Wedding invitations of yesteryears: A historical perspective

Wedding invitations have always been an interesting source of determining which symbols and characters are considered auspicious by the cultures around the world. Since weddings are considered auspicious by all the cultures and there are different ways of solemnizing the same, these are a reflection of rich cultural heritage of the people. And, wedding invitations are the carriers of the auspicious symbols of that heritage. It would be interesting to have a collection of the invitations from around the world just with the same spirit and motive as the stamp collections or other such collections are done.

If done with this motive and as a hobby, these become the collection of the repository of the changes that this institution has gone through over all these years. And, it is not just the symbols and characters present on these which are the pointers to this change but also the designs, colour schemes and the nature of printing being done on these which bears the stamps of time. The maturity of the designs, the types of the motifs used, the quality of the prints, the elements of abstractness and consistency and the size and shape of the invitation card provides good insights into the influence of time on these.

Besides the designs, there are other elements as well which can tell what the likes of a particular culture are at a particular point of time. The fonts in which the cards were written, the nature of instruments used to write or the printing methodology adopted, the style of writing and the nature of the language used are all indicative of the linguistic jargon being used in the yesteryears. Tracking these changes over a period of time provides interesting clues of the way these marriage invitations have been designed and sent to the near and dear ones.

While the printed invitations of the historical times could be difficult to get, these become the manuscripts of immense value to the society. An example of the distinct change is seen in the present times with the emergence of the email. E-invitations are not surprising anymore since these are slowly being recognized as the formal means of extending the invites. Ever wonder how the people will view these in terms of the historical importance that these will have, say 50 years from now. Whether it is the birthday invitations or the wedding ones, the e-invites are not likely to gain attraction of the people as much as the ones in printed hardcopy form.

Therefore, these are a way of tracking the changes to know how people from different geographies used to get these designed and send these out the invites to the others. So, these do have their own historical value, albeit small, since these are also pieces of art. Would it not be interesting to know how your forefathers used to write or how they used to call out the people to come to the celebrations? Would it not be curious to have a look at the printed birthday or wedding invitations of the bygone era?