Weddings and Post Box

I am old enough to remember that once upon a time wedding is a community effort. To be invited to a wedding does not meant only to go for the food. It meant to be at the wedding venue to contribute your energy in the wedding preparations – slaughtering the animals, preparing the food, preparing the venue, and the list goes on and on. And wedding invitations were done personally by the bride’s or groom’s family. They visit your house to invite you. Alternatively, the family could invite people by word-of-mouth.. If you are invited personally, you attendance is somewhat ‘compulsory’. Otherwise, you could opt not to come to the wedding. I believe this method of invitation is still used in rural surrounding.

As the society modernized, modern families tend to favour the ease of employing caterers to the hassle of preparing the feast themselves. Wedding venues have changed, from traditionally in the bride’s or groom’s family house, to hotels or banquets halls. Wedding invitations are simplified by simply sending mass-produced invitation cards with maps as to where the wedding reception would take place. Invitees just attend the feast and perhaps give some wedding gifts. Bride’s / groom’s family bear the bulk of the wedding cost. Well to help the family to estimate to amount of food to be ordered, some invitation card required you to RSVP. It could be in the simple for of a phone call / SMS. Or in the form of RSVP card.

I received an invitation that required me to mailed the RSVP card. So, last week I dutifully drove the shop around the corner. That was where the red post box would be. Lo and behold, not even the stump was left. That’s shows how long it has been since I last mailed anything. Not going on a wild goose chase, I just headed to the main post office and mailed the RSVP card. For those who have never seen a free standing red post box, I have save you the trouble of imagining it here’s a photo:

More of it could be found here

p.s. I didn’t use the stand stand-alone type. I used the one built into the wall of the main post office.