“A dinner invitation is the highest form of courtesy. That is why it requires prompt and very courteous acknowledgment.

“Ordinarily dinner invitations are issued ten days ahead, unless it is a very large formal affair, when two full weeks are allowed. It is not good form to send an invitation just about a day or two before the day set for the dinner-party, for then the guest will be perfectly correct in feeling that the invitation was issued to her (or him) only because some other guest was unable to attend. If there are only three or four guests informal notes are usually sent, however elaborate the dinner itself is to be. Such an invitation should occupy only the first page of a sheet of note paper.

“Dinner invitations may either be written on ordinary sheets of white stationery, or engraved on cards. If the latter is decided upon, it must be large, pure white, and of rather heavy bristol board. The hostess who gives many large and elaborate dinners may have cards like the following printed, leaving spaces for the insertion of the name of the person invited, the day, hour and date:

Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah Knight
request the pleasure of
……………….
company at dinner
on ……………. evening
at ……………. o’clock
55 Court Street

“The words “To meet Mr. and Mrs. John Staple” may be written in ink at the bottom of the engraved card, when the dinner is in honor of a special guest. Or small cards may be printed and enclosed with the invitations.”

–Lilian Eichler, Book of Etiquette (1923)

In all seriousness, who among us would not like to open the mailbox and discover an invitation to dinner?

That’s what I thought.