One of the most common questions we get about invitations is how to correctly address them. We wanted to outline specific scenarios such as, what goes on the inner versus the outer envelope, do you include middle names, etc. In this post, we wanted to dive a little deeper into titles and what to do with the many different ways to address someone. Below we tackle the military, doctors, and names with suffix at the end. Jane Dolan, owner of Southern Calligraphy, sat down with us to help explain all these complicated scenarios and created a few beautiful examples.
Widow
Traditionally, a widow retains her husband's name until she remarries. However, some widows prefer to use their own first name as well. In this case, it is best to ask what she prefers.
Example: Mrs. John Frank Smith or Mrs. Jane Elizabeth Smith would be acceptable
Doctor
When anyone in the relationship is a Doctor, or has a PhD, you should always include their title on their invitation. When the wife is a doctor and the husband is not you should put the females name first. You do so because a professional title "outranks" a social title. Also, be sure to always spell out the title, Doctor.
Male Doctor: Doctor and Mrs. Joshua Frank Rachal
Female Doctor: Doctor Jenna Laine Rachal and Mr. Joshua Frank Rachal
Both Doctors: Doctors Joshua Frank Rachal and Jenna Laine Rachal
Military
Addressing an invitation to someone in the Military works much like the Doctor scenario above. You should always add their title to the envelope and always spell out the full title. If the female is also in the military you put whichever person is of higher ranking.
Outer Envelope: Major and Mrs. Joshua Frank Rachal
Inner Envelope: Major and Mrs. Rachal
Both Military: Captains Thomas and Sara Smith
Both Military with Different Positions: Major Joshua and Captain Jenna Rachal
Inner Envelope: Major and Captain Rachal
Junior, IV, V, etc.
When addressing your invitations to someone with a suffix on the end of their name you have a few options. If you choose to write out junior or senior it does not get capitalized. If you abbreviate it then it is capitalized as Jr. or Sr. There has also been a lot of discussion on whether or not you should put a comma after the name and before the title. Jane says; "I tend to avoid commas most of the time in envelope addressing as the US postal service does not prefer them. In more recent times it seems to be that it is appropriate to no longer use a comma here, but either is acceptable." The comma is not used to separate designations such as II, III, IV etc.
Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Frank Rachal junior
Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Frank Rachal Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Frank Rachal IV
We hope this post is helpful for those tricky addressing situations!