Invitation Cards

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Invitation cards is the best possible way of saying how much you care for the person and how much the person’s presence will be appreciated. The presence of near and dear ones and also the well-wishers in any occasion makes it all the more special. The family members and friends enhance the beauty and the importance of even the most trivial occasions. Everyone comes with loads of blessings and good wishes that are strong enough to ward off any danger.

Invitation cards come in all shapes and sizes, as well as for all types of occasions. You get weddings cards, birthday party cards and baby shower cards. Important information must be included on an invitation for it to be useful. Then the creativity can begin. Some people prefer to buy their invitation cards, while others want to create them on their computers, and still more people make their own with cardstock and stickers.

The invitation cards are crafted with utmost care and are designed delicately to bring out the best way of inviting someone over for any occasion. The cards that are chosen by the hosts reflect his or her personality. The wedding cards and the engagement cards are the ones that are specially designed as it symbolizes one of the most auspicious occasion in one’s life.

Invitations could be mailed or emailed for the following occasions: birthday parties, anniversary parties, retirement parties, weddings, baby showers, wedding showers, holiday parties, home-decorating parties and jewelry parties. Invitation cards can be formal or informal. A formal invitation is more appropriate for a wedding, given that the wording will announce the bride and groom’s parents as well as the location of the ceremony and the date and time of the wedding. Formal invitation cards have certain etiquette about them, from their wording to how they are supposed to be addressed. Many wedding and professional-event planners can help you with formal invitations.

There are various types of invitation cards that are made using the modern techniques which make people keep them in their shelves or even use them as decorative materials for their homes. The invitation cards are for people of all ages like birthday parties for kids or beach party or business party for adults and are therefore designed to suit everyone’s needs.

A party like a Halloween party would most likely call for an informal invitation card decorated with pumpkins, witches and ghosts to make it look fun. The type of invitation card should match the occasion and purpose of the party. You don’t need a formal invitation for your child’s pirate-themed fourth birthday party.

The invitation cards are available on the internet as well and it is the most convenient way of sending an invite for the electronic media being the most powerful media. These invitation cards are excellent gestures that stay with a person even in his or her tough times when he or she can recollect those days of merriment and smile.

The Meaning of the Invitation Cards

Most likely you have received a formal invitation card to a wedding and pulled out two envelopes and the invitation itself and the tissue paper within that. The reason for all of those extra materials lays in the history of the invitation cards. Long ago when people of the aristocracy would throw a party, it was common to send a note to all that were invited. Reading and writing was a sign of wealth and importance and so to send a note also set your stature.

Before the printing press all notes were handwritten and folded into a piece of paper to protect it from getting dirty. This is what we use today as an envelope. These envelopes kept the notes clean and unread, as they were all sealed with a wax seal to ensure privacy to both the writer and the recipient. Being hand delivered prior to the postal service we have today was also a dirty job, giving one more reason to enclose the note prior to sending it. The reason the evolution of two envelopes came about was due to the fact that they were not used to be addresses to people’s homes. This made for a very lengthy set of directions to be given to the deliverer.

After the printing press was invented, many of the rich could afford to have their invitations printed and it again served as some marker of stature to have them made this way. The reason for the tissue paper in the invitation came from this event. As the invitation cards rolled off the press they were still wet and couldn’t be stacked or the ink would smear. Therefore, the printers came up with the idea of the tissues to keep the ink from smearing onto the card placed on top of it.

What of the truly old fashioned, hand written invitation cards? You can see that over the years, technology on has given you the ability to mimic the old traditions. Else why would we stick with inners, outers, tissues, envelope seals, raised ink, and engraving?

Consider this, while adhering to all the ‘old stuff’, the most important aspect of the invitation card has been ignored. Your invitation card is mass produced and is not directed to the recipient. Their name is missing.

Today, you can go the full circle. Now your Wedding Professional can flat print invitations each including the Guest’s name as part of the wording and you can do this with your computer. Even better, while all the social experts tell you to hand write those envelope addresses and to hand write the Guest’s name on the Respond Card, your Professional can print your entire wedding ensemble fully coordinated.

Things to Consider When Sending an Invitation Card

Some questions should be answered when you are creating an invitation card.

You need to tell the invitation recipients where the event is being held; include an address and even a phone number. If it is a wedding, retirement party or even a large birthday party, there may be a map included with the invitation card.

Don’t forget to tell the party guests when the party is going on by including the date and the time. Consider putting an ending time on the invitation card if you don’t want the party to last until the last guest decides it is time to go home.

Some invitations will even list the occasion. Why is this party being thrown? To celebrate John’s 20th birthday, or to wish Maria good luck before she moves to France?

The “what” question may need to be answered if you are having a potluck party or want people to bring their own bottle. What should your guests bring? What are you celebrating? What will be provided? The more information you can include on an invitation card, the better.

Don’t forget the RSVP message. You want to know how many guests to expect, so you can plan properly. Make sure your invited guests can either call or email you to let you know if they will attend. You can also include a response card, which is popular for wedding invitations. Make sure you include a self-addressed stamped envelope so your guests don’t have to pay to let you know if they are coming or not.

Prevention

Invitation cards can get lost in the mail. This can lead to hurt feelings if a good friend or a close family member does not receive his invitation card. If you haven’t heard back from a person whom you know usually responds to invitations, just give him a call or write a quick email to see if he received the invitation card in the mail.

If you are having a wedding reception where a meal is served, or for which a reception hall has been rented, you probably need to know the number of people who are planning to attend. Though you may provide self-addressed stamped envelopes for your wedding reply cards, people do not always get around to mailing them.

Time Frame

Invitation cards need to be sent out well before the event, especially in today’s busy world. Wedding invitations should be sent at least 6 weeks before the date of the wedding. Eight weeks is better for your guests, as many of them will need to make travel arrangements and ask for time off from work. For birthday parties, wedding and baby showers, and even retirement celebrations, it is important to give people at least a month to get the date on their calendars. It is not as crucial to send a birthday party invitation card as early as a wedding invitation. What about a holiday cards? Since there are so many parties around the end of the year, you may want to treat one of these like a wedding and send out announcements at the beginning of November.

The History of the Social Invitation Cards

There is a long history to the evolution of the invitation cards as we know it today. Knowing the history and the traditions behind the social invitation card will help you in your selection. You can then take exception to current “standards” and still conform to socially accepted standards. Or if you wish, you can create a new, unique invitation card that will set you apart from the norm yet still be in good taste.

Invitations to social events were used by the aristocracy in England and France probably beginning in the 18th century. It may be possible to go back another hundred or two hundred years to find the foundations which began the tradition of the invitation card.

In those days, society was not in a hurry, and most who could read and write had excellent penmanship. Do you recall what the pen was like as an early writing instrument? It was a quill made of a feather with a carefully cut tip. As one wrote, while holding the pen in one position, the characters that were formed were thin in one direction and broad in the other. For example, a circle or ‘o’ might be thin at the top and bottom and wide on the sides.

High Society would invite their peers to their social events with hand written announcements of the event. These were written by the wife, butler, or secretary. Writing was a mark of education. Even after the printing press, the aristocracy hand wrote invitation cards since mass production would be in bad taste.

When you couple excellent penmanship with the writing instrument of the day, handwriting, by today’s standards, was a work of art.

The Early Postal Service

Without any form of postal service, these invitations had to be hand delivered. This was the task of one of the servants, on horseback, under all weather conditions.

Thus arose the need for an ‘outer’ envelope. This outer envelope served a dual purpose. It was used to protect the inner envelope from water and dirt and to also provide directions to the recipient’s estate, castle, or farm. In addition, there were no ‘addresses’. Thus, the ‘inner envelope’ was again wrapped or placed in an outer envelope. The ‘address’ was often a set of directions.

The Wording on Early Invitation Cards

The actual wording was very similar to the ’socially correct’ wordings used today. The major difference was that the wording, in most cases, included the name of the guest as part of the wording. Everything was spelled out, including the event date and time.

Once written, each invitation card was placed in a protective enclosure (a handmade envelope). That envelope, what is now called the inner envelope, would include the invitee’s names, for example “The Duke and Duchess of Windsor”. When finished, a hot wax seal was affixed to the envelope. Wax seals often indicated the crest of the family.

The Printing Press Evolution

The printing press appeared in Europe in the mid 13th century. Even so, the printing of wedding cards or social invitations did not begin until the start of the 20th century. Some of the elite, fascinated with industrialization, began using ‘mass produced’ invitation cards probably as either a novelty or simply as another expression of wealth.

The real beginning of the commercially printed wedding invitations began in the United States probably after World War II. One or the great features of the combination of democracy with industrialization is to give the common man the ability to mimic the life-styles and materialism of society’s elite. The first appearance of the printed invitation card was probably for large events hosted by wealthy industrialists wishing to exploit new technology. Gradually, these factors coalesce to give you and I, an affordable, commercially printed invitation card.

The Printing Process of Invitation Cards

Ordinary printing simply stamps ink rolled on lead type onto the paper. It is a messy process and does not produce very high quality lettering. Lithography, on the other hand, is a method of printing which retains a very high quality replica of drawn or sketched artwork. It produces very sharp and distinctive inking.

If you and I could afford ordinary printed invitations cards, then the socially elite needed to distance themselves from such an abomination. They then elected to have their invitations “engraved”. This served a second purpose. It permitted the printed invitation card to emulate hand writing since engraved copper plates were made by hand.

Engraving, as the name implies, requires an artisan to “hand write” in reverse into a metal plate using a carving tool. To this day, the finest invitation cards are engraved.

Along comes a cheap version of engraving called Thermography or ‘raised ink’ printing. Unlike ordinary printing, engraving actually cut the surface of the paper. The print quality was beautiful and you could feel where the ink was deposited because you could feel the slight cuts in the surface of the paper.