Wedding Invitations

Envelopes For Wedding Invitations

The wedding invitation has its long time history. Who would’ve thought that this traditional piece of paper containing the wedding ceremony information dates back since long before the middle ages?

The tradition of wedding invitations dates back several centuries ago, more exactly in the eighteen century, when the members of the English and the French aristocracy had the custom of sending them among themselves and even to the royal families, being just another form of entertainment for the wealthy.

Since the postal services were not invented or should I say, not that developed, the messengers used horses in between towns to deliver the wedding invitation.

The written invitations were sealed with wax and included the symbol of the family of the bride and groom, known as the coat of arms or family crest; only after that the invitations were delivered through a courier.

Since there were no “addresses” to mail them to, people would often use directional signs to guide the courier to reach the correct destination: these could’ve been a bridge, an inn, a forest, a known road, etc.

Some were not that reliable as to deliver the wedding invitation without dirtying or ripping it 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.

Today’s wedding invitation envelops come in all different shapes and sizes, designs or colors, matching with the invitation inside or with your theme wedding party.

Usually these envelops come as a large outer envelope and an inner small one containing the actual wedding invitation; they either have a simple design or are lined in foil of different colors; the envelops are made of parchment, the torn edge of the paper giving it a handmade look, vellum, heavy paper, “pochette” shaped or in rectangular and square shapes.

Like for the wedding invitations, the etiquette for wedding envelops demands that they are hand-addressed or engraved, preferably the first option.

The wording used for the envelopes is very important and below are some relevant examples to sustain this affirmation.

If the wedding invitation is addressed to a married couple, the wording on the outer envelope would be: “Mr. and Mrs. John Sorry “and for the inner: “Mr. and Mrs. Sorry”; for a married couple, both being doctors, on the outer: “The Doctors Sorry” and inner: “The Doctors Sorry”; if they have teenage children, on the outer envelope you should write: “Mr. and Mrs. John Sorry ” on the next line the name of the children or if the child is smaller add to the parent’s name: “ and family” and on the inner just write: “Mr. and Mrs. Sorry, Sarah and Tim”; if the wife is still using her maiden name, for the outer envelope the wording should be: “ Ms. Jane Willis and Mr. Tom Stanton”, and for the inner: “Ms. Willis, Mr. Stanton”; for a single woman, outer: “Miss or Ms. Jane Willis”, inner: “Miss or Ms. Jane Willis”; for a single man, outer envelope: “Mr. Tom Stanton”, inner: “Mr. Stanton”; to a single man or woman and guest, outer: “Mr. Terence Ball”, inner: “Mr. Terence Ball and Guest”.

It is true that the formal wording sometimes is not used, particularly among close relatives, because the addressing form seems rather cold, but if you would like to stick to the tradition make sure to gather some information about the wording for the wedding invitations envelops and choose what is right for you.