How to Address Wedding Invitations, With Examples

The short answer

Write one envelope per household, with the full names and titles of everyone invited at that address: "Mr. and Mrs. James Darling", or "Ms. Nancy Fellows and Mr. Scott Dunn" for a couple with two surnames. Children go on a line below their parents. Spell out words like Street and the city, abbreviate only the titles, and weigh one finished invitation before you buy stamps.

Most guides to addressing are long lists of examples, one for every kind of couple, and the one you need is never quite there. It is quicker to know the rule each line follows. The names are for your guest, so they follow etiquette. The address is for the sorting machines, so where etiquette and the post office disagree, the post office wins on those lines. This guide takes them in that order, then works through a real list.

Before you write: one row per household

An invitation goes to a household, not to each person, and two friends sharing a flat are two households. So before anyone picks up a pen, turn your guest list into a list of households: who lives together, and which of them are invited. For each, write down:

Everyone invited at that address, by full name, with the title they use (Mr., Ms., Mrs., Mx., Dr.).
Whether they have a plus-one, and the guest's name if you know it.
The mailing address, checked against the person's own spelling.

If you are unsure of a name, a title or an address, ask. A message to the person, or to the relative who knows, is quicker than a returned envelope. Our guide to wedding invitation costs shows why this list sets the price too: a guest list of 117 came to 66 addresses.

Free toolWedding guest list templatePaste your names and download a guest list for Excel or Google Sheets, already filled in.Make my guest list

The names: what the etiquette says

The Emily Post Institute gives the rules for a formal outer envelope: titles, first, middle and last names, with no abbreviations or middle initials, and only the titles shortened (Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr.). Less formal invitations can drop the middle names. Then each kind of household:

Household	How it reads on the envelope
Married couple, one surname	Mr. and Mrs. James Darling, or Ms. Anna Darling and Mr. James Darling
Married couple, two surnames	Ms. Barbara Hanson and Mr. James Werner
Two married women, or two married men	Ms. Rosa Lima and Ms. Clare Okafor; Mr. and Mr. Daniel Price
Unmarried couple living together	Ms. Nancy Fellows and Mr. Scott Dunn, on one line
A doctor and a spouse	Dr. Barbara Hanson and Mr. James Werner
Two doctors married to each other	The Drs. Werner, or Drs. Barbara and Robert Werner
A family with children invited	The parents on the first line, the children by first name on the line below
One guest with a plus-one	The guest's name; "and Guest" only on an inner envelope
Close family	Aunt Martha and Uncle Bill, on an inner envelope

Three rules sit under that table:

A married couple is always invited together. Emily Post addresses both spouses even if only one is coming.
The order of two names is yours. Put first the person you know best, or go alphabetically. Use the same rule across the list.
The names say who is invited. An envelope to two adults invites two adults. If children are not invited, leave their names off; our guide to an adults-only wedding has the wording for everything else.

Adult children. Emily Post does not set an age, so here is a rule that keeps it simple. A grown child who lives elsewhere gets their own invitation. One who still lives at home can be named on their parents' envelope, but their own envelope is kinder, and it is where a plus-one would be written.

Inner envelope or not

A traditional suite has two envelopes. The outer one carries the formal names and the address. The inner one, unsealed inside it, names only the people invited, by title and surname, and it is where "and Guest" belongs, as in "Mr. Smith and Guest". With a single envelope there is nowhere to write "and Guest" gracefully. Emily Post suggests a short note in the invitation instead, or, if the guest gives you a name in time, an invitation of their own. Our guide to plus-one etiquette helps you decide who gets one.

The address: what the post office reads

A cream envelope addressed in calligraphy to a married couple, with a stamp, a pen and a wax seal stamp — Photo by aaa mm on Unsplash

The address lines are read by a machine first. USPS publishes its addressing standards in Publication 28, and two of them meet the etiquette head on:

City names are spelled out. USPS asks for city names in full, and so does etiquette. No disagreement there.
Numbered streets are written as USPS lists them. Etiquette guides often say to spell numbers out ("Seventh Street"). Publication 28 asks for a numbered street exactly as it appears in the USPS address file, "7TH ST or SEVENTH ST", and to spell it out only where that is what tells two streets apart. Look the address up in the USPS ZIP Code lookup, and write the street number and name the way it comes back.

Emily Post spells out words like Street, Avenue and Boulevard, and allows the state either in full or as its two letter code. Use the code if the line is long.

The return address tells USPS where to send an invitation it cannot deliver. Emily Post adds that guests will use it for their replies and their gifts, so put it where you want both to arrive. If replies go to someone else, a parent who is hosting for example, print that address on the reply envelope.

A handwritten, stamped envelope on a wooden table among dried flowers — Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

A worked example: six households

Here is one part of a guest list turned into envelopes. The names are made up; the rules are the ones above.

On the guest list	Outer envelope, first lines
Your aunt and uncle, married, one surname	Mr. and Mrs. William Barnes
Your cousin and her husband, two surnames	Ms. Elena Ruiz and Mr. Thomas Hale
Your friends Sam and Jo, not married, living together	Mx. Sam Carter and Ms. Jo Lund
Your partner's colleague, with a plus-one, name unknown	Mr. Ian Foster, with a note inside inviting a guest
Your partner's brother, his wife and their two children	Mr. and Mrs. David Shaw, then Ella and Max on the next line
Their oldest, 22, living at home, with a partner	Ms. Hannah Shaw and Mr. Leo Baines, on an envelope of their own

Six households, six envelopes, fourteen people invited counting the colleague's guest, and nobody needed to be a special case. If one of your rows does not fit, go back to the two questions: who is invited at this address, and what title does each of them use.

Writing them, sealing them, posting them

Two pale envelopes closed with gold wax seals — Photo by Diana Light on Unsplash

Do it in batches, together. One of you writes while the other checks each envelope against the list, so a misspelled name is caught before it is sealed.
Check inner against outer. Before sealing, make sure the names on the two envelopes match, as Emily Post advises.
Weigh one first. Take one finished invitation, every insert inside, to the post office before buying stamps. Our guide to what invitations cost has this year's postage and why a square envelope costs more.
Ask for hand canceling. Emily Post suggests asking the post office to hand cancel the envelopes, which many think looks better than a machine postmark.

For when to post them, our guide to when to send wedding invitations works back from your date.

Guests in Yes, I Do: every guest with their side, their reply and their plus-ones

Keeping the list in one place

The envelopes come out right when the list behind them is right. In Yes, I Do, each guest has their name, their side, whether they are family, friends or work, how many plus-ones they bring and their reply, with an email and phone number so you can ask for an address. Paste a list from anywhere and it becomes names. Your partner sees the same list on their phone or in a browser, so whoever is writing the envelopes and whoever is checking them work from the same names.

Yes, I Do

Every guest, every reply

Paste a list from anywhere and it becomes names. Replies, plus-ones, dietary notes and tables stay in one place, for both of you.

Plan my wedding

The guest list with replies coming in, pending and declined

Questions

How do you address a wedding invitation to a married couple?

Use both names and titles on one line: "Mr. and Mrs. James Darling", or "Ms. Anna Darling and Mr. James Darling" if you prefer both first names. If they have different surnames, write both full names joined by "and". A married couple is always invited together.

How do you address a wedding invitation to a family?

Write the parents on the first line and the invited children by first name on the line below, or on the inner envelope if you use one. Only the people named are invited, so leave off anyone who is not.

How do you address an invitation with a plus-one?

If you know the guest's name, write both names. If not, address the outer envelope to your guest alone and write "and Guest" on the inner envelope. With a single envelope, add a short note inside saying they are welcome to bring someone.

Do you put middle names on wedding invitations?

On a formal invitation, the Emily Post Institute writes full names with middle names and no initials. On a less formal one, first and last names are fine. Pick one style and use it on every envelope.

Should you abbreviate street names and states on wedding invitations?

Etiquette spells out words like Street and Avenue, and abbreviates only titles such as Mr. and Dr. The state can be written in full or as its two letter code. Write numbered streets the way the USPS ZIP Code lookup gives them.

Where does the return address go on a wedding invitation?

On the outer envelope, where you want undeliverable invitations, replies and gifts to arrive. If someone else is collecting the replies, put their address on the reply envelope instead.

Sources

The Emily Post Institute: addressing and sending wedding invitations, for the outer and inner envelopes, titles and abbreviations, married and unmarried couples, doctors, children, "and Guest", the return address, weighing, matching the envelopes and hand canceling, read October 2026.
USPS Publication 28, section 223: spelling of city names, for city names spelled in full.
USPS Publication 28, section 235: numeric street names, for numbered streets written as they appear in the USPS address file.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602, section 1.5: return addresses, for what a return address is for.