invitations

Knottie20862782 · October 2016

is it etiquette to have your envelopes hand written with everyone's names/addresses? I was going to use pre-printed labels and was told that's not etiquette?

ILoveBeachMusic · October 2016

Pre-printed labels are not traditionally acceptable. You could print the envelopes on your printer but handwritten is the preferred method.

levioosa · October 2016

Technically, etiquette wise, this is wrong. However this is one of those harmless etiquette faux pas. Using preprinted labels does not impact your treatment of guests. If you're having a super formal wedding you should probably skip the labels, but honestly I wouldn't side eye a label. I just got an invitation from a friend with terrible hand writing. It was barely legible, and I'm not sure how the post office figured it out. She definitely should have hired someone, or just used some labels.

wmam35 · October 2016

I agree with @levioosa that it's something harmless and won't affect your guests' comfort even thought it's technically against etiquette. I received an invite with printed labels before and never thought twice about it until I came on The Knot and learned that it wasn't appropriate. Honestly I think that unless it's a black tie or super formal wedding, if someone wants to side-eye you for using a pre-printed label they need to relax.

mollybarker11 · October 2016

If etiquette is a set of societal norms based on pleasant / comfortable interactions
and if having addresses printed rather than handwritten doesn't impact guests' comfort
I don't see how this is even an etiquette issue in the first place.

I get that it's traditional and shows that you spent l an extra bit of time & attention (or money), which is a great thing for a host to do. But to me it's along the same line as welcome bags in hotel rooms or favours at the reception. Nice but not necessary.

banana468 · October 2016

I get that if you make the label look cheap or it's done poorly then the invitation resembles an afterthought - but then so does illegible handwriting.

This is one of those that is not a big deal IMO.

ei34 · October 2016

If the bride's in a $10,000 dress and there's a paltry spread at cocktail hour, I'm going to side-eye the hell out of the couple's budgeting choices. If she's in a super-expensive dress and my invitation had a printed label, I'd barely notice. As long as my invitation arrives within an appropriate timeframe of the wedding, I'm good.

cowgirl8238 · October 2016

Agree with all of the above. It is recommended to handwrite (unless your handwriting is terrible), but is not a big deal at all if you prefer to print out labels.

If you can, try printing directly onto the envelopes for a nicer look without having to write them all out.

kimmiinthemitten · October 2016

My handwriting is terrible, and so are my crafty skills, so placing a label straight on an envelope is also outside of my skill range.

We used www.lcipaper.com and ordered the envelopes already addressed for us. I just had to upload an excel spreadsheet and approve the proof. That process took about 24 hours and we had everything back within a week (paid extra for 2 day shipping). In total it cost about $170 dollars for 120 envelopes and they turned out beautifully.

MesmrEwe · October 2016

Ideally, you'd print the addresses directly on the envelope using the printer instead of using a label... It's super easy to do (if you can print labels you can print individual addresses onto the envelope) and ensures accuracy. I've had it both ways where the label is NBD, then there was the wedding that messed up the labels because they just used a spreadsheet and it cut off names and who the invited guests were.

I'd much rather have a label on an outer envelope than something that really matters to your guests at the reception missed...

CMGragain · October 2016

All traditional etiquette books say that invitations should be hand addressed.

That being said, this is no longer practical, since handwriting is no longer taught in most public schools. I would prefer the handwritten addresses, but I think printing directly on the envelope is fine. I hate sticky labels. They are for junk mail.

MairePoppy · October 2016

I received a wedding invitation, once, with matching address and return address labels that complimented the design of invitation. It was a colorful fall theme invitation suite. I saved it for a long time after the wedding because it was so lovely. That wedding was very well hosted, which was the important part.

You could also run the envelopes through a printer or have Staple or some other printing store do it for you.

If you are having a black tie wedding, though, you should make the extra effort to hand address the envelopes.

NikkiNic9977 · October 2016

We printed the addresses directly on the envelop. We ordered really nice invites through Paperless Post & came out much more cost effective than using a caligriopher. We knew we didn't want to dump a ton of money into the invites. They came with our return address already printed on the back portion of the envelop so that's why we decided to print out the addresses as well. It was pretty simple but I suggest a few practice runs until you get the font/settings/hang of it!

That said I have received wedding invites with the printed label. To me, it wasn't really a big deal.

downtondiva · October 2016

This is one of those things going against traditional wedding etiquette that wouldn't really bother me, though I think printing directly on the envelopes looks nicer than a label. That said, either is fine, and is probably better than sloppy handwriting on a wedding invite (I was lucky, my mom has beautiful handwriting and offered to address our invitations).

SquirttheTurtle · October 2016

I have pretty horrible handwriting, as does DH. Since I had all our addresses in an Excel spreadsheet, I did a mail merge (it's step-by-step and really easy) and printed directly on our envelopes. Only took about an hour to do it all and they looked nice and neat, and IMO you couldn't tell that we did it ourselves vs. paying for where we got our invites to do it for us.

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