Wedding Etiquette Forum

Handwritten Addresses on Invitations or Printed?

A friend of mine recently told me that it is bad form to have the addresses on your invitations printed (from computer or printer) if you can't afford a caligrapher.  Is that true?  Is it better to hand write them yourself if you can't afford the caligraphy expense, rather than have them nicely printed out?

Re: Handwritten Addresses on Invitations or Printed?

  • I printed mine with a calligraphy type font.  I didn't want to have them look sloppy by doing them myself, and I certainly don't have the money to pay for a calligrapher.  Mine turned out to look really nice, so I wouldn't worry about whether it is "bad form."  I really don't think any of my guests are sitting around talking about how I addressed the invites.
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  • people have different opinions on this... if you can't afford a caligrapher, certainly don't worry about it. I feel like that's a bit of a waste of money.

    we printed ours on the computer, but stylized it a little bit. PIB.
  • We ran ours through our printer with a calligraphy font. 
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  • I think it's becoming very common nowadays do printers with calligraphy fonts. Printed address label stickers are considered tacky, but not printed envelopes.
  • I did labels because my printer was having issues printing on the envelopes.  I don't care if it's considered tacky.  People are going to rip that sucker open and throw the envelope away.  I could afford a caligrapher but figured it's a big waste. 
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  • I'm handwriting mine.  I've had several different family members ask me about this, and after fielding several "you're not printing the addresses, are you!?", it was an easy choice.  I'm using my nicest handwriting and a caligraphy pen, I have a card with printed lines that I'm sticking inside the envelope as I write so the lines stay straight.

    If you decide to print, do it right on the envelopes, not on labels.  And don't assume that "no one will notice" or care. 
  • According to the most traditional etiquette, printing on the envelope is poor form. Personally I think that's nonsense. In my experience envelopes printed in a calligraphy font look FAR nicer than handwritten ones (though I do think handwritten calligraphy is the ideal when it's possible).
  • [QUOTE]<strong>I'm handwriting mine. </strong> I've had several different family members ask me about this, and after fielding several "you're not printing the addresses, are you!?", it was an easy choice.  I'm using my nicest handwriting and a caligraphy pen, <strong>I have a card with printed lines that I'm sticking inside the envelope as I write so the lines stay straight.</strong> If you decide to print, do it right on the envelopes, not on labels.  And don't assume that "no one will notice" or care. 
    Posted by pirategal03[/QUOTE]

    So did I, except for the calligraphy pen part. Just bought a thickish, non-skippy gel pen and used my best handwriting. Which isn't saying much but whatever :^P
  • I think it looks better to have them printed, we used Lucinda Handwriting font. I never even considered a calligrapher and I honestly, have never seen invitations I've received to be handwritten, I've seen printed and also labels used.
  • I think it's fine to print directly on the envelope (I agree that labels are no good). I know that everyone's budget is different, so I don't want to assume how much you've set aside for invitations, but we found an amazing seller on Etsy who was willing to do our envelopes for $1 each (so, $70 for 70 envelopes, including shipping back to me). I received a flood of calls about them, and I was so glad that I did it. Pics and seller's name in my bio under "paper stuff," if you want to see.

    However, if it's not in the budget, I think doing a nice script font is just fine. I even know somebody who printed on the enveloped in a very, very light grey in the script font and then traced over it with a dark pen, but I couldn't imagine doing that.
  • Etiquette-wise, handwritten is supposed to be best. But reality-wise, printing directly on the envelope in a calligraphy font is much better than poor or mediocre handwriting.
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  • Since my envelopes were dark, I would have had to do labels either way. And since my handwriting is terrible, we printed labels in a nice font. One bonus to this is that since we already had it set up, we added printed return address labels to the RSVP envelopes too, another way to keep track of who was responding in case they forgot to fill in their names. If you want to fancy up the labels you can also add a matching logo or initials to them.
  • I'm definitely having mine printed. Can't afford a calligrapher (Aaahhh, the money!), and while I have fairly nice handwriting, writing out 65-70 invites, just seems ridiculously time-consuming and painful.. :p Lol.
  • I printed mine with a nice font too - French Script. Most people don't even look at the envelope, it's just get's tossed.
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  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_handwritten-addresses-invitations-printed-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:0f3280ce-c752-46ac-b34f-d979c4b3e6b1Post:fdc81997-a241-4bd9-9c01-2df3f3c53114">Re: Handwritten Addresses on Invitations or Printed?</a>:
    [QUOTE]I printed mine with a calligraphy type font.  I didn't want to have them look sloppy by doing them myself, and I certainly don't have the money to pay for a calligrapher.  Mine turned out to look really nice, so I wouldn't worry about whether it is "bad form." <strong> I really don't think any of my guests are sitting around talking about how I addressed the invites.</strong>
    Posted by marisah83[/QUOTE]

    Ditto for me!
  • My aunt has fabulous writing, (I always look forward to getting my Xmas card from her!) so I asked her if she wouldn't mind addressing the envelopes and RSVPs for me. She was thrilled to do something for the wedding. 

    If you don't have friendly or willing relatives like I do and you really want handwritten, do it yourself. Just set time aside each day and do like 5-10 a day. Or I think there is nothing wrong with printing them, just don't use labels.
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  • This is one of those things where I think living in a more casual area like the Pacific NW is a benefit.  I don't know of anyone who cares one way or the other about this - certainly not me - so it was an etiquette rule I was willing to break. 

    I printed in a nice font on clear labels, and couldn't have been happier with how they turned out.  Plus, by the time I was labelling invites, I was really ready to be done with them, and labels were about all I cared to bother with.
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