Invitation Question

[calanniebu]

So I’m struggling with this and thought I’d ask y’all’s opinion to see what you think. Things to know before maling your decision/giving your opinion:

1) DFi and I are paying for our wedding and honeymoon ourselves.
2) I made my invitations myself with the help of my best friend, Kinko’s, Michaels, and paper zone.
3) I have (IMO and the opinion of others) beautiful handwriting just not really able to do calligraphy.
4) I’m an OC when it comes to anything I make myself (I scrapbook and do other various papercrafts).

My DFi suggested that we get the inner and outer envelopes done by a calligrapher because he feels like it will look nicer. His comment I think was along the lines of “you spent so much time, energy and effort on the invites and they turned out really well, why don’t you have them professional *done* because then the names and addresses will look as nice as the invites …” Which of course prompted me to say, “Well, I thought I was just going to handwrite them” thinking I’d just do really nice handwriting and not worry about a true calligraphy font. So I looked into it and it will cost at least $2.75 per invite (we are currently sending out 60 total invites = $165) minimum. He also thinks I will stress out too much when trying to adress all of the envelopes. I think he asked me to let him know when I was doing them so he could go to his friend's house!

Then I thought, I could do at least the outer envelopes in a very nice complementing scripty font on my computer and then hand write the inner envelopes. Is this too impersonal?

I’m thinking of a lot of other things I could spend the $200 on that will be more enjoyable than the address on the outer envelope that most people throw away.

Any thoughts, suggestions, opinions?

 

[cryssi]

I think that doing it on the computer would be very nice. I struggled with wanting hand calligraphy on my envelopes. I didn't want to pay someone so I was going to do it myself...DH said to pay the extra and just have Impressions (where we ordered our invites) address our envelopes b/c I was stressing like crazy already! LOL He said when would I have the time to hand write all those. It was kind of nice b/c although we had to pay for it, we got both envelopes done (computer printed) in the same font/similar color as the invites, invites assembled, stamped, and mailed.

Definitely, if you are going to do them yourself, just print them. There will be very few if any people who would appreciate the time it took to handwrite them - calligraphy or no.

hth!

 

[twojo21]

my husband couldnt see the cost for calligraphy we just used a nice font & printed all the envelopes on our computer, they turned out very nice & we had so many other personal touches with our newsletters, website, in their welcome bags, at our wedding, etc. its the thought that counts. hand write or computer print either way it will look nice.

 

[calanniebu]

my husband couldnt see the cost for calligraphy

I would have thought my DH2be would have had the same thought. I know part of his motivation is the stress factor of handwriting all of them will be on me. He's trying to find ways to do things that won't stress me out

 

[JandJ]

It's sweet that he wants to keep you from stressing out, but I agree, $200 for things that folks are just going to throw in the trash seems a bit crazy. I only had to address 10 invitations, but also 75 wedding announcements (which I hand made). I just did a few in the morning, a few at lunch, most while watching TV. They turned out fine, DH didn't really care, but I am VERY picky (I scrapbook and make paper crafts too) and I was happy with them. If you think it will totally stress you out and he's willing to pay for it, get someone else to do them, but I think printing them on the computer is a great idea. No one will think twice about the envelope when they see the beautiful invitation inside anyway!

Good Luck

 

[hfehr1s]

Count me in for printing them on the computer. Like others have said, most people, unfortunatley would not pay much attention or appreciate the professional calligraphy and it will be alot less stress than doing them yourself!! Good luck deciding!

 

[Janet2k]

Calanniebu, I am impressed by your handiwork and am feeling kinda cowardly that I took the high-tech way out. I shared what I did for my invitations in another thread: click here.

Why am I bringing this up? To let you know that no matter how you handle your wedding invitations, your guests are going to love them. They’ll love them if you write them in calligraphy. They’ll love them if you write them in crayon. They’ll even love them if they’re printed by some commercial printing press that pops out thousands of invitations each month.

However, if you think you will regret not having your invitations addressed in calligraphy, then your decision is made. Please hire someone to address them for you. But if you don’t think you’ll regret not doing them in calligraphy, then find another use for that money and try not to look back.

My invitations were completely done via a large, commercial printing press. Those invitations were directly mailed to my guests. I didn’t even get to see them before they were sent out. But I still went on to have the most magical night of my life. And my invitations must have done the trick because my family and friends were with me on that magical night.

Please let us know what you decide to do.

 

[princessblueeyzes]

I am another one for doing the computer printing on the envelopes as you can play around with the fonts until you find one you actually like. Just like Janet2K said people are going to love your invitations no matter what and they are not going to really care about what was written on the outside of the envelope or how the outsides of the envelope looks like.

Please let us know what you decided to do.

 

[calanniebu]

The search for fonts is on ... I've found a bunch on the internet that I am going to play with when I get home.

another question - to label or not to label the RSVPs? I could try to run them through the computer also but they are small and I'm afraid that I'll *waste* too many on printer misfeeds and things of that nature.

 

[cryssi]

hmm, tough decision. Ours were printed b/c we ordered our invites. However, for our banquet the next day, the rsvp envelopes were not addressed, so we labeled them...

I like printing on the envelopes better than labels, but if you use a nice font I don't see why labels couldn't look just as good...

 

[calanniebu]

So if I can get my printer to stop eating the envelopes, I'm going to do them on the printer. Does anyone have any suggestiongs for getting 5.5 x 7.5 envelopes through an HP All in One Photo Printer?

 

[calanniebu]

Calanniebu, I am impressed by your handiwork and am feeling kinda cowardly that I took the high-tech way out.

Don't be! Your invites were great! I'm actually reading your trip report - what a great story!

So here's the update:

I was able to use my FMIL's really nice photo printer to print the envelopes and if I do say so myself they turned out well. I was also able to run the RSVP envelopes through so even they look nice. I'm going to hand write the inner envelopes myself because 1) it will give it that personal touch and 2) there's no way to run them through the printer.

Tip for those of you that want to print envelopes on a desktop printer: use a q-tip to apply a little drop of water to the flap so it doesn't flip up while printing! you can easily unstick it and your guest will be none the wiser when you reseal the fully assembled envelope. I ruined a few of the first ones and then this little trick dawned on me. This also allowed me to print my return address on the back flap of the invite.

 

[pintradingwedding]

esp since most of them will just wind up in the trash!

you should do whatever makes you happy -- i really don't think there's a 'right' or 'wrong'. although personally i think the chicken dance is just plain wrong

i'm going to HAND WRITE all my invites -- and i definitely do not have great handwriting. just normal all caps style handwriting.

but then again, i'm cool with people wearing tshirts and shorts to my wedding if they want - even though andy and i will be in tux and ballgown