Got Etiquette Advice?

  Dear Polite One, There was no reply card with an invitation to a wedding we received.  I believe we are expected to reply with a handwritten note.  How is this done? Is there special stationery for this?  What should be said? No Note Dear No Note, Traditionally, this was expected for a formal wedding .  Unfortunately, this is not the case much anymore since this tradition is disappearing.  It is refreshing to hear of someone following proper wedding etiquette.  A formal reply is written on heavy, high-quality plain white or cream-colored notepaper using blue, blue-black, or black ink. Example Mr. and Mrs. Your Name accept with pleasure       Or, regrets that we are unable to accept the kind invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Their Name for Saturday, the tenth of July at half after six o'clock. It is optional to include the location of the wedding in the acceptance letter. The regret does not have to...

  There is more to wedding invitations than listing who is marrying.   We must determine the formality of the wedding, where what time, and who is the host.   This will determine the formality of the invitations.    Determining what information should be listed and creating the perfect invitation is not an easy task resulting in etiquette rules to follow, such as not including gift registry information.   How about other wedding correspondences?   Let’s read what others are asking.   Gift Information in the Announcement? Dear Polite One,  We plan to be married in Brussels where we live right now.  All my family lives in the US and can't make it to the wedding.  So, ours will be an exceedingly small civil ceremony.  How and when do we send announcements to my family/friends in the US and his family here?  It is very costly to cash foreign checks and to ship gifts here, so we will have a reg...

Proper Correspondence of Our Times The world of proper correspondence has changed since the days of leaving  calling cards  at neighbor's doors.  With our cellphones and computers, we can stay in touch with those even thousands of miles away.  Evites and a text reply are commonplace.  Nevertheless, some things resist change.  Certain thank-you notes and all condolence letters are best handwritten and mailed by post. What follows are answers to questions covering proper etiquette in today's world of correspondence. Q:  A new friend's mother just died in an accident.  I would like to send a  sympathy letter , but I am not quite sure what to write. I had just met him hours before he received the phone call about his mom's accident.  Since I do not know him well enough to know anything about him personally, I'm unsure where to begin.  I also want to make sure not to write anything inappropriate....