Do Modern Wedding Invitations Include E-Mail

There’s no doubt about it: The Internet is moving toward permeating nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Today, people are communicating in ways undreamt of only a decade or so ago. With the advent of this New Age of information transfer, could it be that the World Wide Web will also affect even those traditions with which we’ve held near and dear, such as the age-old methods by which we send wedding invitations? Are we ready for e-mailed wedding invitations?

What Did They Use to Do?

We first need to remember that people have been getting married for thousands of years. Men and women have been tying the knot for a lot longer than wedding invitations have been sent out to friends and family. The institution of marriage has been around even before the average person even knew how to write! So what did they do then?

Scribes – usually monks – who were the only ones around fortunate enough to be trained in the art of writing took on the task. And because this was such an extravagant luxury, only the wealthy – usually the members of the royal family – could afford to have this done. When the common people slowly but surely picked up on that terrific skill called “writing,” did the nobles decry it as a surefire road to ruin with regard to the distinction of wedding invitations written by scribes?

Things to Think About Before You Hit “Send”

As you can see, if we stand solely and stubbornly on tradition, forward motion as a society would never occur. Of course, we have to consider things like:

• E-mailed invitations don’t look nearly as good printed out as a “real,” professional (or handmade) invitation with its embossed lettering on fine, ivory linen paper. (Think scrapbooks or Grandma’s keepsake album.)

• Not everyone – believe it or not! – is online or may not even own a computer.

• People have a tendency to change their e-mail addresses a lot more frequently than they change their where-they-actually-live addresses. Will you be able to keep track of everyone’s latest e-mail addresses, at least up until the time you’ve sent out the invitations and no longer need them for this purpose?

• Die-hard traditionalists and those concerned with the correct etiquette concerning weddings may have strong (negative!) feelings about receiving an e-mailed invitation to a wedding.

A Marriage of Two Methods

One way to approach the whole idea of melding traditional wedding protocol to the modern way of communicating might be this: Consider going ahead with sending out your invitations via snail-mail, but within the body of the copy (text), include a Web site address, which will be your wedding site.

The site, of course, contains all the information regarding the who, what, where, and when of the nuptials (even a map!), plus lots of other information that would be impossible to include on a paper invitation. This could include links to hotel recommendations for out-of-town guests, local attractions for those planning on staying for a while, and even a note asking guests to respond to their invitation via e-mail, thus saving time and postage.

So, you see, things can and do and invariably will change. But they don’t have to do so drastically that somebody somewhere feels slighted, hurt, or damaged in some way. It’s all a matter of thinking things through and considering all the options. But most of all, it’s about having the wedding of your dreams and not concerning yourself too much with what others think at all!