Addressing Without a Calligrapher

Knottie1455569782

Hello all!

Looking for some ideas and advice here on how to address our invitations as we won't have a calligrapher.

I really wanted one, but it's just something we weren't able to workout in our budget as we are paying for everything ourselves, which is no big deal, just made for more cuts to make a reasonable budget.

I hand addressed all of our save the dates using stencils and calligraphy pens and wasn't overly pleased with the outcome and felt like ripping my hair out as we needed to mail/handout about 125 and it took me about two weeks to finish them.

Did anyone else not use a calligrapher? What did you do to address your invites and make them look nice and clean? I'm open to any options/ideas as I seriously don't want to hand address them this go around.

Thank you in advance for all your words and ideas!

DrillSergeantCat

Man...I wish I would have asked this question yesterday. Oh wait. I did. Run them through the printer with a nice font, no labels and you'll be okay. 

floridabride44

Running them through a printer is a great option. You can even download pretty fonts (for free!) that look like handwriting. Once you get your text "look" figured out in Word, printing will probably take a few practice tries (so test it out on paper if you don't have many extra envelopes) but once you get the hang of it it's a fast process. Plus, it makes the address nice & clear for the post office to read. Just no labels! 

labro

I practiced some basic calligraphy forms and did it myself.

One method that will at least help things to look neat is to stick an index card inside of your envelope. Unless the envelope is a really dark color, the index card lines will show through and you can use them to make sure all the address lines are straight and regular.

I guess I missed the last part that you don't want to hand address. Just run everything through a printer. Take your time setting up the margins and do a couple test prints to make sure it's printing on the envelope where you want and you'll be fine.

DrillSergeantCat

BTW - if you need help creating a mail merge in Word, let me know. I'd be happy to help. 

AddieCake

Select a nice, readable font and run them through a printer.

AddieCake

Additionally, is your aversion to writing them out because you think it has to look fancy? You said you used stencils and stuff before and became frustrated.They don't, just FYI.

Knottie1455569782

I hadn't even thought of trying to print them! Defintiely going to try that out. Ordered extra envelopes just to be safe, I'm glad I chose to do that!

Knottie1455569782

Definitely not looking for fancy. Just looking for legible and clean. My hand stenciled ones turned out a bit sloppier than I would have liked and more so as I got farther into addressing them, so just looking for a sharper look.

pinupbride6189

I...just hand wrote mine. They weren't tres fancy, but they got where they were going.

sparklepants41

pinupbride6189 said:

I...just hand wrote mine. They weren't tres fancy, but they got where they were going.

Ditto. I'm no calligrapher, but my everyday print handwriting is very neat.

LtPowers

pinupbride6189 said:

I...just hand wrote mine. They weren't tres fancy, but they got where they were going.

This. People get hung up on making them look nice, but the personal touch is far more important.

Of course, if one's handwriting is so bad as to risk the envelopes getting lost in the mail, that's one thing. But that should be a relatively rare case.

Knottie1455569782

I definitely am not hung up on them being overly fancy or anything, My wedding is very simple and wildflowery, so over the top stuff is not my style. My handwriting is sloppy as it is and just didn't look as clean as I wanted, so I was curious to other options. Good for those of you who have good enough handwriting.

Thanks to all you lovely ladies for the different ideas!

DrillSergeantCat

Knottie1455569782 said:

I definitely am not hung up on them being overly fancy or anything, My wedding is very simple and wildflowery, so over the top stuff is not my style. My handwriting is sloppy as it is and just didn't look as clean as I wanted, so I was curious to other options. Good for those of you who have good enough handwriting.

Thanks to all you lovely ladies for the different ideas!

I have to write s...u...p...e...r... slow for my handwriting to be legible and even then it's still sloppy. 

Knottie1455569782

I'm the same exact way. Thats why I was wanting to pull my hair out. It took me forever to write out 125. It drove me nuts. Haha.

SaintPaulGal

Our wedding is...I don't want to say "themed" because it's not...let's say "loosely influenced" by a general vintage-y vibe that matches our lifestyle.  My partner is going to type the addresses on his typewriter.  I have zero of fewer fucks to give about whether this is proper.  Guests will be well hosted and well loved.  The mail carrier will be able to read the addresses.  I will sleep just fine at night.

CMGragain

I think calligraphy is a waste of money.  It is much more personal to simply address the envelopes in your own best handwriting.  As long as it is legible, it is fine.