Wedding Invitations

Antique Wedding Invitations

The custom of sending the wedding invitations is antique and we can trace its roots way back in the roman era or in the middle age era but the popularity of the wedding invitations as we all know today increased only in the seventeenth until the nineteenth century. People from lower social classes were just too poor and uneducated to write and read so the invitation to a wedding was issued out loud, verbalized or the word was spread among close family members.

The members of the high society and royalty entertained themselves with rich and opulent parties and usually a wedding was pompously celebrated and it was announced with the help of the wedding invitations sealed in their double envelope until they’ve reached their main destination. Basically, this method of entertainment was exclusively practiced by the members of the aristocracy, especially the French and English one.

The design of the antique wedding invitation, back in the beginning, was simple and the basic information about the wedding was hand written on a white card with an added family crest or coat of arms. Nowadays the simple wedding invitations still have their adepts but the hand calligraphy is an expensive method so cheaper printing techniques such as thermography were invented to make the mass production of invitation faster and easier.

In the beginning of the twentieth century this custom was adopted by people from all social ranks because education no longer seemed to be an important problem; if people were still too poor to buy and send the wedding invitations with the new postal transport an alternative would’ve been to announce the wedding in a local or national newspaper.

Thermography, although it’s inexpensive, creates a beautiful raised letter or patterned effect so it’s the best alternative to the hand written text. The design of the wedding invitations has to do a lot with the selected theme of the wedding, which became increasingly popular over the last decades especially since not all people could afford planning the wedding in exotic destinations/ locations of the world. For a classic wedding you have the choice of selecting the wedding invitations with an antique or classical design.

The wording for the wedding invitations is probably more important than the design; for example you will face some minor embarrassments in front of your invited guests if any spelling mistakes are made or if you use a wrong language style to address them or wrong honorifics. The best suggestion is to read again the information written on each invitation card, with fresh eyes, to spot these errors.

On the internet sites the online invitations manufacturers will give you the possibility of viewing numerous samples of wedding invitations with antique designs which are also available for sale.

The wording etiquette usually demands the use of a formal language to issue the wedding invitations but the modern and less strict alternative is the use of a non-traditional wording style. This means that you have the possibility of using your own words to express the inviting and add other wedding informational details you find necessary for your guests to know.

The fact remains that the invitations should contain information about the wedding location, the address, some directional signs or a printed map, the time and date, the name of the future married couple and the name of the wedding hosts. Usually the information about the wedding ceremony and wedding reception is written on the same card or on separate ones, especially when the reception will follow the ceremony but in a different location at a particular hour or even date.

It’s the same as for the RSVP or the attendance response; this could be written on the same wedding invitation card or on a separate one and if the bride and groom are expecting only the non-attendance responses they will replace the requested RSVP with a phone number for contact and the expression “Regrets only”.

The variety of invitation cards with antique patterns is overwhelming: color combinations, shapes, sized, wording styles, themed invitations, etc. You can always use these samples as an inspiration source and make them yourself if you are confident enough in your artistic skills and dexterity.