Invitation Etiquette – Post One – Why it matters

One of the perks of hiring a custom stationery designer is that you get full access to our knowledge and experience in the area of invitation etiquette. I hear all the time “I haven’t been married before so I don’t know how this is supposed to work”. Don’t worry! I will take the guesswork out of it for you. What I usually instruct my couples to do is fill my form out with the information – just fill in the blanks. If you have a tricky situation with step parents or anything else, just give me the who’s who and I will set it up according to “the rules”. The rules are the etiquette guidelines that have been handed down for many years. Why bother with some antiquated rules? It comes down to manners and people’s feelings. You would never want to offend someone with your invitation to the happiest day of your life. Or look back on your invitation in your scrapbook and know that something was incorrect. Your invitations set the tone for your event and in many ways the beginning of the next chapter in your life. You want them to be perfect and joyous. 
​     Whose rules are they? Well, I use Crane & Co.’s Blue Book of Stationery but I also refer to Emily and Peggy Post when needed. It is a great book, it covers wedding invitations, general invitations, monograms thank you notes and every day correspondence. It is a handy book to have on hand for addressing envelopes as well because it gives you the correct titles and forms of address for many professions including politicians and military officials. It is very handy to have   on hand – don’t trust just googling you will see many people confused about what is polite and what is not. 
     So I will start writing every so often on one topic of stationery etiquette or another in this blog. If you have questions or concerns about etiquette please let me know and I will be sure to address them.