Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in Belfast today for their first official visit to Northern Ireland. Here they are arriving at Eikon Centre to visit Amazing the Space, a youth-led peace-building initiative. The trip was not announced in advance for security concerns although certain royal reporters and members of the press were given a heads-up to prepare. 

The outing comes just a day after Kensington Palace confirmed that Harry and Meghan’s wedding invitations have been issued. As previously reported, the wedding service will take place at St George’s Chapel followed by a lunch reception hosted by the Queen at Windsor Castle. Later on, Prince Charles will host 200 guests at an evening reception at Frogmore House. Let’s talk about these invitations though:

Check out the dress code in the corner. The “lounge suit” always makes me laugh. These days, “loungewear” is like joggers. Of course no one is wearing joggers to Harry and Meghan’s wedding. The “lounge suit” is what they called what we know of as a “business suit” a hundred years ago. In other words, a suit and tie. For them, back then, that was what was considered the slightly more casual option. For my husband, who lives in joggers, a lounge suit is pretty much as formal as it’s ever going to get. 

OK but… do you see those two dotted lines? They’re making me crazy. 

Here. Look again. 

Harry and Meghan's dotted line invitations

For the royals, it’s the best of everything, right? So why are those dotted lines there?!? 

Presumably it’s where the name of the guests will be written. But, as my friend Lorella pointed out, “proper calligraphers don’t need lines!” And she’s right. The whole point of being a proper calligrapher, and a proper calligrapher would 100% be hired to write these invitations, is that they can perform without the guide lines. (Interestingly, calligraphy used to be Meghan Markle’s side hustle.) Using the lines is kinda amateur hour, non? 

Here’s another shot of those invitations though and, this time, the lines aren’t there: 

Harry and Meghan's wedding invitations

So, maybe, that’s the final batch and the Kensington Palace Twitter account was posting a draft batch? Why would they post a draft batch though? Like if you’re going to show it, and talk about the work that went into it, highlighting the printing process (American ink on British on English card, a sweet little detail that complements Meghan and Harry and their background), and present it for the first time, don’t you want it to be the perfect final product? 

Am I the only one fixating on this?

Meghan and Harry are expected to make more stops on their trip today. I’ll post more photos later as they come in if there’s anything interesting.