To meet
The Bishop of Albany
Mr. and Mrs. William Astor
request the pleasure of
........................................
company at dinner
on...........................evening
at.............................o’clock
401 Armstrong Street
For dinners to which only a small number of persons are invited and these mutually acquainted, the formal mode of invitation is not required. A simple note is sufficient.
31 Hamilton Place,
March 7th, 1919
My Dear Mrs. Robinson:
Will you and Mr. Robinson, if disengaged, give us the pleasure of your company at dinner on Friday the thirteenth, at half-past seven o’clock?
Yours sincerely,
Edith MacArthur
This form may be varied according to the taste of the writer and the degree of intimacy with the person to whom the invitation is sent.
When it becomes necessary to invite some one to take the place of a guest who is unable to be present, this late invitation should not be of the formal sort, but should be contained in a note frankly explaining the circumstances. Such invitations, of course, are never made to merely formal acquaintances.
The custom formerly prevailed of writing the initials R.s.v.p., on the dinner invitations, the initials of the French words, répondez, s’il vous plaît (reply if you please). But this usage has lost favor.