Will you be incorporating the "something borrowed, something blue" wedding mantra, eating frozen wedding cake on your one year anniversary, getting married in a place of worship? Some traditions remain true - rings stay on the left ring finger - while others are happily kicked to the curb - brides opting to have a best man instead of a maid of honor.
Since Earthly Affair is an earth friendly invitation provider, there is one tradition we don't adhere to: providing double envelopes. Have we lost customers because of this? Possibly. Most customers are understanding and happy to save the paper, but it can present a bit of an addressing issue.
Let me back up though and explain why double envelopes exist. Way back when - I'm guessing in the 17th and 18th century - the elite of society would have envelopes delivered to them in two envelopes. Mail got dirty back then. So the butler would open up the first envelope and present the actual, inner envelope to the residents of the home.
Obviously, if you don't have a butler and your mail doesn't arrive via a man on horseback, you probably don't need an outer envelope. You can bypass any addressing issues by just addressing the one invitation envelope the same as an inner envelope. For instance, you can write "Mr. Smith and Guest" on the one outer envelope. If Mr. Smith scoffs, then you can put him at a table in the back. :)
3 comments:
Great post! I never knew the origin of the two envelopes.
I have never understood why people use two envelopes. I guess I still don't know why, tradition I guess.
One of our friends is helping us design our invites and it has NO envelope! Imagine a large sheet of paper folded in half, then folded in half again. We're sticking a stamp and address on one side, putting all the info on the insides, and tacking it shut. I'm finding doing things out of the norm takes some guts, but using less resources is important to us.
I never really understood the two envelope thing in this day and age. I particularly like, on a side note, the idea that the bride can have a best man!
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