Because it is not 1846, I refuse to address my invitations to “Mr. and Mrs. George Guestenbaum.”
But I do not know which of these alternatives is “more correct”
“Mr. and Mrs. George and Louise Guestenbaum” sounds more reasonable to me, but is also bugs me with its redundant “and”s. For what it is worth, it’s the APW-approved style of addressing a married couple with the same last name.
But I disagree with the second bit of advice in that piece, which is to put people with different last names on different lines. It is my understanding that it is proper to put married couples on the same line and unmarried couples on different lines (The only time I break this rule is for gay couples that hold themselves out as a married couple to the community even if their state won’t recognize their marriage). What do you think?
Regardless of how we set up that line break, when we address couples with different last names, who goes first?
And finally there is the issue of children. I realize that children over the age of 18 should get their own invitation, but that means that my little brother’s best friend gets his own invitation separate from his parents, which makes me feel OLD. But them’s the breaks.
For minor children, proper etiquette demands their names only go on the inner envelope, but we don’t have one of those. So what do we do?
Also, I really, really want to address a couple as “The Doctors Guestenbaum.” But the only married couple of two doctors we know has different last names. Feminism ruins my fun once again.
Thanks for voting and helping me sort out this mess. If you have any more rules I should know or tips for how to tweak them to make me not want to barf, please comment!