Have you ever received an invitation with a thin piece of tissue paper over the invite wording and wondered what it was even there for?
Once upon a time, when invitations came off the printing press, the ink would still be wet and could not be stacked because the ink would smear. Printers came up with the idea to place squares of tissue over the invitation so that the slow-drying ink would not smear onto the card placed on top of it. Before mailing the invitation, the bride was to remove the tissue, as its only purpose was as packing material. Over the years, brides, unaware of the purpose of the tissues, improperly sent their wedding invitations with the tissues, hence making it “proper”.
Today, most wedding invitations are printed with an ink that dries quickly or with a process called thermography. Thermography is the process used to create the raised ink effects on several of our invitations. In order for thermography to work, it requires that the ink be subjected to heat, thus drying the ink even faster, eliminating the need for a tissue.
Essentially, tissues are no longer needed, but the tradition of using them continues more out of habit than necessity. So, when you get your invitations, you can either use the tissues or toss them. If you decide to use tissues with your wedding invitations, it is only used on the invitation, over the invite wording and then any enclosure cards are placed on top of the tissue. Tissues are not placed between each enclosure card. Creatively, some brides have begun using their included tissues in their wedding decorations.
