Wedding Invitations and their Origins
Every bride wants to send out unique wedding invitations to her friends and family. Why did people start sending written wedding invitations? What were the protocols that applied to wedding invitations and unique wedding invitations? Does everyone still send written invites to all of their friends and family?
Unique wedding invitations have been being crafted for many years. Before the 1700s there are documented cases of wedding invitations being discovered. There were some unique wedding invitations discovered inside a cave. These formal invites dated back to a time before 1700. So it seems that brides and their families always wanted to be able to let people know of their upcoming nuptials.
In the early 1700s it was very popular to announce the upcoming event rather than to send formal wedding invitations out. The theory is that the majority of people were not able to read at this time, and the post took so long to deliver the unique wedding invitations that the marriage ceremony would likely be over before the guests received their invitations.
The verbalized announcements were generally made in town, or in church, or in an area where a lot of people would be gathered. This was done so that more people would hear of the upcoming event. It was generally understood that anyone that heard the announcement was considered to be welcome to attend the ceremony, and most of the time, it was acceptable for the people who heard the announcement to pass the word along to others that may not have been in the gathering at the time it was made. Sometimes a town crier was employed to walk through the streets of the town announcing the couple’s plans to wed, the date, and the location of the ceremony.
When written invites were used during these early days the writing on them was often done by Monks. Monks were very practiced and talented at calligraphy so they were frequently hired to handwrite each of the invites. Of course only wealthy families could afford such extravagances as this.
Engraving the writing onto paper using metal plates was a popular method of making these items. Of course when they were engraved in this manner they were very easily smudged. Once smudged the writing was indecipherable. People began to place soft tissue inside the envelopes with their engraved papers so that the soft tissue would protect the writing. This is still done to this day although the way the items are engraved now they will not smudge like they did then.
In days gone by delivery of written letters was not exactly an easy thing to have done. The mail was unreliable, at best. Often the people that sent items such as these sent them via a private courier. The courier was often on horseback and the letter often arrived dirty, and disheveled. To make certain that the intended guest received a nice announcement the people sending the announcements would place them in an envelope, and then place that envelope into another one. When the courier arrived with the letter the maid or the butler would open the first envelope and then give their employer the clean one that was inside. To this day we still send these announcements in two envelopes instead of one.
Unique wedding invitations are done by many different engraving companies, and they are done free hand, it all depends on what the bride and groom wish. Wedding invitations have been handed out throughout history, but verbal announcements are also acceptable.
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