History of Wedding Invitations

For hundreds of years people have been both shocked and amazed by the delicate beauty that comes with perfectly made wedding invitations. But what did they do before the great Protestant Revolution and the printing press made junk mail and pizza flyers a reality?

Prior to the invention of the Printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1447, weddings in England were typically announced by means of a Town crier: a gentleman who would walk through the streets announcing in a loud voice the news of the day. Traditionally, anyone within earshot became part of the celebration.

In the Middle Ages, illiteracy was widespread, so the practice of sending written wedding invitations emerged among the nobility. Families of means would commission monks, skilled in the art of Calligraphy, to hand-craft their notices.

However, the nobility of the day still needed to marry off their sons and daughters, and they needed a way to announce it to the world. As a result, family crests and coats of arms became a way for the upper crust of society to announce their important engagements.

Even today, the addition of a crest or seal is popular for “high society” wedding invitations, adding a touch of class.

The origins of commercially printed ‘fine wedding stationery’ can be traced to the period immediately following World War II, where a combination of democracy and rapid industrial growth gave the common man the ability to mimic the life-styles and materialism of society’s elite.

Growth in the use of wedding stationery was also underpinned by the development of thermography. Although it lacks the fineness and distinctiveness of engraving, thermography is a less expensive method of achieving raised type. This technique, often called poor man’s engraving, produces shiny, raised lettering without impressing the surface of the paper (in the way traditional engraving does). As such, wedding invitations – either printed or engraved – finally became affordable for all.

More recently Letterpress printing has made a strong resurgence in popularity for wedding invitations. It has a certain boutique and craft appeal due to the deep impression that is possible. Many letterpress firms that specialize in wedding invitations are small start ups, rather than large printing companies.

Laser engraving has also been making headway in the wedding invitation market over the last few years. Primarily used for engraving wood veneer invitations, it is also used to engrave acrylic, or to mark certain types of metal invitations.

Today, weddings styles and wedding invitations are limited only by the size of your wallet. Many people still like the idea of traditional wedding invitations, though, so common invitations often come in double envelopes with beautiful calligraphy.

Formal wedding traditions have greatly relaxed over the years, and because of this some religious traditions have also relaxed. Some people even enjoy the idea of mixing different religions and traditions together and coming up with completely new ceremonies on their own. These days wedding invitations need not even look like invitations. They can be boxes of chocolates or personal letters to your guests.

It is interesting to note that the tradition of having the bride and her family be responsible for the wedding and invitation arrangements has pretty much remained unchanged since the beginning of time. This could be because a wedding is about a union between a man and woman, but it is also about a day when a woman can have the party of her dreams and be the complete center of everyone’s attention for one night.