Weddingbee Blog

For just a few dollars and 1,230,423,234 hours of manual labor, you can make a huge impact on your invitations, just by lining the envelopes. It’s an incredibly simple DIY project, as well, and you needn’t be the crafty type (I’m certainly not!) to do it! All you need are:

• Envelopes
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Double-sided tape or glue
• The patience of a saint
• A really fabulous bridesmaid who is on winter break and is willing to help (optional)

I didn’t use a tutorial or a pre-made template (though both of those things exist); I instead took apart one of my envelopes, traced the inside of the back and flap, and cut it off before I got to the adhesive on the flap. Like Mrs. Pineapple, I found the most difficult part to be getting the angles right on my homemade template—I think this is a lot easier with pointy-flap envelopes than square ones (so if you plan to make your own liners and you don’t already have your envelopes, I highly recommend getting pointed ones!).

These are really not that difficult to do, but can be quite time-consuming and the most important tip I can give you is to go one step at a time (and to address your envelopes first—I needed to put a lined index card into each envelope to write the addresses in a straight line, and I wouldn’t have been able to see the lines through the envelope if I’d attempted it after the liners were already affixed)—trace them all, then cut them all, then crease them all, then affix them all. Take a break when you feel like the best thing to do with your envelope liners is throw them down the garbage disposal, and get a friend to help you (allowing you to do two steps simultaneously!). They may not seem like a big job… but when you do 115 of these, let’s just say you start to learn who really loves you.

Anyway, here was the finished product:

The envelopes came from our invitation printer as part of the invitation suite, and the liner was made from text weight patterned paper from Envelopper Inc. (Taupe/Opal Florence). Although I’m quite happy with the finished product, I would not do this again!

Did you line your envelopes? Do you think it was worthwhile?