Dancing. 221 Thirty-fifth Street.
The correct form of invitation for an entertainment where an elocutionist is to be the principal feature is worded as follows:
Mrs. James Smith requests the pleasure of Mr. and Mrs. Brown’s company on Thursday evening, December the first, at eight o’clock.
124 Jewell Avenue.
Reading by Professor William White.
An invitation to a rose or lawn party might read thus:
| Mrs. James Smith. The Misses Smith. at home Tuesday evening, June the twenty-eighth, at eight o’clock. | |
| rose party 212 Sheridan Avenue. | to meet The Misses White. |
In writing invitations for a club for which one is acting as secretary it would be wise to put them in the third person, and then there would be no embarrassment about the arrangement of names.
The words “reception” and “at home” are synonymous. Each means an entertainment which takes place between certain stated hours in the afternoon or evening, where refreshments are served, and no especial order of amusement is provided, unless it is specified in the invitations. To a “reception” or “at home” the hostess generally sends invitations to all on her calling list. These large functions are usually given for some especial purpose; as, to introduce a débutante into society, to celebrate a wedding anniversary, or for the bride and groom after the wedding ceremony, or merely that the hostess may meet all her friends.
There is, however, a decided distinction between a reception or an “at home” and a tea or “days.” An invitation to the first is engraved on a sheet of note paper or a large sized card, and is formally worded. The hours for the afternoon function are usually from four until seven, and one may expect to find at the house or place of entertainment decorations of flowers and greens, and quite an elaborate repast provided; but an invitation to a tea or to “days” does not imply that anything but the simplest kind of menu will be served, nor that any but simple preparations will be made. The invitations to the latter entertainments may be the hostess’s visiting cards with the address and “tea at four o’clock” written in one corner; or if the hostess prefers to receive informally on more than one day, she may have the form “Fridays,” or “Fridays in February,” or “First and third Fridays in February,” or whatever days she chooses, written or engraved on her cards.