Wedding Invitations- How Did it All Start?
Wedding invitations and weddings are these days almost usually discovered together. If you are planning a wedding ceremony, you're most likely preparing on selecting wedding invitations to let buddies and household know about your event. However, although this is really a typical modern wedding ceremony tradition, wedding invitations haven't usually been a part of weddings. Shall we look back in time and learn about how wedding invitations came to become.
Back before the printing press was invented in 1447, weddings had been announced by a city crier. City criers were like a walking information program. They would walk through the streets of city although announcing the news. A wedding ceremony was large news, and everybody that heard about the wedding ceremony was welcome to come and celebrate using the happy household. Of course, getting the crier to announce the large day did come at a price and many households would need to save up if they wanted this service performed. Without the use of the city crier, weddings were announced utilizing word of mouth, because most people could not read or write.
Wealthy households throughout this time would at times hire monks to write their invitations. Because writing was not a typical skill this was a method to get stylish and beautiful invitations prior to the printing press was invented. Monks were expert calligraphers and could produce stunning handwritten invites for a fee. Because there was no dependable mail service, this method was extremely costly and was typically only employed by the most noble or royal households. The invitations would have to become delivered by hand or by horseback.
As soon as printing became much more common and literacy skills improved, households had a few more available choices when announcing their weddings. Some selected to have big signs printed which could be hung around town. Mail service was far from dependable making it impossible to send out individual written invites. Rich households sometimes selected to send out invites; however these had been delivered by horseback, not conventional mail, because this was much more reliable.
When the printing press was invented, it made excellent books, but not so attractive wedding invitations. Imagine receiving an invitation that looked like a page from a book. Printing of invitations by everyone was not popularized until other printing techniques were more commonly utilized. Engraving allowed invitations to be custom printed and much more stunning than the printing press. These invitations had been known for their smudging, so tissue sheets protected every invitation as soon as they were printed. These tissue sheets are nonetheless occasionally included in invites to this day.
As the postal system became much more reliable, many started to turn to it for mailing of invites. Transit could be rough on the invites, so they were placed inside of two envelopes as they were mailed. This was to protect the invitation. Traditionally, when the invitation arrived, the servant would eliminate the outer, dirty envelope and present the invitee using the second, clean envelope. This wedding invitation tradition continues to this day.
Engraving gave way to lithography and later to thermography. Couples preparing a wedding ceremony today have so several choices at their fingertips. Modern printing allows countless options including engraved, letterpress, photo invites, thermography and much more. Invitations are mailed and even emailed these days. There are more options now than ever before; however, little customs began in days gone by still shape modern wedding invitation traditions.
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