A bride's guide to writing a guest list (for Calligrafia Bella clients)

This guide is especially written for my clients, but I trust it will be helpful to any other brides as well.  If you are interested in my calligraphy services, you can check out my calligraphy website at Caligrafiabella.com. If you are looking for advice on how to put together a guest list for your own records, check out my organizational post on that topic here.

Please email me a Word document.
If you are already a client, I have probably asked you for a digital Word document (which you can email to me at caligrafiabella@gmail.com). If you followed the previously mentioned post and/or have an Excel document, you can copy-paste that information into a new Word document. The Excel template's purpose was to help you, the bride, get organized. It includes information you may not wish to share with me (such as budget and rsvp info) and omits very important calligraphy-related information (such as etiquette preferences for inner and outer envelopes). I also prefer Word because your guests' names and their respective addresses will be directly adjacent, so it is less likely that I will confuse people's addresses. Your emailed Word document will be our contract, and I guarantee that your envelopes will have the exact spelling as your Word document.

The basic format is as follows: 

List complete names (no nicknames), fully spelled addresses (no abbreviations) and add the names you would like to include in the inner envelope last.

Example:

Mr. Sherlock Holmes
221 Baker Street, Apartment B
London, England
E152TF

Mr. Holmes and Guest

Don't forget to place your RSVP/return address at the very top of the list!

The basic etiquette rules are these: 

* List the household head(s) in the outer envelope and their guest or children in the inner envelope (see example above).
* You should omit the woman's first name unless she has a title (example: "Mr. and Mrs. John White," or "Mrs. John White" for a widow).
* Unmarried couples living together can be listed in two ways:
You can list the person you are closest to first, or you can list them alphabetically.
* Two siblings living together should be listed in order of birth.
* As should be the children being listed under their parents in an inner envelope. If Audrey is 8, and Tony is 4, your inner envelope could read:

Mr. and Mrs. White
Audrey White
Anthony White

or

Mr. and Mrs. White
Audrey and Anthony White

The longest (first) option is the most formal, but the second is the most commonly used.

* Notice in the above examples that only the main invitees' last names are used in the inner envelope, their first names have already been used in the outer envelope.

* If two doctors (or two people with a title) are married, you can list them in two ways: "The Doctors White" or  including the lady's first name "Dr. John White and Dr. Emma White (most formal)"

If you have any questions, don't doubt to call me, email me, or comment on this post. Remember that addressing etiquette rules are only a guide. Thank goodness these are modern times, and most people understand that it's your wedding, and therefore it's also your rules. Some people wish to have a cozier wedding and prefer to send invitations addressing their loved ones as "Aunt Betty" and "Grandma Rose" and that is also a perfectly acceptable decision to make. The most important thing is for you to be satisfied with the level of formality (or lack thereof).