Anniversary invitation

40th Anniversary

The gladiolus stems are too tall for every vase in the house except one.

Ruby velvet card with a tufted padded rim around a recessed panel. Gold gladiolus vine down the left side, gold piping, and a gold wax seal lettered R & E at lower right. Gold lettering: 40TH ANNIVERSARY.

Part of the TinselLux™ collection: invitations in stitched leather, tufted velvet, linen and satin.

The material is the card: linen with a visible weave, velvet with a nap, leather with its grain. It costs the same as every other invitation.

See the collection

An anniversary invitation for forty years together asks for a room with tablecloths on the tables. Guests arrive in good shoes. There is a seating plan, printed and taped by the door, because two generations are coming and some of them have not met. Ruby runs through the room: the flowers, the napkins, a bottle someone brought that is meant to be opened and probably will be.

Dinner goes long. Then a son or a daughter stands up with an index card, says the thing about the first apartment, and sits back down before it turns into a speech. The floor gets cleared after that, and the couple dances first to a song they both still know the second line of. The grandchildren watch from the end of the table for about ninety seconds. Then they join in, badly, and nobody minds.

What goes on it

Every line replaceable

The wording on this card

Please join us to celebrate
Robert & Elena
Forty years of devotion
Saturday, October 16, 2027 · 6 – 10 PM
The Linden Hall · 2200 Orchard Row, Anytown, CA
Dinner, dancing, and a toast

Every line of the wording is an example, and yours to replace. The title is painted into the artwork. Type your own and it is drawn again with your words.

What to actually tell people

Buy the gladiolus tall and cut them twice Gladiolus arrive longer than any vase at home and lean the moment they open. Cut them short for the dinner tables and keep the long stems for one vase by the entrance.
One toast, given by one person Pick who speaks and tell them the length. Anyone else with something to say can say it at dessert, standing where they are.
Clear a square of floor before dessert Move two tables and roll the rug back while people are still eating. A first dance with forty years behind it should not have to wait for furniture.
Find the song in advance Ask one of them, separately, what was playing the year they met. Have it queued and have a second one ready, because the floor empties fast if the next track is wrong.

Start from this one

The artwork
Keep this one, or describe your own party and get artwork drawn for it.
The wording
Every line on this card is an example, the painted title included. Change all of it; the design holds.
Sending
By text, from your own number. Guests open a link. Nothing to download.
The price
One credit for the invitation. Six guests or sixty, the number does not move.