Invitations: You are cordially invited to…

We are all social animals. Very few people would object to a fun party with friends.

I myself have thrown parties in celebration of St Patrick’s Day, my Half Birthday; I even had people over for an ‘I’m leaving uni for the summer, let’s eat everything in the cupboards’ party.

When I wish to invite people to a gathering, I simply Create an Event on Facebook. It guides the host in writing out the invitation. Facebook makes sure the time, date and place is available to the guests. It sorts the guests lists, showing who is coming. It also reminds guests on the day that they will be attending Maria’s Leaving Do at 20.00 at The Cadogan Arms.

Although Facebook’s Create an Event is nothing short of a Godsend, but one still needs to learn how to write out invitations. After all, it’s highly unlikely that you will send your wedding invitation to your Granny via Facebook.

There is no hard and fast rule for the writing invitations. Printers usually have samples available with different wordings. The more formal the event, the more formal the invitation is likely to be.

The wording must be clear and concise. What does need to go into an invitation is the date, time and place of the party.

It is also a good idea to add the dress code to help your guests. Parties that warrant a printed invitation tend to have a dress code nowadays.

You may want people to RSVP so you know how many people are attending your party. This stands for Réspondez s’il vous plait. It’s French for ‘please respond’.

Invitations should not be sent too early that guests would forget about it nor too late that they have already made plans. Invitations should have reached your guests at least 10 days before the event.

Invitations must be sent earlier if it involves

1. Children- for arranging chaperones

2. Fancy dress- to allow people time to organise their costumes

3. Buying a substantial gift (a wedding or christening)- a ‘Save the day’ card should have been sent as soon as the date was set

Look out for future posts on ‘receiving and responding to invitations’ and ‘what does smart casual mean?’.