Invitations Etiquette

Answer:: Tradition has always held—and we've always been adamant about this—that it's tacky to include any gift information on the invitation. But we're going to start a revolution and say for the first time: Go to town! Registering for gifts is a service for your guests, so we think including registry information with your invitations should be no different than any other services you provide in the envelope, like maps with driving directions to the reception. However, we still maintain that putting any registry information on the actual invite is to be avoided at all costs—that's like saying no one will be admitted without a gift. If you're ordering full-on, formal engraved invites, spring for little matching cards that say something simple, such as "Brad and Jennifer have registered at Target and Bloomingdale's." But if you'd like to be more casual, use photocopied slips of paper instead of cards and put them either in the actual invitations or in save-the-date mailings. If bucking tradition gives you cold chills, stick with good old fashioned word-of-mouth. Guests can always find out where you're registered by asking your family and friends—whom you've already discreetly told—or by looking at the shower invitation (the only place where printing registry info has always been considered okay). And a personal wedding Web site is an ideal place to list your registry info.

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