Weddingbee Blog

… finally! I am almost finished addressing these suckers and they will be in the mail this week! I bought the envelopes online. I had originally ordered a pretty cheap box of 100 ivory envelopes for about $15 (I can’t remember the source at the moment), but when they came in, they were thinner than I wanted them to be. So I ordered more, from PaperSource. In this case, price = quality. I think I paid $4.50/10 envelopes (I ordered about $25 worth). In the end, I wasn’t able to send every save the date in a PaperSource envelope, but now I know where to order my envelopes for next time.

Here are the PaperSource envelopes, neatly packaged:

I had thought about just printing addresses on the envelopes (easy right?), but then I saw how nice calligraphy (more like writing with a calligraphy pen) looks. So, I decided that maybe I could address them myself using a calligraphy pen. I narrowed it down to three different types:

Pen w/ non-replaceable ink:

source

Pen w/ replaceable ink:

source

Dip pen w/ bottled ink (traditional calligraphy pen):

source

Unfortunately, instead of researching these different options beforehand, I ended up buying one of each and trying them out! I found option 3 difficult to use (I think this option requires lots of patience and practice… I didn’t have enough time for either), so that left me with options 1 & 2. Between the two, I liked option 2 the best, because there was the option of different ink colors, and there was also a good selection of pen tips (from skinny to fat) to choose from. I was able to address (including the return address) almost all of our save the dates using one ink vial. (Not too bad!) I ended up buying a calligraphy kit that included several ink colors and three different pen tips. I figured if the save the dates went smoothly, that I would be able to use these for our invitations as well (and for any future event that requires pretty writing).

And now for the finished product:

As much as I like to think that I can write in straight lines, I just can’t. So I drew light lines on the envelopes before writing the addresses, then I used a good eraser to remove them. I noticed that the lines were easier to erase on the better quality envelopes than on the cheap ones (so I guess it pays to buy the better quality when it comes to envelopes. This is something I hadn’t considered prior to “save the dates”, or the wedding, for that matter). I also realized that addressing takes a lot longer than it looked. It took me two Saturday afternoons to finish these (about 50 envelopes) up. So that’s good to know for next time!

Are you addressing your save-the-dates by hand? Share your tips and tricks for perfect penmanship with the hive!