33 invitations to 3 houses

ellone400 · February 2012

we are inviting 3 different households that have 10 children each do i have to send 11 invites to each house?

Pburke2010 · February 2012

In my opinion, no. I would say "The Smith Family" or

Jane and John Smith

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H... etc on the second line

I'm not sending an invite to every kid.

banana468 · February 2012

As Edielaura said, how many children are over 18?

DH comes from a large family so I can relate. Cousins under 18 were invited on their parents' invitation but those over 18 received their own invitations even if they still lived in the same home.

I would advise against 'The Smith Family'. It's not appropriate, ambiguous and may only lead to confusing responses.

meganb1977 · February 2012

I think the proper/old-fashioned rule is that any children over 18 in the same household should receive their own invitation, but anyone under 18 can be listed with the parents, i.e. "Mr. and Mrs. John Smith" on the outer envelope, and then on the inner envelope "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" on one line and the minor children's names i.e. "James, Mary, and Joseph" beneath. But I don't think most people pay much attention to those things...our neighbor didn't know that since she is a widow it was correct to address her as "Mrs. John Smith." And it does seem silly to send more than one invitation to the same address! If you address the invitation to the parents and then list all the children of whatever ages under their parents' names on the inner envelope I think people would be fine with it. But I'm struggling with this myself as we have a couple of families with adult children at home and two of fiance's aunts share an address. If you have an inner envelope where you can list the children's names it should prevent any confusion.

coraleetbwed · February 2012

We have a household with 3 adults and 4 kids over 18. They would even think it was ridiculous to send 7 invitations, so I'm doing Mr. and Mrs. and list the kids under the parents' names in age order - oldest to youngest, and then a separate invitation for the other adult in the household.

I know these people extremely well and know they could care less. I think good sense has to prevail.

banana468 · February 2012

Keep in mind that adult children often lead rather separate lives from their parents.

StackNacey275 · February 2012

You can send an invite to unmarried adult siblings all living together. So, I would advise sending one to parents and children under 18:

Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
Curly, Larry, and Moe Smith (I've heard both listing them oldest to youngest or in alphabetical order is correct, personally, I would do oldest to youngest)

Then a single one to any adult children living at home, each name on a separate line:

Miss Jane Smith
Mr. James Smith
Mr. Robert Smith

The inner envelope would be the place to add "and guest" next to their names, if applicable, or to really follow ettiquette, make a phone call and learn any boyfriend/girlfriend names and include them on the inner envelope.

Again, I've heard to do this a couple different ways: ladies first, alphabetically, oldest to youngest.... personally, I don't think that anyone is going to be offended as far as the order in which their name appears on the invitation, particularly considering that these will most likely be young people in their late teens or 20's (I know, especially at that age, I wouldn't), but it does take all kinds, so who knows....

This should get you down from 33 invites to about 6.

33 invitations to 3 houses

Re: 33 invitations to 3 houses

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