Plus One Wedding Etiquette

Maybe space is very limited at your wedding venue. Maybe your idea of a wedding celebration is small and intimate. Or, maybe your budget just can’t accommodate everyone you’d like to invite. That’s when you…

1) start cutting your guest list
2) invite only those who are closest to you…and not their dates.

Plus one wedding etiquette is important, and we highly recommend making a firm decision right away in your wedding planning process. You and your future spouse will have to make a rule, such as “we only allow a plus one if the couple has been dating for more than 6 months.” Or, “we only allow a plus one if we have met and feel like we know the plus one.”

Creating a rule isn’t too difficult but communicating “no dates” with friends and/or family members is an uncomfortable task, which is why it’s best to handle it through properly wording your wedding invitations and addressing your envelopes.

Make sure your wedding invitation wording expresses that your event is private, intimate or small so guests get the hint that extra guests aren’t invited.

For example:
We invite you to join us
at our intimate wedding celebration
Saturday, December 28
Two thousand thirteen
at Holy Rosary Catholic Church
in the Marian chapel…

Then address your inner and outer envelopes with only the name of the guest invited. This, along with your wedding invitation wording, will make it clear that a “plus one” is not permitted.

Address your outer envelope like this:
Ms. Amy Richardson
12 Pleasant View Rd
Baltimore, Maryland 21117

Address your inner envelope with the first name: Amy

Sometimes the most important part of plus one wedding etiquette is knowing what to say if guests ask about bringing a date. Plan something nice, like: “We would love to meet your new boyfriend, but our reception venue is so small, we can’t possibly fit another guest. Let’s plan to get together after the wedding to get to know each other.”