Printing onto envelopes

themuffinman16

Okay.  My invites are done, but I want to be prepared as to what to expect when it comes time to put addresses on them.  I would like to print a light gray color ink on the envelopes of our guests' addresses.  I will go over that with a black calligraphy pen.  Does anyone know of a national chain that does this... or even what sort of vendor would do this?  I just don't know where to start looking.  When I printed my invites, the guy at fed ex office told me that they do not print on envelopes there. I just want to be prepared for when it comes time to mail them out, to know what strategy I will be using.

RedJacks25

Can you print them at home?

themuffinman16

I don't have a printer.  Fi is looking into printing them at someone else's house, but I would like to have a backup if that doesn't work out, or turn out right.

tammym1001

TBH, it would probably be cheaper for you to buy a printer and print them at home rather than have someone print them for you. Printing envelopes can be time consuming so I would think anyone that would actually do this would charge quite a bit. 

doeydo

Honestly, I would do it at a friend's house (pay for the ink and whatever else) or buy a printer and do it myself.  I use my printer a lot anyways, so it could be worth buying.  Some instructions that might help: http://diy.weddingbee.com/topic/diy-invitation-calligraphy-printer-tracing-method#axzz2QHfLw7a2

princessleia22

tammym1001 said:

TBH, it would probably be cheaper for you to buy a printer and print them at home rather than have someone print them for you. Printing envelopes can be time consuming so I would think anyone that would actually do this would charge quite a bit. 

This.  You can buy a perfectly adequate printer for less than $100. And the ink cartridges they come with should be enough to print your envelopes. It would cost you more than that to have them professionally printed. If you can't find a friend that will let you use their printer, this is probably your best/cheapest option.

If you really want to find a vendor, you may just have to call around to various print shops to see which ones might them.  A lot may do return addresses, where its same on each envelope, but may not do them with recipient addresses, which are all different. Or check for wedding invite sites to see which ones do recipient addressing.  Here's a site that offers recipient addressing if you purchase their envelopes: http://www.minted.com/envelope-addressing (I haven't used them, so I can't vouch for them).  Do a google search for "recipient addressing" and you should find options.

nebullama

I agree that home printing is probably the way to go, and I speak as someone who works for a commercial printer that does what you're looking for (variable printing directly to envelopes).

You could call around to some local print shops, but you would need one that has a digital envelope printer, which is not always super easy to find. If you are supplying your own envelopes, the cost might not be that horrible. The hard part would be supplying them with a properly formatted address spreadsheet, which you would need to do to save the costs of having them clean it up for you.

Nathalia48

I had this same question. Thanks for all the answers, everyone!

theartistformerlyknownas

It would be a bit of a waste of paper, but since you're looking to trace the lettering anyway you could print the addresses on regular paper, trim it to size, stick it inside the envelopes, and trace that way rather than printing on the envelopes themselves. I saw a tutorial doing it this way that put a lamp under a glass table to make it a little more visible. Assuming your envelopes aren't super thick or dark, anyway. Then you could just print your one big address file on regular paper at Kinkos or wherever.