A pretty and fashionable sequence to the announcement is for the bride to give a tea for the express purpose of receiving congratulations. She may mention it in her notes of announcement, and her fiancé may mention in his notes that she will be at home on a certain day at a certain hour. She should then receive with her mother or some older relative, and she should have some light refreshment provided for her callers. All her young friends will call, and all the relatives and near friends of her fiancé. The fiancé should be present at the tea, or he may come before it is over, but he should not formally receive with his betrothed.
Engagements are often announced in the newspapers.
Wedding announcements or invitations should be sent in envelopes addressed to the father and mother of the family, to the daughter or daughters (addressed as the Misses), and to each of the grown sons. All these invitations in their envelopes may be enclosed in an outside envelope addressed to the parents.
A wedding invitation or announcement card should always be addressed to both members of a married couple, even if the bride or groom who sends it is acquainted with only one.
The correct form for wedding announcement cards is as follows:
Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
announce the marriage of their daughter,
Anna
to
Mr. Frank Brown
on Saturday, October the twenty-second,
eighteen hundred and ninety-nine.
Washington, D. C.
The bride’s “at home” cards should be separate, but enclosed with the announcements, and should read as follows:
At Home
Tuesday afternoons in January.
125 West Fifteenth Street,
New York City.
Announcement cards should be sent out immediately after the wedding to every one on the bride’s and groom’s list. And, again, wedding announcement cards need not be sent out in any one’s name. The following is an example:
Married
on Wednesday, January the eighteenth,
eighteen hundred and ninety-nine
at St. Thomas’ Church
New York,
Margaret Baker White
to
William Barton.