If you’ve thrown a party or had a baby, or thrown a party for a baby, Â you are probably familiar with The Buttercup in Myers Park. Â Beloved by Charlotte shoppers for decades, The Buttercup has the largest selection of social, party and wedding invitations in Charlotte, and is one of our go-to picks for Holiday cards, party invites, baby announcements, baby gifts, hostess gifts and more.
When trolling their website recently (cuz that’s what we do for fun) we found a handy little section call Miss Manners, and saw these tips for INVITATION ETIQUETTE. We thought you might want to consider these little mannerly gestures when you are ordering photo cards, holiday cards and addressing invites for the season.
o When listing name, whether as hosts on an invitation or addressing an envelope, you never separate the man from his last name. For example – Emily and Brian Richards.
o But when listing children, say for a holiday greeting cards, the father comes first. For example – Brian, Emily and Clair Richards.
o Host names are always listed in alphabetical order.
o When listing multiple host names an asterisk (*) is put next to the name and the RSVP, so your guests know who they are calling or emailing.
o List the day of the week and year on invitations. Also, spell things out like the address of the event site and the state the event is in. However, it is not appropriate to list the zip code for the address on the invitation. That will be found on the envelope return address and/or reply card.
Here are a few other Invitation Etiquette Tips we found on other sites:
All invitation phrasing is in the third person.
Examples:
Use: …the birth of their son. Don’t use: …birth of our son
Use: ….Smith & Co. invites you to their… Don’t use…Smith & Co. invites your to our Annual…
Do not use abbreviations.
Spell out words such as Road, Street, and state names; California
Days, dates are always spelled out.
Example: Monday or September
Times and Years should be spelled out on wedding or formal invitations.
Example: Four o’clock in the afternoon / Two Thousand Four
Tip: The “o” and “c” in “o’clock” are never capitalized
Punctuation is not used at the end of the lines. (no commas, periods, colons., etc.)
Example: John and Sally invite you to join the fun (leave off the period)
Commas can be used to separate information that appears on the same line such as:
Example: November 14, 2012 or Rochester, New York
Finally:
It is socially incorrect to mention “no children allowed” or to mention gifts or where you are registered on invitations. People often follow these rules on strict formal invitations such as black tie or wedding invitations; however, on informal invitations, anything goes and sometimes, the more information, the better. When in doubt, inform your guests of any important details when they RSVP to the invitation.
