Addressing Wedding Invitations Without Inner Envelopes

So you are ready to order o r make your wedding invitations. You have opted to only have one envelope. How do you address wedding invitations without the inner envelopes?

The inner envelopes started back in old days. The invitations were delivered by a man on horse. He would be in the open riding that horse and the invitations would get dirty. So they would put another envelope over the invitations. They also added the tissue paper to keep the ink from offsetting. Those are two customs that just continued.

Today brides are open for changing those traditions. Many times the future brides will eliminate that second envelope for costs and environmental reasons. This then means that they don't have an inside envelope to write the family names on.

So, how do we now only use one envelope. First, we must realize that most other invitations only have one envelope. You don't have to feel that you are giving second class because you don;t give that extra envelope. After all the days of horsemen delivering mail is gone.

When you address the wedding invitations without the inner envelopes just keep them simple. If you are doing a formal wedding your would put the Mrs. and Mrs. so and so on the first line. If they have children you would list the children on the second line. The children's names will be listed from oldest to youngest. If there are babies and you don't want babies at the wedding omit their names from the invitation envelope. Same for small children.

If you are having a less formal wedding.You can put the first names of the adults on the first line. It is proper to put the woman's name first. This keeps the man's name and his surname together. So it would say Ellen and Tom Smith, then the second line would list the kids names. If there are to many kids to put on one line you may put and family. This needs to be used with caution. Some people believe family to be parents, and some extended family.

If you want to have the name and guest, you would follow the proper wedding etiquette. That means first line is the name of your guest. The second line would say and guest. The word and guest will not be capitalized. This is proper for inner envelopes too.

If there are two people going together you can list both names on the outside envelope. You will not use and if they are not married. So basically the same rules apply you just use the outside envelope instead of inside.

You won't say aunt and uncle like you would on the double envelopes but to most that isn't major. You just want what you do give them to look the best it can.

I hope that gives you some ideas on what is proper to addressing wedding invitations without inner envelopes.