How to address birth announcement envelopes, and collect the addresses in time
To address a birth announcement envelope, write the recipient's name, then the street address, then the postcode and town. That order, name first and town last, holds in the Netherlands, Germany and France. The spacing, the capitals and the place of your own address differ by country, and the slow part is getting the addresses at all, so start that list before the baby arrives.
When should you start collecting addresses?
Before the birth. The Dutch card shop Kaartje2go advises collecting the addresses about two months before the birth, which leaves time to chase the missing ones, and warns that collecting addresses can take a while, obvious as that sounds.
An app can do the asking. In the Netherlands, the PostNL app has an address request (adresverzoek): in the app you go to your account, choose the address requests, pick a purpose such as "Geboortekaartje", and send the request, for example over WhatsApp with a personal message. The addresses then arrive in the PostNL app on their own, and you can keep them in separate lists. Kaartje2go has an address requester of its own, which asks friends and family over a messaging app to fill in their address.
Whatever tool you use, the list is the same work as deciding who gets a card. Our guide to when to send birth announcements and how many to order helps you count households first.
How do you write the address on the envelope?
Name first, town last. The three postal services we checked agree on that order and differ in the small print:
| Netherlands (PostNL) | Germany (Deutsche Post) | France (La Poste) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lines | 3 to 6 | no blank line between them | at most 6 |
| Postcode | a space between the digits and the letters, then 2 spaces before the town | before the town on the same line | 5 digits, on the same line as the town |
| Capitals | the town | not stated | recommended from line 3, required on line 6 |
| Also | printed: preferably no underlining or italics | left-aligned, at least 15 mm from the left, right and bottom edges and 40 mm from the top | at most 38 characters per line, no punctuation or italics |
Three notes. PostNL's addressing page lists the name, then the street name and house number, then the postcode and town. Deutsche Post wants it left-aligned, dark on a plain light background. La Poste recommends common abbreviations such as "av." for avenue or "bd." for boulevard to stay within its 38 characters.
Sending a card to another country? The rules depend on where you post it. From Germany, Deutsche Post asks you to write the town in capitals, ideally in the destination country's language, and the country in capitals on the last line, in German, French or English, and never to put a country code such as NL or F before the postcode. So a card from Germany to the Netherlands ends on a line that says NIEDERLANDE, NETHERLANDS or PAYS-BAS. From the Netherlands, PostNL asks for the town and the destination country in capitals and in English, and for a return address in the Netherlands, small but legible at the top left of the front, with the word "afzender" or "retouradres" before it.
Where do your own address and the stamp go?
The stamp goes top right. La Poste explains that this leaves room to its left for the mark that validates the posting, and Deutsche Post puts the stamp in the same corner. For France, La Poste's page on sending a faire-part suggests a stamp that suits the event: it issues a new collection of Cœur (heart) stamps every year and calls them ideal for birth announcements.
Your own address, the sender, depends on the country:
- Netherlands: PostNL says that when you write the address by hand, the sender goes on the back of the envelope. With a printed address label or a window envelope, the sender goes top left, on one line instead. For the sender, PostNL adds, the postcode and house number can be enough. Abroad, always add one, at the top left of the front, as described above.
- Germany: Deutsche Post asks you to write on the front only, with the sender top left and the recipient bottom right, and to give the sender address in full.
- France: La Poste's guide to addressing a letter, in its postman's tips, advises writing your sender address on the back of the envelope.
Posted within the Netherlands, an envelope addressed by hand carries your address on the back; a German one carries it on the front.
Whose names go on the envelope?
Kaartje2go frames it as a choice between a formal and an informal form of address, and gives examples of both. Formal is "Familie Jansen" for a family, or "De heer en mevrouw Jansen-Benali" for the parents only. Informal is "Han, Nadia en de kinderen", or every name written out, as in "Han, Nadia, Tahmina en Amira".
Settle the style for the whole list once, so you are not deciding it again halfway down the pile.
What comes in the pack?
Every card pack comes with one plain white envelope per card: a C5 envelope for the folded A5 cards and a C6 for the flat A6 postcards. They are blank, so the addresses are yours to write, by hand or on printed labels, following your country's rules above.
If your list is ready, start your cards in the editor and pick the pack size there. If the words inside are what holds you up, our guide to birth announcement wording has messages you can copy.