Cards to Reserved Pews

To the family and very intimate friends who are to be seated in especially designated pews: 

Please present this to an usher
Pew No.
on Thursday the ninth of May

Engraved pew cards are ordered only for very big weddings where twenty or more pews are to be reserved.  The more usual custom—­at all small and many big weddings—­is for the mother of the bride, and the mother of the bridegroom each to write on her personal visiting card: 

[HW:  Pew No. 7]

Mrs. John Huntington Smith

FOUR WEST THIRTY-SIXTH STREET

A card for the reserved enclosure but no especial pew is often inscribed “Within the Ribbons.”

=INVITATION TO THE HOUSE=

The invitation to the breakfast or reception following the church ceremony is engraved on a card to match the paper of the church invitation and is the size of the latter after it is folded for the envelope: 

    Mr. and Mrs. John Huntington Smith

        request the pleasure of

    [HW:  Mr. & Mrs. James Greatlake’s]

    company on Tuesday the first of November
        at half after four o’clock
      at Four West Thirty-sixth Street

    R.s.v.p.

=CEREMONY AND RECEPTION INVITATION IN ONE=

Occasionally, especially for a country wedding, the invitation to the breakfast or the reception is added to the one to the ceremony: 

Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Chatterton request the honour of

[HW:  Mr. & Mrs. Worldly’s]

presence at the marriage of their daughter

Hester

to

Mr. James Town, junior

on Tuesday the first of June

at three o’clock

at St. John’s Church

and afterwards at Sunnylawn

Ridgefield

R.s.v.p.

Or the invitation reads “at twelve o’clock, at St. John’s Church, and afterwards at breakfast at Sunnylawn”; but “afterwards to the reception at Sunnylawn” is wrong.

=THE INVITATION TO A HOUSE WEDDING=

Is precisely the same except that “at Sunnylawn” or “at Four West Thirty-sixth Street” is put in place of “at St. John’s Church,” and an invitation to stay on at a house, to which the guest is already invited, is not necessary.

The Train Card

If the wedding is to be in the country, a train card is enclosed: 

    A special train will leave Grand Central Station at 12:45 P.M.,
    arriving at Ridgefield at 2:45.  Returning, train will leave
    Ridgefield at 5:10 P.M., arriving New York at 7.02 P.M.

    Show this card at the gate.

=INVITATION TO RECEPTION AND NOT TO CEREMONY=

It sometimes happens that the bride prefers none but her family at the ceremony, and a big reception.  This plan is chosen where the mother of the bride or other very near relative is an invalid.  The ceremony may take place at a bedside, or it may be that the invalid can go down to the drawing-room with only the immediate families, and is unequal to the presence of many people.