Verbal invitations should be avoided as much as possible, and if a verbal one is given, it should be followed immediately by one in writing.
ACCEPTING OR DECLINING. Invitations to all entertainments, when answers are expected, should be acknowledged by a written letter of acceptance or regret. The answer should be sent to the person or committee issuing the invitation.
Invitations to dinners, musicales, weddings, and breakfasts should be answered at once, and those to balls, dances, and receptions within one week.
Invitations to ordinary "At Homes," teas, or weddings, which do not include invitations to the wedding breakfast or reception, need no acknowledgment.
The invitations sent to a family—as, mother, or daughter, or several daughters— may be answered by one person for all. But invitations sent to the men of the family should be answered by each man.
When it is found necessary to decline after accepting an invitation, a card should be sent the evening of the entertainment with an explanatory letter the day following.
BALLS. Invitations to balls or assemblies should be answered immediately, and if declined the ticket should be returned.
DANCING. While a woman may accept or decline
any invitation to dance, it is considered a
discourteous act to refuse one man and to accept
thereafter from another an invitation to
the same dance.
WEDDINGS. Such invitations should be answered
at once, except when the invitation does not
include an invitation to the wedding reception
or breakfast, in which case no answer is
needed.
ADDRESSING. When invitations are sent to a husband and wife and daughter, only one envelope is needed, the daughter's name appearing under her parents. Separate envelopes should be addressed to two daughters—as, Misses Wilson.