Solo Invitation

I recently received the invitation for a cousin's upcoming wedding.




In case you can't read that, it's the RSVP card enclosed in the invite (and a lovely view of my thumb holding it up). There are three lines under the blank for my name:

___ seat(s) reserved in your name(s)
___ number attending
___ will not attend

... and in the first line, the number "1" is already written in.

Now, my random questions: Seeing as this cousin hasn't done a very good job of keeping up with me, how the hell does he know I won't have someone to bring with me to the wedding?

The bigger question, is this a common thing now, where brides/grooms tell you explicitly what how much space you're allowed to take up? Did another cousin, married with her two children, get an invite with "4" written in? (Did she get one with "2" written in?)

I yearn for the "back in the day" times when one telegraphed how much space was avaiable at a wedding using a more genteel and subtle form: when the invitation was extended to a particular person and his/her guest (preferably by name, if the partner's name was known). And if you were known to be single and a guest was not welcome, you'd just get the invite for you. That way was subtle and did not grind any hints into you. It's kind of like having to ask for condoms instead of just taking them and paying for them: you know what's going on, you just don't want to have to proclaim it in such an obvious way.

I would have preferred that sub silencio method to be told not to bring a guest. I read Miss Manners; I can play by the rules. Had the invite come for me without "and Guest" I would have graciously taken the hint. But having someone affirmatively write the number "1" on your invite -- "I'm just holding a seat for you, thankyouverymuch" -- is a little annoying.