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After all the focus on the design and Goccoing of the save the dates, it would have been nice to have immediately slapped those suckers in an envelope and sent them on their way.
In the non-wedding world, if you were sending a birthday card to mom, the scrawled mailing address in your handwriting does not merit a second thought. But oh no, as a *bride*, this rather pedestrian mailing address becomes an issue worth countless hours of internet research, drafts, agonizing, and lost sleep.
I know the etiquette is to handwrite the mailing addresses. Apparently it’s rude to print it. Why? I don’t know. Because I’m pretty damn sure that your guests will know that the each invitation was not handwritten, so why should your guests care about the mailing address? In addition, this etiquette tyranny dictates that mailing addresses can’t be done with just any handwriting, it has to be really nice handwriting, so you folks out there who got a “C” in cursive in the 4th grade are out of luck.
Yeah, yeah, all this complaining, but I am a lemming. I had to find a solution incorporating handwritten addresses as to not incur the wrath of etiquette tyrants.
I considered learning calligraphy. A loud obnoxious buzzing noise went off in my head nixing the idea as I remembered trying to do calligraphy for my sister’s wedding back in the day and it SUCKED.
I then strongly considered shortcut DIY calligraphy.
It is better explained here and executed beautifully by the likes of Mrs. Labrador, but basically you print the mailing addresses on your envelopes with a printer using very light ink, and then take your pen of choice and trace the print. Isn’t that genius? And look how amazing it can turn out:
Well, that’s how amazing it *can* turn out. Just as a quick test, I printed a fancy dancy calligraphic font on regular text paper and traced it. The final product looked like someone had been shocking me with a cattle prod every .3 seconds while I was trying to trace–it was horrible.
Source (I am not trying to make fun of this child)
Fed up, I decided that my own handwriting would do just fine. I bought Pentel gel ink pens (medium point, Sunburst gold) and addressed the save the date envelopes.
Source ($1.75 each)
They turned out fine, and will keep me out of the etiquette prison camp.
By the way, if you are going to use a gel pen or whatever, get a finer point–it’s easier to write than with the bigger ones that make you feel like you’re trying to write cursive with a magic marker.
What options did you explore for the mailing addresses?
I had no idea that you were supposed to hand-address envelopes. Guess I have a lot to learn!
And I’m sure you’re handwriting looked lovely 
I’ll probably use all the same methods that you have–the fauxlligraphy (which will fail because I’m impatient and you have to do it somewhat slowly, I imagine, OR just because the envelopes will get stuck in my printer), and just the regular handwriting. I already have my gel pen. 
Oh no! I sent our STDs with printed… is that rude?
I planned on doing the above for our invites.
@Champagne Wishes: @pennednpapered: oh no, don’t let my old-school rule paranoia affect your decision–this is just me! seriously, don’t even worry about it.
For our save the dates, we printed labels. We did Navy envelopes, so they have a great contrast. I didn’t realize it went against ettiquette for save the dates, I always thought it was just for the invitations because of the formality. Regardless, I probably would have done the printed labels, because they look really nice. I’m looking itno learning calligraphy for our actual invites, thanks for the tip on the pen!
I handwrote our Save the Date addresses too, and my handwriting is not even that nice, ha! But the post office can read it, and that’s what really matters, right?!
I’m using printed labels with a nice calligraphy-esque font. And they’re clear labels, so they should theoretically blend in nicely. I’ve decided to blaze a trail of modern etiquette where people realize that we no longer hand-write anything, and that if we try, our hands cramp up every 5 seconds.
I handwrote the addresses on our Save the Dates. Not so much because of etiquette, but because I like the personal aspect of it.
The STD’s I’ll hand write myself, not fancy or anything, b/c it’s on a post card & I want them to look at it and not thing it’s spam. The invites I’ve been thinking about printing, even though you’re not supposed to.
I did the trace, but I used a real calligraphy nib vs a pen. http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/05/12/fontalicious/
and
http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/05/20/then%E2%80%A6-it-bordered-on-farcical/
using the same technique that Jen (with this ring/livinthesimplelife/almostanderson) pioneered
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/01/diy-wedding-idea-faux-fancy-handwriting.html
I printed the addresses on the envelopes with my home printer. I had an Excel file of the address and did a mail merge into Word.
Yes, I did the calligraphy route and it nearly killed me. Good for you.
[...] with a computer. This saves a lot of time and anyone can peel stickers and stick them to cards. Read this article that talks about mailing address tyranny and see some good pictures of DIY [...]
I had FI hand address our STDs. I’m probably one of the few ladies whose male counterpart has the (waaaaayy) better handwriting. That’s my sneaky way of getting out of the task of addressing envelopes. I let him do it instead
Ut oh! I planned on sending STD’s & invited by printing on clear Avery labels. I’m too lazy and my handwriting stinks. FI has nice catholic school writing though, so maybe I’ll have him do it. heee!
Etiquette be damned, I wrote out all our save the date addresses, and I refuse to do it again. I will be printing out addresses for invites on envelopes and have given up caring what others think This time I will use either envelopes with our address already on it from Vista Print or on those trendy wrap around labels.
aww, heck no. there will be no handwriting, or calligraphy…or anything more than “Ctrl+P”…there will most likely be approx 250-350 guest for my wedding. so no- etiquette be damned (for this anyways).
I say that as long as it’s legible, that’s what counts! I would venture to say that most guests would find it infinitely ruder to not get the STD at all, due to paralyzing-hand-cramp-handwriting on the envelopes.
I hand-addressed mine as well, and they looked just like a 6-year-old (a messy one) did them for me. Lovely.
I printed my Save the Dates and it worked so well, that we are printing our wedding invitations. I have to say that any time I was invited to the wedding I spent about 2 seconds looking at the outer envelope. My focus was always on what was inside. I’m going with that theory at least for my wedding invites! I’ll hand write thank you notes to everyone that is part of our big day, and I think that is a more meaningful to people than whether or not addresses are hand written.
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Mrs. Pug, New York City/Half Moon Bay, CA Age and Occupation: 33, Lawyer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 32, ditto Engagement Date: July 2008 Wedding Date: March 2010 Venue: Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay About Me: The Mr. and I are two 30-somethings who enjoy tasty sweets of all kinds, our neighborhood wine store, and cuddling with our pug. NYC is where we live and the city we love, but we’re doing the deed out in Northern California. We are trying to keep the affair small, intimate, and manageable. Our motto is: the less people, the better! (I’m kidding.)
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