envelope. (No inner envelopes here)

Mr. and Mrs. John Johnson;

Sally, Billy, Sam, Kathy, Bob

55 Wedding Drive

America, America 12344

I don't think stationary "Etiquette" should still be enforced. It is so wasteful. There was a similar post a few weeks ago and most ladies were telling the poster she has to send them all separate invitations to the same house. You don't have to do that.

I would address it as: The Smith Family

Then you'll need to send a 2nd invite to the adult not living at home, assuming you are inviting all 5 kids. I don't think you can invite some of the kids and note all.

I also find inner enelopes very wasteful, so as a personal touch I hand made little tags that I tied on the invite with ribbon. it had the informal name of each person being invited, including babies, so it would be clear they were included. I had a lot of positive comments on this nice personal touch.

We did two lines for names and actually switched pen color and font.

Line 1: Mr. & Mrs. John and Jane Doe (in black block font)

Line 2: Jim, Josie, Jackie, and Pete (in blue cursive)

Line 3: Address Line (back in the black block font)

Line 4: Address Line (back in the black block font)

I'd just try to go with "Mr. and Mrs. John Doe and family" here. It really sounds too bulky when you're talking 5 extra names, I know that isn't what etiquette says...but in this case...I dunno.

You could also send the two kids over 18 their own individual invitations...which you technically should anyway since they are adults. This will cut down on the bulkiness of having to list 7 people on a single invitation.

I didn't do inner envelopes. I addressed the front to Mr and Mrs and Family

And if they had kids that did not live at home I asked for their addresses and sent them to them. with Name and guest

I did the mr and mrs john doe and family. It was way easier. my family is really close so anyone who had a question about their older kids and who can bring a date just asked me or my mom.

Ya, I am gonna have to say screw etiquette LOL

@SoonToBeMrsD, that's how my family is and that's what I thought too.... we shall see

Thank you everyone! These are all great suggestions. I will have to figure out who is doing my calligraphy and then ask them what they want to do or what they can fit on the front of the envelope!

Hey FMZ :-)

I did inners but if I hadn't this was how I was going to do it:

Mr. and Mrs. John A. Smith and Family

1234 Anywhere Street

Smithville, Maine 01234

I also gave each person who was over 18 their own invite even if they still lived with the parents.

Hope this helps :-)

We did no inner envelopes.

If there was one invitation for the whole family, we said

Mr. and Mrs. John Doe

and family

There were a few instances (like my cousins, where some still live at home and are adults on their own):

Mr. and Mrs. John Doe

Tommy and Jane

then the adult cousin living on their own would get their own invitation.

Since we invited most people by families it worked really well. Some families had college-aged children who still live at home over breaks, and as our wedding will be over fall break and we hope the students can come, we just put 'family' so they knew they were welcome if they wanted to come.

***Probably should note: we're having a morning wedding and casual lunch buffet to follow. If you are paying high prices for a fancy per-head meal, I would suggest delineating a little more exactly who is invited!

I would put "and family" when you can, especially when including young children. The whole point of using the inner envelope for kids' names and excluding their names from the outer envelope is to keep the kids safe from creepers who could be using the mail to find out information about them. "And family" keeps the kids' names private.

@MnDex has it -- that's what I would do. If the kids are older (out of HS and living at home), send them their own invitation.

Yes ^MnDex has the proper format.

We are doing the & family, I know it's not correct, but doing it anyways! According to what I was reading each child over the age of 18 should receive their own invitation... but I'm not doing that either... have you seen how expensive they can be?

@Angie, if it's cost-prohibitive (or if it would put you at invitation 101 and you'd have to order 25 more invitations), I personally think it's totally fine to add the 18+ people on the same invitation. For one, my parents often got invitations sent home when I was in college, so I was none-the-wiser, and I'm not sure I would have known to care when I was 19 or something . . .