From Traditional To Western
It's been announced -- there's going to be a wedding. And there's going to be guests to invite and planning...and the list goes on. The first priority for the special couple is the western wedding invitation -- a keepsake that will last forever and be saved by friends and family to mark that beautiful moment -- the wedding day. "The most traditional way to invite your guest is with a formal engraved western wedding invitation," says Letitia Baldrige, former chief of staff and social secretary to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and author of 13 books on social etiquette. "These invitations are so handsome and luxurious that guests, friends and relatives often keep them as prized mementos of the wedding day."
A guest may decide to place the engraved western wedding invitation in the front of wedding album or picture frame to create a gift for the bride and groom. Another popular use is taking the metal plates (die) used to engrave the invitations and having them framed as a keepsake. Baldrige recalls one group of bridesmaids who took the invitation, had it professionally enclosed in a Lucite tray and gave it to the bride and groom as a wedding present. The wedding invitations of the '90s are changing direction and becoming much like the weddings themselves -- traditional. "Values have changed and this is reflected in the statement that couples want to make with their invitations," says John Black, president of Excelsior Process and Engraving in North Adams, Mass., a subsidiary of Crane & Company, Inc. Couples who send engraved invitations are doing more than making a statement -- they are saying "we appreciate you and want you to share our special day." Whether the wedding is large or small, the engraved invitation represents style and tradition. Baldrige agrees that traditional still works best. "Wedding invitations are a traditional product. I don't go along with doing a lot of jazzy things to a traditional product," she says. The traditional invitation is generally engraved with a print or script lettering on cream or white cotton-content paper. Engraving is a process where the letters are embossed into the paper, creating a rich, raised look and feel to the surface of the invitation. "Engraved invitations feel opulent to the touch and create a real anticipation of the special day," says Baldrige. Just because engraved invitations are traditional does not mean that they can't look contemporary, too. "Today, you can show off your individuality in your invitation and still have it be appropriate," advises Baldrige. |