HOW TO ADDRESS WEDDING INVITATION ENVELOPES - YOUR OWN!
When addressing your own wedding invitations by hand is your best option,
…give your regular handwriting the look of a simple calligraphy alphabet to achieve a more formal, attractive presentation.
I fully appreciate how someone might love beautiful calligraphy but simply not have the budget for a wedding calligrapher. Addressing your own wedding invitations by hand can still have lovely results. The following how-to guide will help you address your invitations with your own style.
SIMPLE CALLIGRAPHY LETTERING TOOLS
Most calligraphy tools will be found around your home. The remaining can be purchased at a craft shop or online.
Envelope addressing template
Clean hands
Clean, flat surface
Your perfected, final guest list
Your envelopes, including 10% – 15% extra for errors and guest changes
Pencil
Soft eraser
Your preferred pen or marker – a dark, permanent, fine point marker will give the best results
Time! DIY hand addressing is still quite time-consuming. Allow at least 10 to 20 hours for 100 invitations. (This presumes you’re lettering both the addressee and the return address. Add more hours to address Rsvp envelopes).
WHEN ADDRESSING WEDDING ENVELOPES BY HAND…
Here’s the secret: the beauty of a block of text lies more in the uniform spacing of the letters and words, the evenly ruled lines of text, and the empty space between lines, as much as a calligraphic style or flourishing! Thus, any ordinary handwriting can become wonderfully transformed by lettering strictly within pencil-drawn lines.
Even the loveliest script, if it is misaligned or at varying angles, will not look as pleasing as ruled, spacious handwriting.
A PRACTICE ENVELOPE
Practice on regular paper first. But to know how your pen, ink, and envelope will get along, use one of your envelopes as well.
To begin, draw in pencil lines using the appropriate cutouts of your template.
A pencil-ruled envelope. I’ve ruled the addressee line using a largest cutout and the remaining 3 lines using the next size down. This is a personal preference.
Each line of text requires 2 pencil ruled lines: a baseline where the bottom of each letter touches and an “X-height” line where the top of each small case letter touches. Thus, a 4 line address of ‘name, street address, city and state, and zip code on it’s own line, will have 8 ruled lines.
INK TEST
With your chosen pen, write out the address with the longest line of text. To determine how well your envelope paper takes the ink, examine your writing to see if the letter strokes are “soft” or the ink bleeds (feathers) into your paper fibers, or fails to have clean, sharp edges.
TRICK OF THE TRADE: WHEN YOUR INK & PAPER AREN’T COMPATIBLE
If you see your ink feathering or bleeding into the paper fibers, don’t despair! Use the secret tool of calligraphers everywhere: evenly and lightly spray an UNRULED envelope with one or two coats of a firm hold hairspray. Allow this to dry completely. (Artist’s spray fixative will do the job but is twice the cost). This usually solves the ink feathering problem - re-test the sprayed envelope and if this solves the ‘feathering’ problem, pre-treat all your envelopes in this fashion.
IMPORTANT: Based on your ink test above, have you determined that you need to spray a fixative on your envelopes? If so, spray them before you draw your guidelines! If you spray your envelopes after you’ve ruled your guidelines, the guidelines will be impossible to erase.
FIND YOUR BEST LETTERING HEIGHT
Refer to your sacrifice envelope and the longest line of writing. If you ran out of space, you’ll need to either strategically split the lines or write in slightly smaller letters. Even a 1mm adjustment will allow for more words.
Smaller lettering and wide-spaced lines look more formal
A fine point pen will look most elegant.
A thicker point pen may have a childlike appearance..
Pre-determine where long lines can be split to avoid a crowding.
DRAW YOUR GUIDELINES
The simple key to formalizing and beautifying your regular handwriting starts with penciling in guidelines on the envelope for every single line of text. professional calligraphers do this time-consuming step for even the simplest projects — it makes a noticeable difference in the outcome and is the secret to beautiful lettering.
Using the addressing template, draw both a top and bottom line for each line of text. (a 3-line address will have 6 ruled lines. A 4-line address will have 8 ruled lines, etc.) The space between each line will be at least three or four times the height of your text line. You get to decide what looks best.
The return address on the back will also need to be ruled. This can be only the street address (without the name) in a single, long line or stacked and centered – you get to choose.
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR ADDRESSING ENVELOPES
Once all the envelopes have been treated with a fixative and then ruled, you’re ready to begin lettering. Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind while addressing your wedding invitations:
Smaller lettering looks better than larger. (3mm to 5mm guides on the template)
Block print (ALL CAPS) reads better than script.
Very important: Each letter should just touch the baseline (not floating above or dropping below). Every letter (‘every small case letter’ if you’re doing a script or cursive) should just touch the top (“x-height”) line, without rising above it. No one is perfect at this but the more precise you are in this regard, the happier you’ll be with how your finished envelopes look.
Keep the spacing between your letters consistent.
Keep the angle of all your letterforms uniform.
Keep your hand relaxed and don’t scrutinize your lettering too closely as you write. Take in the entire view of your envelope.
Mind your breathing. Easy breath facilitates smooth strokes.
Try not to judge the beauty of your work until the next day. It’s too easy to get lost in the miniscule imperfections while you’re lettering.
Bend over your work at the hips rather than hunching over the table.
Spell out words like Street, Boulevard, Apartment, North, South, etc. Add an extra line for “Apartment 75-D” or similar. Fully spell out cities and states (“Los Angeles, California”. Not “L.A., CA”).
Spell out house numbers from 1 to 19– some calligraphers spell out 1 to 99.
FINISH YOUR WEDDING ENVELOPE ADDRESSING
When your addressing is done, gently erase your pencil lines with the soft eraser. Do this in bright light to capture the finest of your lines. Don’t forget to erase any guidelines on the backs of your envelopes.
PROOF AND RE-SORT YOUR WEDDING ENVELOPES
Organize your envelopes into the order of your guest list. As you’re doing this, re-check your addresses for accurate house numbers, zip codes, and spelling. This is faster and potentially more accurate with a friend.
CONGRATULATIONS!
You have just learned how to address your wedding envelopes. You can either begin to letter your return addresses, and then address the RSVP envelopes. If not…your invitation suite is now ready to assemble!
