Mr. and Mrs. ——
request your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Katherine
to
Mr. ——,
Thursday, February the twenty-eighth,
at twelve o'clock.
Grace Church,
Broadway and Tenth Street.
Also:
Mr. and Mrs. ——
request the honor of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Annie
to
Mr. ——
on (etc.).Mr. and Mrs. ——
request your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Myra Raymond
to
Mr. ——,
Thursday, February the twenty-eighth,
at twelve o'clock.
Grace Church,
Broadway and Tenth Street.Mr. and Mrs. ——
request the honor of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Annie
to
Mr. ——
on Tuesday morning, November twenty-seventh,
at half past eleven o'clock.
St. Leo's Church,
East Twenty-eighth Street.
——
Please present this card at
St. Leo's Church,
November twenty-seventh.
English form:
Mr. and Mrs. ——
request the pleasure of
Lord and Lady ——'s
company at
St. Peter's, Eaton Square,
on Saturday, November 4th, at two o'clock,
on the occasion of the marriage of their daughter
Margaret and —— ——,
and afterward at 1 Grosvenor Square.
R. S. V. P. ——
Admit bearer
to
St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square,
on November 4th, 1895, at two o'clock.
If the bride whom a bachelor is marrying is a widow and lives in her own house, the invitations to the church and the reception, or to either or both, would read simply, "The pleasure of your company is requested at the wedding," etc., with a separate card bearing the word reception and stating the hour and address.
Should there be no guests at the wedding, and should it be conducted very quietly or privately, it is necessary that announcement cards be sent out after the event has taken place. These are issued in the name of the bride's parent, parents, or guardian, who simply announce "the marriage of their daughter [or ward] Elizabeth to Mr. Henry Smith Walcott, Thursday, June the twentieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six." In the left-hand corner is placed the address of those sending out the cards. A card is also inclosed with the names of the newly married couple, their address, and their reception day. Should there be neither parents nor guardians, the parties to the contract can announce it themselves with one card thus: "Mr. William Benham Thorne and Miss Eleanore Taylor, married on Thursday, November the seventh, eighteen hundred and ——, New York." Another card can also be inclosed, on which is the new address of the married couple, as well as their day at home. If it is a church wedding, and there are neither guardians nor parents, you can use the form, "You are invited to be present at the wedding of ——," etc.
A too rigid economy should not be observed in the sending of wedding invitations, and the prospective bridegroom should see that this is carried out. In case there are several members of a family, it is good form to inclose an invitation to each; thus, Mr. and Mrs. Algernon Smith, the Misses Smith, and Messrs. Smith making three smaller envelopes inclosed in the larger one addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Algernon Smith.
As I have advised in the chapter on Cards, your pasteboard should be left at the house of those in whose name the invitations are issued, even if you are asked only to the church. If to the reception, you owe two visits of "digestion"—one to the bride's parents and one to the happy pair.