Wedding Invitations

Elite Wedding Invitations

This tradition of sending wedding invitations has a surprisingly long history and we can probably find its roots back in the dark times of the Middle Age or I could dare say, the Antiquity era.

Several centuries ago, the French and English aristocracy or their members exchanged wedding invitations among themselves just as another form of entertainment. Usually these wedding invitations were sent even to the royal families, so the act of sending wedding invitations was a privilege reserved only for the nobility.

This custom was soon adopted by people from all social ranks, but the elite wedding invitations stood out as being the most expensive wedding invitations, available only for the wealthy.

These invitations were usually, and still are, hand written; even in the middle ages this task was left in the care of educated people, with some degree of knowledge, like

the members of the nobility or monks; the written invitations were sealed with wax, adding to them the symbol of the family of the bride and groom, known as the coat of arms or family crest, and only after that the invitations were delivered through a courier. In that period of time there were no “addresses” to mail them to, so people would just use directional signs to guide the courier to reach to the correct destination: this could’ve been a bridge, an inn, a forest, a known road, etc.

The messengers would have most likely used horses or carriages in between towns to deliver the wedding invitation but they weren’t that reliable and wedding invitations would often get dirty or ripped even before they reached their destination, so the practice of the double envelope became popular.

When the invitation reached its destination, it was passed directly into the hands of a housemaid or butler who made sure to remove the outer envelope and pass the invitation in the inner envelope to the house master or mistress.

In some parts of the world, this expensive method of delivering the wedding invitations is still used, but it could be considered as just some eccentric form of showing off with your social status or wealth.

The wording used for the elite wedding invitations is very strict and formal so it would be appropriate to respect step by step the wording etiquette for wedding invitations.

The wedding invitations usually come from the bride’s home and should be mailed with six to eight weeks in advance. If some guests are out of town consider in sending a “save the date” card with some hotel suggestions and always add a RSVP date of minimum 2 weeks to your wedding invitations, to make the proper arrangements for the upcoming ceremony.

Of course, the ‘save the date’ cards should use a formal wording, but since we are talking about elite wedding invitations, you could consider sending them with months in advance and refrain of using the commonly ‘save the date’ card.

The double envelope is considered as a must and also make sure to use the proper wording to address the invitations to your guests.

Always request for the attendance response in time and plan the wedding ceremony in minute details.