When hiring a calligrapher to address your envelopes, you must give yourself plenty of time to have them addressed, assembled, and mailed. You should give a calligrapher two to three weeks to complete your envelope addressing—sometimes more time if you have speciality papers or especially large guest lists. The list you provide your KGH calligrapher should be formatted in a spreadsheet, denoting a separate written line per typed column. Your list should be complete and properly spelled out when necessary. This will reduce any guesswork on the calligrapher’s end. Creating your list of guests can be daunting and overwhelming. This page will highlight the more common circumstances when addressing invitations and can be utilized to help make building your list a bit easier and possibly fun. Finally, remember to order extra envelopes for additions and/or corrections—we recommend an additional 15% for paper goods.

Outer vs. Inner envelopes

Several decades ago, inner envelopes were used with formal invitations because oftentimes the outer envelope would get dirty and/or smudged, and it would be difficult to read who the recipients of the invitation were. As a result, the outer envelope would be addressed to the household in a more formal manner with all distinguished titles (Mr., Mrs., Doctor, Colonel, The Reverend, The Honorable, etc), suffixes, addresses, and states spelled out. The inner envelope (protected by the outer) would list everyone that was intended to receive an invitation within the household and can be less formal, just listing an abbreviated title (Mr., Ms., Dr., Col., Rev., Judge, etc) + last name or first name only. In our present day, inner envelopes are not necessary to convey the recipients of your invitations but can give an impressive, more formal touch.

Single Guest

Outer: Mr. James Daniel Smith

Inner: Mr. Smith or James

Single Guest plus one

Outer (with inner): Mr. James Daniel Smith

Inner: Mr. Smith and guest

or James and guest

Outer (without inner): Mr. James Daniel Smith

and guest

Unmarried couple living together

Outer: Ms. Emily Brown and Mr. James Smith

Inner: Ms. Brown and Mr. Smith

or Emily and James

Married couple

Outer: Mr. and Mrs. James Daniel Smith

Inner: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

or Emily and James

Same-sex:

Outer: Mr. James Smith and Mr. Robert Smith

or

Outer: The Messrs. James and Robert Smith

Inner: The Messrs. Smith

or James and Robert

Last name with suffix:

Outer: Mr. and Mrs. James Daniel Smith, junior

Inner: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Married couple with different last names

Outer: Mrs. Emily Brown and Mr. James Smith

Inner: Mrs. Brown and Mr. Smith

or Emily and James

Same-sex, similarly:

Outer: Mr. James Smith and Mr. Robert Stone

Inner: Mr. Smith and Mr. Stone

or James and Robert

Married Couple with children under 18

Children listed on inner envelope when using:

Outer: Mr. and Mrs. James Daniel Smith

Inner: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

James, Rose, and Elliott

Outer only: Mr. and Mrs. James Daniel Smith

James Smith, Miss Rose Smith, and Elliott Smith

Married Couple with Children over 18

Children over the age of 18 should receive their own invitation and you would refer to the above “Single Guest” section.

Married Couple with one distinguished title

The person with the more distinguished title goes first regardless of gender.

Outer: Doctor Emily Stone and Mr. James Smith

Inner: Dr. Stone and Mr. Smith

or Emily and James

Married Doctors

With different last names, the female would be listed first. With the same last names, they would be addressed as follows:

Outer: Doctors Emily and James Smith

or The Doctors Smith

Inner: Drs. Smith

or Emily and James