With great regret I must write that I shall be unable to join your theatre party on Thursday evening, December the eighteenth. My two cousins are visiting me and we had planned to go to the Hippodrome.
I much appreciate your thinking of me.
Very sincerely yours,
Ruth Evans.
For an informal affair, if at all in doubt as to what kind of invitation to issue, it is safe to write a brief note in the first person.
Two or more sisters may receive one invitation addressed "The Misses Evans." But two bachelor brothers must receive separate invitations. A whole family should never be included in one invitation. It is decidedly not proper to address one envelope to "Mr. and Mrs. Elliott and family."
To an informal dance
Invitations to smaller and more informal dances may be short notes. Or a visiting card is sometimes sent with a notation written in ink below the hostess's name and toward the left, as shown below:
(A)
Mrs. John Evans
At Home
Dancing at half after nine 500 Park Avenue
January the eighteenth
R.S.V.P.