Wedding Etiquette Forum

Addressing invitations

Okay, so I searched everywhere and some how can't find it... I know I saw it before here, or thought I did.

Anyways my question: I have several guests who have a direction in their address (south, north west, east etc) I read somewhere that if it was in the middle of the address you do one thing and if it's at the end of the address you do something different... does anyone know which one gets written out and which gets abbreviated?
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Re: Addressing invitations

  • never mind, I found the site I saw it on.. it states: North and South is  written in full if it proceeds the street name (123 South Main Street) a comma is added after the street name and an abbreviation is used if it comes after the address (123 Cherry Street, N.W.)


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  • I don't know if everyone else does it this way, but the database system my company uses (we do thousands of mailings a month) abbreviates if the directional is before the street name but writes it out in full if it's after the street name (W. Main St. vs. Main St. West). I've also heard that you should write out the directional if it's a cardinal direction and abbreviate if it isn't (North vs. NE).
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  • is P.O. boxes written out or still just P.O?
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  • Also, one more question... Are apartments listed on same line as street with a comma in between or a separate line?
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  • The Postal Service prefers if you use the abbreviation. I've seen it written out on very formal correspondence (black-tie invitation), but I don't think it's a big deal not to.

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  • Also, one more question... Are apartments listed on same line as street with a comma in between or a separate line?
    Apartments should be on the second line, e.g.

    Mary Jones
    111 West Williams St
    Apt J
    Fillyville, PA 00000
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    eyeroll
  • According to the USPS website, the apartment/suite/unit number should be on the same line as the street address. http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/addressing/deliveryaddress.htm
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  • Jennja22 said:
    I don't know the exact rule, but personally I would write it all out.  Like this:

    Susan Smith
    123 NW 1st Street E
    Anywhere, USA

    would be:

    Susan Smith
    123 Northwest First Street East
    Anywhere, USA

    I think it looks better, but I'm not the authority :)
    I agree with you on that. It looks better when you write it all out. It also depends on what type of "feel" or "look" your invites are going to have.

    If you're doing really elegant, classy or formal - I would write everything out. That's what we did for ours.

    For more laid back and casual, I don't see anything wrong with abbreviations.


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  • CLI242009 said:
    Jennja22 said:
    I don't know the exact rule, but personally I would write it all out.  Like this:

    Susan Smith
    123 NW 1st Street E
    Anywhere, USA

    would be:

    Susan Smith
    123 Northwest First Street East
    Anywhere, USA

    I think it looks better, but I'm not the authority :)
    I agree with you on that. It looks better when you write it all out. It also depends on what type of "feel" or "look" your invites are going to have.

    If you're doing really elegant, classy or formal - I would write everything out. That's what we did for ours.

    For more laid back and casual, I don't see anything wrong with abbreviations.


    I think this is what I'm going to do. Then you don't have to worry lol. I think I'll still abbreviate P.O boxes though.
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  • CLI242009 said:
    Jennja22 said:
    I don't know the exact rule, but personally I would write it all out.  Like this:

    Susan Smith
    123 NW 1st Street E
    Anywhere, USA

    would be:

    Susan Smith
    123 Northwest First Street East
    Anywhere, USA

    I think it looks better, but I'm not the authority :)
    I agree with you on that. It looks better when you write it all out. It also depends on what type of "feel" or "look" your invites are going to have.

    If you're doing really elegant, classy or formal - I would write everything out. That's what we did for ours.

    For more laid back and casual, I don't see anything wrong with abbreviations.


    I think this is what I'm going to do. Then you don't have to worry lol. I think I'll still abbreviate P.O boxes though.
    I had a couple of P.O. Boxes and I had my calligrapher write Post Office Box out for me and then P.O.

    I went with P.O just because it looked so much better and we have a mailman in the family, he said that most mailmen are used to seeing P.O Box....if you do Post office box it might end up at the actual post office...LOL
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  • ^^^ What @CLI242009 said! FFIL is a letter carrier and he says it can get confusing when things are not addressed according to the USPS standard. Mail is still sorted by hand when it reaches the town it's being delivered in. These guys literally sling each piece of mail into a little slot for the specific addresses, and it has to be done in the morning before they go out to deliver. When things aren't addressed to standard, it can get misread very easily.
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  • edited January 2014
    @CLI242009

    I am kind of confused because I thought that PO Boxes aka Post Office boxes ARE in the post office...so wouldn't it be correct if it ends up at the actual post office? Or am I being dense? lol

    EDITED - quote fail.
  • @CLI242009 I am kind of confused because I thought that PO Boxes aka Post Office boxes ARE in the post office...so wouldn't it be correct if it ends up at the actual post office? Or am I being dense? lol EDITED - quote fail.
    I'm sorry!! I just didn't make it clear enough. What our family mailman meant was the mailman might actually think it goes to the ACTUAL post office itself lol

    No you weren't being dense at all. I just didn't word it correctly. Sorry about that. =)
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