History of the Wedding Invitation
In the early times before people could read, how did they announce an upcoming wedding? There used to be a town crier that would yell out the engagement and all the vital information. Essentially inviting all that could hear the loudmouths voice to the wedding. Almost everything was done through word of mouth back in the early 12th century. The practice of sending written wedding invitations was done by mainly by the noble and rich only. They would actually have an coat of arms imprinted onto the invitation and a monk would generally do the calligraphy on it. Later, during the 1600s the printing press was used, although this usually making a less than attractive invitation. The ink would smudge due to the poor stamping techniques that were used during this time. This was actually the time when the official wedding invitations were put into popularity. In the early 1640’s the metal plate engraving was invented. This made for better invitations with a higher quality and more attractive look. It was also right around this time that placing wedding intentions in the newspaper also became a popular among the families of the couple that were to be married.