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According to Thinking With Type,

Italic letters, also introduced in fifteenth-century Italy (as their name suggests), were modeled on a more casual style of handwriting. While the upright humanist scripts appeared in prestigious, expensively procured books, the cursive form was used by the cheaper writing shops, where it could be written more rapidly than the carefully formed lettera antica.

But when I see a wedding invitation these days, it's (almost) invariably printed in Italic.

So how did "casual" and "inexpensive" switch to "formal" and "expensive"?

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    You may be getting script confused with italics. Here is a quick guide on how to use Italics
    – JWhiteUX
    Jul 18, 2015 at 4:21
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    As elCavador states, wedding invites are often done in a script face. Script faces and Italics both originate from hand writing, with the former being slightly more formal and elaborate, hence 'fancy'.
    – DA01
    Jul 18, 2015 at 4:22
  • Well said @DA01
    – JWhiteUX
    Jul 18, 2015 at 4:26
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    This is a really good point. I was thinking of script faces, but in my mind they were also Italic. Perhaps the font faces just had an inherent lean that isn't actually Italic.
    – James A. Rosen
    Jul 18, 2015 at 15:54

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