Wedding Invitation Assembly Guide

Step 2:   Address Envelopes

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There are three envelopes per invitation that need to be addressed: the RSVP response envelope, the inner invitation envelope and the outer invitation envelope. Customarily, the inner and outer invitation envelopes should be handwritten. To facilitate this and to prevent any unnecessary marring on the pieces each holds, be sure to write on them while they are empty. The RSVP response envelope, which will be mailed to you, can be addressed by hand or with a label.

The most effecient way to address all these envelopes is to break this step into smaller parts so that multiple people can work together. To do this properly you should assign certain guests on your list to writers as opposed to assigning certain envelopes to writers. That way, one writer will address all the envelopes of a guest (i.e. John Smith's inner envelope and John Smith's outer envelope), instead of one writer addressing all the envelopes of a certain type (i.e. John Smith's outer invitation envelope, Sally Green's outer invitation envelope, etc.).

This way all the handwriting on all the envelopes of a guest's invitation will be the same. Doing so ensures continuity and gives each invitation one look.

Do not have one person address the inner invitation envelopes and another address the outer envelopes. No matter how good each individual's handwriting, an invitation done that way would have different handwriting styles and give it a mixed look . So the key to breaking this up is to have one writer complete all the addressing of an invitation.

Inner And Outer Invitation Envelopes

The scope of this guide involves only the assembling of your invitations not the addressing of them. Therefore, for a guide to addressing your invitations please see the BridalTrack Addressing Guide. It details all the title assigning rules, types of guests and exceptions to all the rules of addressing invitations. You should review that for the specifics of how each guest will have each of their envelopes addressed.

For a quick calculation of how a specific guest's invitations should appear, try the BridalTrack Addressing Calculator. With it, you simply type in your guests' data and click a button to have it generate how an invitation should be addressed.

For assembly purposes here is what you need to know about the outer invitation envelope: It is the workhorse envelope. It holds every other piece of the invitation and protects them from the cold, cruel elements of our postal system--metering machines, mailbags, other mail, and everything else on its journey to its recipient.

The outer envelope also provides the data required to get it to that destination: the name and address. While calligraphy and fancy, looping writing is fine for the inner invitation envelope, the outer invitation envelope requires discernable writing. It can still be elegant and fancy, but it absolutely must be legible or it might defeat its main purpose.

Also, on the back fold of the outer invitation envelope the return address should appear. It is acceptable to write the return address by hand or to use labels. It is not necessary to include a return name, just the return address.

The inner invitation envelope is essentially a presentation envelope, it serves as an elegant holder of the invitation itself. Since it is inside the outer envelope as it goes through the mail system, it does not need to be sealed. This allows the receipent a nice keepsake of the wedding and allows them to avoid any accidental tearing that may occur with opening it.

Because it is not used or even seen by the post office, it does not have the addressee's entire address, just their title and last name. Again, for specific examples of how to address both the inner and outer invitation envelopes please see the BridalTrack Addressing Guide.

Response Envelope

The response envelope's purpose is to help you track the invitations you send out. The first thing you must decide is the address these are to be returned. An obvious choice is the bride's address, but if another person (i.e. bride's mother, wedding coordinator, groom, etc.) is in charge of this or a post office box set up specifically for this, then another address is fine.

To avoid postal errors, use the address as both the main and the return addresses on your response cards. This way, if the stamp falls off, if it is metered wrong or any other postal error occurs, it will still find its way back to you.

Suppose your guest returns a response card that just has the 'Yes I am attending' box checked, but no name or identifying information. Or if they illegibly scribbled their name in the space provided? You will have no idea from whom you got that response. A good guest list should assign each of your guests a reference number. This number can be lightly, in pencil, written on the back corner of the response envelope. This way when it returns you can use that reference number to go to your list and update it with that person's response and know exactly who it was from.

For more information on this reference number trick and how to properly set up your contact list, see the BridalTrack Chronological Guide. It details how to assign numbers, how to use them to track responses and how to use them to quickly search your contact list in general.