Wedding Style, Planning & Inspiration

Dear Divas,

I’m getting ready to send out my (beautiful!) Wedding Paper Divas invitations to my guest list.  I’m addressing my own envelopes and I’ve run in to some questions along the way.  Of them, the two that I’ve been unable to find answers for are these: When inviting an unmarried couple that lives together, how do I address the envelope?  What about an unmarried couple that doesn’t live together but is in a serious relationship?  Do they each get their own invite or one sent to one of them but addressed to both?  So confusing, help!

Confused Calligrapher

Dear Confused Calligrapher,

What a great question!  This is so common and can be very confusing, so don’t feel badly about it.  To address (ha! no pun intended!) your first question, when inviting an unmarried couple that lives together, address the envelope just as you would a married couple with different last names: alphabetically, on separate lines on the outer envelope.  So, it would look like this:

Ms. Janine Myers
Mr. Richard Stevenson

Your inner envelope would be slightly different, with both names on one line, as you see here:

Ms. Myers and Mr. Stevenson

If you are not doing an inner envelope, you’d only follow the instructions for the outer envelope, with both names on their own line.

In regards to your second question, if you are sending an invitation to an unmarried couple that live in separate households, try to find out both of their names, even if you don’t personally know them both.  It’s nice to send an invitation to both addresses if you can, with each addressed to the singular person on the outer envelope, and then addressed to both (as in the above example) on the inner envelope.  However, if you don’t know both addresses, it’s also acceptable to send an invite to one of them with both of their names on it, each on their own line, as in the above example.  Alternatively, if you can’t find the name of someone’s significant other, it’s okay to simply address the invitation in this manner:

Mr. John Doe and Guest

You can use these tips to fit your wedding style and formailty level.  And remember, you can always contact the Wedding Paper Divas customer service team with any of your invitation etiquette questions!