Birth Announcements and Addoption

• What to include on an announcement
• The name of the baby and, if the baby has a nickname, provide it in quote marks underneath his or her name.
• You will also want to include the date, the time, the weight, the names of the parents, even if they're not married
• If you have twins put their names on both sides of the announcement, so there is no question that they are 2 different babies instead of 1 very long name
• If you have adopted a child of course, an announcement is always appropriate to let people know you have added another person to your family. Include the date the child was born on even if it is two or three years previously. And that's all you have to say. If you want you can say the country of origin from which he came.
• When to send the announcement
• Send out the announcement no later than 6 months after the baby is born or six months from the date of adoption

SOCIAL INVITATIONS
What to include on an invitation

• Social Invitations should include the Date (including the day of the week), Time and Location and are recommended in that order.
• According to etiquette, shower invitations should not have registration information. However, for convenience, it has become acceptable.
• As a courtesy, a name should accompany the RSVP (it’s nice to have a name when calling to RSVP ) or you can use “Regrets only” and also consider a date to reply by. The word “please” is not necessary, as it is included in RSVP.
• Theme parties usually require some extra planning on the guest’s part (dressing up, extra items to bring etc.) be sure to include that information on your invitation.
• If you are having a shower, we suggest including the word “shower” on your invitation so that it is clear to guests, rather than stating it as a celebration or party.
• When to send an invitation
• Special occasion invitations (Christening, Baptism, Confirmation, Bar Mitzvah etc.) should be sent 4-6 weeks before the RSVP date.
• Invitations should be sent out 3-4 in advance of an informal party. 

No Gifts Please

• When the guest of honor does not want to receive gifts, a nice way of saying that on an invitation is plainly “No gifts please”.

Multiple Hosts Giving a Party

• If there more than one host for an event the best way to word the invitation is as follows:
• An event hosted by a business, you have to list the hosts in order of rank. The CEO's name comes first; the President's comes second, the Vice President, Chairman, etc., the Board of Directors underneath that.
• If it's just informal, if four people are giving a cocktail party of equal, four managers list them across the top alphabetically (by last name) -- George Abbott, Mary Barnes, David Edison -- across the top. If you have to explain their titles or the companies they are with, do it vertically. List them alphabetically and put George Abbott, Western Electric Company. Mary Barnes, Sears and Roebuck...that kind of thing so they all know who these people represent.
• In a social situation, bridesmaids throwing a shower, for example, the names are still in alphabetical order with one exception.  The only exception to this rule if it is at one bridesmaid's home, you would put her name first.

Time, Date and Place

• On a formal invitation you write out "Four O'clock". You don't use p.m. and a.m. With a more informal occasion you don't need to send an invitation with "Four p.m." written out, everyone's going to know it's not four in the morning.
• Write out the month, don't abbreviate it. Put the numbers, and forget the year. That's for formal invitations, unless it's a New Year's Day Party -- then you want to make that year stand out
• If time is an issue, it is not rude to put an end time.  You must absolutely do it and plan to turn the bar off 30 minutes later. People need to know that so they can arrange their dinner dates, their pick up times for the children, everything. It's helpful for everyone.

RSVP or Regrets Only

• Regrets only is negative. You're asking only the people who aren't going to come to your party to make themselves known. Most times people who are not going to show aren't going to bother to contact you either. With an RSVP you get to hear the good with the bad and get excited about your event.

No RSVP?

• Not our recommendation, but many people are doing that now because nobody RSVPs anyway. You just have to take a guess at how many people you'll get. If you're in a large city and it rains, you're going to lose two-thirds of the party, your guest list. If you're in a small town, you're going to have 95% show up. You just figure on where you are and what the weather is and make a calculated guess.

Etiquette for Wedding Invitations:

Time, Date and Place

• Whenever possible, avoid abbreviations, such as street addresses, cities or states on the invitation.
• Zip codes are not typically included on a wedding invitation or reception card.
• Date, time and year should be spelled out.
• If your wedding is before noon, it is considered morning. If it is between noon and 5:59 p.m., it is considered afternoon. Evening hours begin after 6:00 p.m.
• The bride or the bride’s family typically takes the replies for the wedding.

• Wording on a wedding invitation
• On wedding invitations, “the honour of your presence” is reserved for ceremonies held on sanctified grounds (i.e., church, temple etc.) It is recommend to use, “the pleasure of your company” when the wedding takes place outside of religious grounds.
• Write out names in full, including middle names. Omit a middle name if necessary, rather than using an initial.
• It's appropriate to use the British spelling for "honour" and "favour", unless you prefer to use the American spelling of these words.
• Spell out all words, including the hour, the date and the year. Spell out all words in the address, including Street, Road and Avenue. The two exceptions to this rule in an address are Saint (St.) and Mount (Mt.)
• Use Roman numerals in names, rather than "the third" or "3rd."

Courtesy to your Guests
When sending a Reply Set with an invitation, as a courtesy to your guest, we recommend two things:

•   Printing a return address on the front of the Reply Envelope and

 2.  Providing the envelope already stamped.
Order extra wedding invitations and outer envelopes

• We recommend that you order a set of 25 extra invitations and envelopes. You always want to order more invitations than you think you will need. You never know, you might want to add on some guests after the first invitations go out and you will definitely discover people you forgot to include in the first go around.  You will also find that when had addressing or printing your envelopes there will be mistakes, so this will ensure that you have room for errors.