It’s hard to imagine a wedding without invitations. But in ancient days before the printing press, there were no such thing as invitations. Want to find out how wedding invitations came to be? Read on.
Before the printing press was invented in 1447, there was no standard way to disperse information to the masses. If something was in print it was because someone, usually a monk, hand copied it. Monks would spend their entire lives working on manuscripts that were ornately lettered and richly illustrated. People held parties and weddings back then, too. But their means of inviting guests was very different. They would often send out a town crier to announce that a wedding feast was being held. The whole town, and all within ear shot, would be invited.
That’s a far cry from the beautiful formal wedding stationery brides and grooms send out today. Written invitations like today’s wouldn’t have been possible even after the printing press advanced the dissemination of information. Most people were illiterate and so, only the richest and well educated upper crust could even read an invitation if they were to receive one. But slowly, the wedding invitation did catch on. Families of noble birth would send out invitations with their family seal on them.
When engraving became possible in the 1600s, things began to change. An engraver would painstakingly hand carve a metal plate backwards so that invitations could be printed. The process was costly, and the rising middle class who was starting to become wealthy could not only read, but also afford to have engraved invitations printed. These engraved invitations were printed with ink and to keep it from smearing, a layer of tissue paper would be placed on top of the invitation. That practice is carried through today even though invitations are no longer in danger of being smudged thanks to rapid-drying ink.
Why do brides have to buy two envelopes—and outer and an inner—to include in their invitations? That tradition stemmed from the time when invitations would be delivered by riders on horses. There was no reliable mail system, so brides protected their delicate invitations from being dirtied along the way to the recipient. They would place the invitation in an inner envelope and ensure that even if the envelope were to become soiled, the inner invitation would remain pristine.
As printing processes became more reliable and less labor-intensive, it became possible to produce large quantities of invitations. When machines were taking over in the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s, they took on the task of mass-producing invitations. Gone was the charm of the hand engraved invitation. But the ease of mass production meant wedding invitations cost less and were accessible to more people.
Today’s invitations can be anything from ultra-formal to chic and funky. It all depends on the couple’s personalities, but they can even make their own from special wedding invitation kits. The tradition still remains, and hopefully always will, that sending a hand addressed invitation is the best etiquette. People look for a thick wedding invitation in the mail and know that the bride and groom took care to put it together perfectly.
It may seem like a lot of work to do your invitations right, but it’s well worth it. After all, your invitations set the tone for what kind of wedding guests will be expecting.
More on Wedding Traditions:
- Wedding Traditions
- Who Pays for What at a Wedding?
- Tossing the Garter Tradition
- Wedding Superstitions
