How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters), page 29 by Mary Owens Crowther
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many invitations, as I have said, are fairly fixed. But they are not hallowed. One may vary them within the limits of good taste, but on the whole it is considerably easier to accept the forms in use and not try to be different. If the function itself is going to be very different from usual then the invitation itself may be as freakish as one likes--it may be written or printed on anything from a postcard to a paper bag. The sole question is one of appropriateness. But there is a distinct danger in trying to be ever so unconventional and all that. One is more apt than not to make a fool of one's self. And then, too, being always clever is dreadfully hard on the innocent by-standers. Here are things to be avoided:
Do not have an invitation printed or badly engraved. Hand writing is better than bad mechanical work.
Do not use colored or fancy papers.
Do not use single sheets.
Do not use a very large or a very small sheet--either is inappropriate.
Do not have a formal phraseology for an informal affair.
Do not abbreviate anything--initials may be used in informal invitations and acceptances, but, in the formal, "H. E. Jones" invariably has to become "Horatio Etherington Jones."
Do not send an answer to a formal invitation in the first person.
A formal invitation is written in the third person and must be so answered.
Do not use visiting cards either for acceptances or regrets even though they are sometimes used for invitations. The practice of sending a card with "Accepts" or "Regrets" written on it is discourteous.
Do not seek to be decorative in handwriting--the flourishing Spencerian is impossible.
Do not overdo either the formality or the informality.
Do not use "R.S.V.P." (the initials of the French words "Répondez, s'il vous plaît," meaning "Answer, if you please") unless the information is really necessary