Mary Killen Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 26 March 2015

Plus: How to say thank you for a disgusting meal, and friends and cleaners

issue 28 March 2015

Q. When sending wedding invitations, does one put the full titles on the card, or can one just put, for example, Jane and John having addressed the envelope to Mr and Mrs John Smith? Isn’t it strange that all one’s old wedding invitations are nowhere to hand when one needs them? I would really appreciate your advice.
— K.T., Sherborne, Dorset

A. I have it from the highest authority that these days first names on the cards themselves are perfectly acceptable.

Q. A client whose wife has left him invited me to dinner at his new flat. He presented me with three fairly disgusting courses, all ‘cooked’ by himself, one of which featured raw giant prawns (still grey) in unheated cook-in sauce (I saw the packet in the kitchen bin). I ate everything and, although I suffered no ill effects, I am struggling to write a card to thank him for the ‘delicious’ dinner when I feel a reprimand would be more in order.

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