andrewducker: (default)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2012-01-28 03:06 pm

Addressing ettiquette and wedding stress

I'm sending out wedding invites at the moment, which is making me aware of all sorts of in-built biases in the conventions surrounding how we address people. I'm skipping over a lot of it by using first names for everyone, but even then there's a question of order. For older people I'm largely going with Male Partner, Female Partner, Children in order of age, but reversing the male/female order when the email address is for the woman of the house. For people nearer my own age I'm going with "Partner I know best->Partner I know less well, Children in order of age". Lesbians go in the order that I'm used to people putting them.

The whole invitation thing has been more stressful than I thought, largely because the venue has space for 80, and it turns out that Julie and I have 57 family members between us, so there are only 23 spaces for friends. This means that we've had to cut some cousins I haven't seen in 20 years, and restrict a few people to not having +1s if we're going to fit in even the people that we see/chat to on a regular basis, and a couple of really old friends. And the reception can take 30 more, but that still left us with 57 people that we don't have space for. I just hope people understand.

[identity profile] momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com 2012-01-29 09:35 am (UTC)(link)
Don't think I've ever spotted you at the monthly lesbian stacking meetings!

(There's a lead in for another joke there should someone wish to take it.)

[identity profile] henriksdal.livejournal.com 2012-01-29 10:33 am (UTC)(link)
argh I can't spot the lead in, can I have a clue?

[identity profile] momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com 2012-01-29 03:16 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a 'what do you call a...' joke. And one which lowers the tone substantially. Is that enough of a clue?

[identity profile] henriksdal.livejournal.com 2012-01-29 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)
what do you call a stack of lesbians?

[identity profile] moussaka-thief.livejournal.com 2012-01-29 08:27 pm (UTC)(link)
inviting?

[identity profile] marrog.livejournal.com 2012-01-30 11:13 am (UTC)(link)
A carpet sale?