Wedding Blog
Our save-the-dates are here (pics to come)!
Last weekend I started the laborious process of addressing, stuffing, and stamping all 150 of them (I have now completed 102). When it came time to seal the envelopes, I stuck my tongue out and licked the first one. Mr. Lily wrinkled his nose and said, “I’ll get a damp sponge.” Using a sponge sounded awfully messy to me so I refused the sponge and proceeded to lick all 102 envelopes. Is that gross? After the first 20 I was completely immune to the taste so it didn’t really bother me.
I’m curious though — what’s the correct way to seal these puppies?
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Share this post: To Lick Or Not To Lick, That Is The Question
We used a sponge - actually a little square of sponge cut off from a larger sponge. It worked great.
“Envelope Moistener”! We use them at work, they’re basically like a glue stick but the adhesive is really weak so it’s essentially a pen with a wet sponge on the end. Neat & easy!
I sealed all my wedding invitations with an envelope sealer from Office Depot. It only cost $1 and worked great. Here’s a link:
I’ve seen them work fine, and I’ve seen the nasty results when they get too wet, drench too much of the envelope, get too much glue on them, so that the envelope then sticks better to the sponge than to itself, and now not enough moisture is getting to the envelope because of the glue barrier. Like I said, nasty, but sometimes they work fine and involve much less chance of papercuts on the tounge.
Ahhh. Guess I have to admit I was wrong to Mr. Lily. Damn. Don’t you hate when that happens!?
just use a disposable makeup sponge. no need to purchase a moistener.
btw, don’t lick the envelope too much….may cause roach eggs on tongue. My CW from mail room told me about it b/c it happened to him. Apparently he liked the taste of envelopes till he noticed some white dots growing on his tongue. Went to the dr. and found out it was roach eggs. EEEWWWW
http://urbanlegendsonline.com/bugssnakes/envelopes.html
To All: I used to work for a print shop (32 years ago) and we were told NEVER to lick the envelopes. I never understood why until I had to go into storage and pull out 2500 envelops that were already printed for a customer who was doing a mailing and saw several squads of roaches roaming around inside a couple of boxes with eggs everywhere. They eat the glue on the envelopes. I think print shops have a harder time controlling roaches than a restaurant. I always buy the self-sealing type. Or if need be, I use a glue stick to seal one that has the type of glue that needs to be wet to stick
Urban legend or not, I ain’t licking anymore envelopes.
Oh no! Didn’t you ever see *that* Seinfeld episode?!
mr. bop and I licked our invites. we tried the moistener from office depot, but it dripped and messed up our calligraphy. yuck.
The roach story is disgusting. I hope that’s not true.
I’d lick em. If it hasn’t killed me yet…
However, if you got tired of licking them, then go with some other method. I once had a mass-mailing of children’s permission slips that I had to send out (~700) and so we certainly weren’t licking those. We just used a moistened paper towel to slide across the envelope and that worked fine.
Qtips people, Qtips!!! They rock! They’re the perfect size, disposable and cheap. Just get a little bowl or cup of water and a bunch of q-tips and dip, make sure it’s not too wet and then rub on the envelope adhesive, then seal. They worked for 250 of my invitations!:)
My method for mass mailings in the past has been to open the envelope flaps and lay the envelopes on top of one another so that the adhesive edges are adjacent. ( Envelope flaps would like like this: >>>>>). This makes one continuous area that can be moistened by whatever method you choose. Since I’ve done this for work-related mailings (not engaged … YET!) I didnt’ care too much if some water from a damp paper towel dripped onto the envelope. I’m guessing a good envelope moistener would be less messy. Anyway, this method can help you moisten/seal several envelopes at once.
Just be careful! Ever seen that Seinfeld episode where Georges fiance licked their wedding invitation envelopes? That was the first thing we thought of. But we braved licking ours too.
i agree with miss bluebell - the pen sponge rocks!
I use a spray bottle and mist the area that needs to be sealed. It doesn’t get so wet that it shows through the envelope and it gets wet enough to seal the envelope. hope this helps. 
That is so funny! I am having a bridal luncheon and the invites are all stamped and addressed but not sent because I just saw the Seinfeld repeat where George’s fiance died from the envelope glue!
I cannot bring myself to lick them! The sponge got too messy, but I am definitely going to do the q-tip thing tonight!
omg i can’t believe you licked all those envelopes. we used an envelope moistener.
A glue stick does the trick and is completely mess free.
Eww.. roach eggs?! Seriously?! Yuck!!! Those sponge pens are wonderful, I used to use them at work.
Ditto envelope moistener. So clever with your Q-tip method!
Totally don’t believe the roach story….I think…umm, I won’t lick anymore envelopes….ever
haha… watch out!! my friend got a deep paper cut on her tongue from licking those envelopes!
haha I don’t think there is a “wrong” way to seal envelopes, it’s just your personal preference. I used to think nothing was wrong with licking envelopes and my dad would get all crazy on me b/c he thought it was dirty. But since I’ve heard that roach eggs story and realizing I could potentially get a paper cut, I’ve minimized my envelope-licking. When it’s just one envelope I have to seal, I’ll just lick; otherwise, I would probably some kind of moistener.
yuck!! i hate licking envelopes and usually cut my tongue doing so. i’d use a sponge or one of those wheely moistening disc. can’t think of the technical name. oh well.
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Miss Lily, New York/Tucson
Age and Occupation in 06: 30, Public Health Researcher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Art/Web Stuff
Engagement Date: February 11, 2006
Wedding Date: April, 2007
Venue: Tuscon, Arizona
About Me: Here are some things I love?�‚�? painting, drawing, knitting and all other crafty things (including glueing popsicle sticks together); burritos (must be from Arizona); indie/70s rock; whiskey; dogs (if only my tiny apt could support one!); bad TV; and reading. I'm also crazy indecisive so fingers crossed wedding planning doesn't kill me.
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