Invitations for Weddings

It is an Italian tradition as old as the hills that several months before you get married in Italy you send out some very elegant hand printed or hand written cards that are in effect invitations for weddings. The wedding invitations in Italy are often printed by older men who have quite quaint  printing shops and use a unique thick printing paper.

The significance of this event is more than what first it seems. In Italian the word for wedding invitations is partecipazioni. As it sounds, the word means, “taking part of” or “participating in or with”.

And that is exactly what the invitations to weddings tell the invitees to do. So here is what happens next:   

   •  An invitation to a wedding means that the families of the couple that is getting married accepts you and considers you a very special person for one reason or another.  
   •  You will be given one of the most unique meals of your life that will cost them moltissimo.    
   •  You are in effect “told”, when you receive a wedding invitation, that you are one of the lucky people that is expected to bring a gift – a very nice and expensive gift at that.  
   •  Everyone will be watching you to “check” and see what you will bring, especially the mother-in-laws.

So that is what happens when in Italy when you are sent le partecipazioni or an invitation to a wedding.

   Newlyweds are saying this