Ettiqute for invitation wording

TOESNTHESND · June 17, 2007

Ok girls, we are having a large AHR and I must find a way to let people know its adults only. Most normal people would think that if it is only addressed to Mr. & Mrs. then no kids are invited, but my dad's family has no clue!

For example my cousin is getting married 07/07/07 and I asked my dad if he got her invitation yet and he said "invitations, we're mexican!" WTF?! Are you serious! This is exactly what I do not want to happen to us. Also his parents are paying for the AHR and his mom thinks that this party is no place for children. They are paying so now I must get the word out. Someone save me!

wkbroome · June 17, 2007

We are having an AHR as well. On our invites it states...Adult Only Reception

When we placed the order for our invitations, we found that this was acceptable wording in almost every book we looked at. Hope this helps.

Christine · June 17, 2007

I have seen that many times as well, adults only reception.

NABUMBAH · June 17, 2007

Per the etiquette books, you should not make mention of "adult celebration" or "adult reception" on your invitation. You should just address the invitation to the adults in the family, excluding the names of children.

If you don't think that you can get the point across that the party is adults only by the above, you can put "adult celebration" or whatever on your invite. Another effective option that I have heard of is to hire an RSVP service. Your guests call the # on the response card rather than sending them in, and the person that you hire can give the guests all of the details of the party, including the fact that it is an adult-only affair. I have heard that this can be as cost effective as traditional response cards, which makes sense, especially considering that postage is $.41 now.