Indigo Envelope

Dates, Times, Punctuation and Address Style

There are so many ways to write the details of your event. It comes down to a matter of style and tradition. Above all, the most important thing is to make sure that these details, such as dates and times, are communicated simply and clearly.

The most traditional, formal style is to put the date of the month before the month. Ex: “the fourth of May” rather than “May fourth.” For the most formal invitations, you could say “the fourth day of May.”

The year is spelled out. We think it is best to include the “and” in the year. Ex: “two thousand and fifteen.” For the most formal invitations, you could say “in the year two thousand and fifteen.”

Some people prefer to capitalize the year of their event. Others stick to the traditional format that only proper nouns are capitalized. If you want to avoid debating capitalization altogether, we recommend using a font with all capital letters. (That also looks fabulous on many invitations, especially when paired with an elegant calligraphic font for names and accents.)

We recommend spelling out the names of states in invitations of any level of formality. There is also no reason to abbreviate parts of street addresses in most invitations, even if they are casual.

You do not have to include a street address or even a city and state if the location of the event will be obvious to your guests just by its name.

Prepositions: You can leave out the “on” before the date and the “at” before the location if you like. It does make the invitation seem more streamlined.

Formal Style for Dates, Times, Addresses

on Sunday, the fourth of May

two thousand fourteen

at half past three o’clock in the afternoon

at Saint Philip’s Episcopal Church

1234 Some Street

City, State

. . . . . . . . . .

OR

. . . . . . . . . .

Sunday, the fourth day of May

in the year two thousand and fourteen

at ten o’clock in the morning

Saint Philip’s Episcopal Church

1234 Some Street

City, State

. . . . . . . . . .

Punctuation: An Invitation is like a Poem

The traditional style is to leave out almost all punctuation, except for a comma between a city and a state and between the day of the week and the date of the month. You can include periods if this seems odd to you, but the tradition is to consider invitation text like poetry without a lot of punctuation.

Leaving a blank line at intervals in your invitation can also help highlight or distinguish separate pieces of information.

. . . . . . . . . .

You can use less formal language if that’s your style and perhaps if you’re trying to create a more contemporary invitation. Just be consistent throughout your invitation package if you adopt an alternative style.

Casual Style for Dates, Times, Addresses

on Sunday, May 4th, 2014

at 6 p.m.

at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church

1234 Some Street

City, State

. . . . . . . . . .

OR

. . . . . . . . . .

12 noon Sunday

May 4, 2014

St. Philip’s Episcopal Church

1234 Some Street

City, State

. . . . . . . . . .

Abbreviations

In casual wording, things such as dates may not be spelled out and some abbreviations can be used. Many people like to add the “st” or “th” to the date to help distinguish it from the year. The abbreviations for ante meridiem and post meridiem, a.m. and p.m., indicate whether an hour is before noon or after noon. Because these are abbreviations, we often prefer to use periods, although some people do drop the periods as part of their style. You will also see times written casually as 1:00 p.m. or 10:30 a.m.