Addressing by hand

LES8419

Did any of you ladies address your invites, personally, by hand? I am contemplating doing this but can't decide if I am crazy. 

mrs.smith-rindler

I am actually doing that tomorrow night. I am getting a few of my bridesmaids together and making them dinner and we're going to address the STD's and invitations. IMO I think it's easier and way cheaper to just hand write it and get a few of your girls to help.

ninjette04

I have not done mine yet, obviously, but yes.  I am going to address mine all by hand too.  I iam going to do the same as pp, get some of the girls together and do them one night.

amanda6033

I did mine by hand. I have pretty curvy writing, so I can exaggerate it and make it look fancier. Word of advice. Get LOTS of extra envelopes. I think I destroyed 15 or so of the 100 I did

kelklump

I did all of mine - all by myself. I dont trust Mark to make his wriitng legible let alone pretty. I made him stuff all the envelopes, then I addressed by hand. Be prepared if you are having others do it, you will need extra envelopes and you are subject to their writing styles. Make sure you like it prior to writing all of those out.

hccpsu

I did mine by hand.  I picked up a calligraphy pen at Michael's for about $2 and just put some tails and flourishes on the letters and they turned out great--I got a lot of compliments.

cincy2011

I definitely plan to do it myself - can't see adding on an extra couple of hundred dollars (or more) for that.  My handwriting is not the best, but it's okay enough and I will use a calligraphy pen also to make it look nicer. 

hrparker

My handwriting is abslutely abysmal (so bad that I feel bad writing out the envelopes for the checks to our landlord and utitlity companies - it's that illegible), so we hired a calligrapher.  And I am SOOOOOOOO utterly and unbelievably happy that we did.  I don't know that I'd recommend MY calligrapher (one, she's at a pretty high price point, and two, she droe me crazy with her service issues), but there are calligraphers that are recommended here on the Knot who will do inners and outers for about $1.50 each.

If you REALLY don't have the time or the handwriting to do this on your own, you could definitely look into one of them.

Otherwise, I applaud you for handwriting them (I could never do it) - you get an A+ for effort and following etiquette. 

abromanello

I have helped handwrite my friends, but I also have terrible handwriting.  A friend's co-worked does slightly amateur calligraphy on the side (but much better than what I can do!) and she adressed 100 invitations (inner and outer envelopes) for $75.  I got off super cheap!  But I think if you have ok handwriting, doing it yourself is great.

LES8419

I do have very neat handwriting and unfortunately, I am way too much of a control freak to allow anyone else to help me. I would totally drive them crazy! And my fiance's handwriting is definitely not going to work! I asked my invite place if they could easily order more envelopes for me (I only ordered ten extra) and they said yes, so I think it is going to be a go.  I plan on taking this on next week so we will see how it goes!

MrsSigX2B

I'll throw in my two cents' worth:  The last THREE wedding invitations I've received in the mail had computer-generated labels.  While I'm all for technology and time-saving, I was surprised that I was slightly....appalled? 

Then I thought "If they can do it, why shouldn't I?" 

I just sent my own invitations out two weeks ago, and I hand addressed each one myself.  Did it take forever?  Yes.  But I'm happy I did it  Oh, and my handwriting isn't atrocious, but it isn't what anyone would ever call beautiful, either

mschneid02

my handwriting is awful, I have no time to handwrite 100 envelopes and there is modern technology that solves this problem.  i'm using computer labels.  The few people who will actually notice/care will forget all about it when they throw the invitation away.  Calligraphy is one of those things that are not a priority for me - would rather spend the money on something else.

hrparker

To those who feel that they need to use computer-printed labels for financial reasons, might I suggest the following option to make your envelopes seem a little more personal?

If you must use labels, try desiging wrap-around labels that match the general design of your wedding invitations.  For example, this one:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2484/3930147106_385f7325ec.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2513/3930147806_40b298e46d.jpg

It won't add that much more work for you, but it will make your envelopes look a lot more special, and will make your guests feel more appreciated.

jmho

parker624

we are printing our addresses but running the actual envelope through the printer, no labels, and have created a really beautiful art nouveau font.  We did it for our save the dates and it looked really clean and beautiful.

I think it depends on how many invites you have.  I think we have around 250 invitations.

jetadore312

I have super ugly handwriting but I actually did them all on the computer. I did a mail merge (put every name & address in excel and then did a mail merge through Word) and they look so fancy. I did it for the save the dates and the inner/outer envelopes for the invites.  It was pretty easy but you just have to be sure you write everything exactly how you want it to appear on the envelope, so you don't have to go back through each record and change it! If you need any other advice, send me a message. I was really happy I did it. It saved a ton of $ and they looked really great!

jarmstrong23

If you are still needing to address your envelopes, I have a contact I can share with you-- it's not calligraphy, but it's beautiful, and half the price you'd pay for a calligrapher.  She did my wedding invitations and they were gorgeous.

Email me if you're interested:  jenniferarmstrong23@hotmail.com

PurpleSquid

I love doing Calligraphy and other Artistic Writing and customize my writing to match your event.  I enjoy working to make your wedding special and look forward to adding you to my happy client list! 

Check out my website:  http://www.thepurplesquid.com

Thanks!