When a bride is an orphan it is customary for the cards announcing her wedding to be sent in the name of one of her near relatives, or else they may read simply like the one given above.
Wedding announcement cards demand no acknowledgment from an acquaintance of the bride who lives at a distance, unless a “day” or “days” are mentioned on them, when it is obligatory to send visiting cards on the “day” or the first one of the “days;” otherwise, if one wishes to be particularly polite, one may send a visiting-card in acknowledgment of the announcement, but it is not obligatory to do so.
Wedding announcements are sent to friends at home as well as to those abroad, because the cards are supposed, not only to suggest remembrance, but to express a desire that the acquaintance should be continued after the name is changed.
The birth of a baby is announced in various ways, there being no especial rules of etiquette for making the announcement. Sometimes engraved cards bearing the baby’s name and date of birth are sent by themselves in small envelopes, into which they fit exactly; sometimes they go in an envelope with the mother’s visiting-card, and are written instead of engraved. These cards should be attached to the mother’s visiting cards by a piece of white baby ribbon, which is passed through a hole made in the top of both cards and tied in a tiny bow. They should be sent out when the mother is ready to receive calls.
WEDDING INVITATIONS.
Wedding invitations should be issued at least two weeks before the day of the affair.
It is customary for the bridegroom to give to the bride’s mother a list of his relatives and friends to whom he would like cards sent, and some member of the bride’s family attends to it.
When the guests at a wedding are limited to the immediate family, the invitations may be personal notes sent by the bride’s mother. The notes may read like the following:
My Dear Mary,—It will give us all much pleasure if you will come to the very quiet wedding of my daughter Catherine to Mr. John Martin, on Saturday, February the fourth, at twelve o’clock, and remain to the little breakfast that will follow the ceremony. Only the members of the family will be present. Hoping that you may be with us the fourth, I am,