Invitations

Depending on the nature of the event, the invitation may be in a formal or semiformal format. The following examples provide general guidelines. There are numerous variations depending on the number of hosts, the ranks of the officials attending the event and other considerations. For protocol guidance on a specific event, please consult with staff at the Board of County Commissioners' Division of Protocol.

General Invitation Instructions

Use the formats below for formal invitations:
And follow these rules of thumb:
- There are no abbreviations in formal invitations. However, if the RSVP instructions include an address, you may abbreviate street, avenue, and boulevard, etc., as well as provide the two-letter postal code for states along with the ZIP code.
- "The Honorable" should not be used on an invitation that the official extends. "It's a distinction bestowed by someone else on a person, not the person on himself," according to Leticia Baldrige in her book New Manners for New Times, 2003.
In a semiformal invitation
- It is permissible to use Arabic numerals for numbered streets and roads, and also to add "st," "nd," "rd" or "th"
- In dates, there is no "st,", "nd," "rd" or "th" after day of the month
- Do not include the two-letter postal code and ZIP code. The address and city is sufficient
- The year of the event is optional unless excluding it would introduce uncertainty
- If the event occurs on the hour, exclude ":00"
- 12 p.m. should be written as noon, and 12 a.m. should be written as midnight

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