Social Etiquette for Deep Mourning

Although persons in mourning should not be invited to dinner parties or luncheons, they should always receive invitations to weddings and large receptions, graduations and coming out parties as a matter of courtesy and not with the idea that they should be accepted.

What Readers Ask: “I am in deep mourning, and recently I received cards for a large reception to be given by the woman in my set who is regarded more or less as the leader socially. Wasn’t this an oversight or a breach of etiquette on her part?” 

Not in the least. The rule is that, although persons in mourning should not be invited to dinner parties or luncheons, they should always receive invitations to weddings and large receptions, graduations and coming out parties as a matter of courtesy and not with the idea that they should be accepted. The person in mourning generally does not send cards in answer to these courtesies. – Mary Marshall Duffee, 1917

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia