Wedding Invitations

Although my prince and I are about to mark a significant wedding anniversary, I still have strong and vivid memories of waiting for responses from our wedding guests in the weeks leading up to our wedding. Each day, I would rush to see if the mailman had brought any more of those little response cards to me, which would tell us just who we could expect to be seeing in the pews at our wedding ceremony. Each “yes” was a thrill and every “no” was a disappointment, but I was happy to receive each and every envelope in the mail.

Once upon a time, wedding invitations were not sent out with response cards included (and, indeed, some wedding invitations today go out sans response cards). Back then, etiquette frowned upon such enclosures with the invitations, but in those days, wedding guests automatically wrote little notes on their own notepaper to accept the invitation. In today’s very busy and fast-paced world, those little personal notes simply were not getting written, so wedding etiquette evolved and now give the okay to send out response cards with invitations.

Beyond that, etiquette regarding response cards isn’t really terribly strict. You see, there isn’t a “correct” way of response card wording. Instead, there are styles that are more appropriate for a formal wedding, and those best suited to a casual affair. Taking the time to ensure your response card matches the type and tone of not only your wedding but wedding invitation as well is a nice thing to do…and, happily, part of staying in-line with wedding etiquette, as well.