Weddingbee Blog

Image via Amazon.com / Film by MGM Studios

As we have entered the invitation saga at the Bacon home, I was toying with the idea of ordering some really cute wraparound return address labels that would perfectly coordinate with our invitations. I’m a sucker for matching stationery, so it was really a no brainer. But then I started thinking about the font I wanted to use to address the labors of love once they got into the mailbox.

I would be able to buy the exact font online for a few shiny pennies, so I put the issue to rest and set about a PowerPoint mock up. Most people would go with the image you see online, but I’m super visual, and given that good, old PowerPoint is my preferred photo editing software (oh yes, I am ever so fancy), I thought a mock up with all our colors would be a good idea.

I’m so glad I did it! After painstakingly cropping and pasting the little images into a slide, I realized that the perfectly matching wraparound label looked more like the ones you get for free from charities than something that should be on a wedding invitation. When I paired it with any whimsical font, the sad little stickers just couldn’t hold a candle. Once I added some postage stamps to make it look more realistic, the envelope just got uglier and more mismatched. We were back to square one on the return address front.

Of course, I realized that I was totally over-complicating things and that I didn’t actually need labels at all. I could just print return addresses on the envelope! Perfect! Oh wait, handy dandy PPT revealed that on our red envelopes, it was going to look pretty cluttered to have that much text, two stamps AND a bold color. So we’d have to print the return address on the back flap. That idea terrifies me! I have all these images of paper jams and wasted envelopes and never sending invitations because we’ve run out of envelopes. Yes, I’m dramatic.

This left us one course of totally reusable action: a return address stamp! I immediately sought to find a stamp with just our first names that had a large enough surface area to also work as the primary address on our RSVP envelopes. Enter the fabulousness that is Etsy:

Image via MeanttoBeCalligraphy on Etsy

Image via KMCalligraphy on Etsy

Image via AngeliqueInk on Etsy

Image via CastleCalligraphy on Etsy

Image via Plurabelle on Etsy

I was in LOVE. The Baconator? Not so much, but he got that this was one of those weird girl things that he’d never really understand. So many options, so few dollars to buy them all!! Remember my thing about loving matchy-matchy stationary? Well, I saw this stamp and decided that this was totally the way to go. We could address all the envelopes to our guests with the easy to match typewriter font, then put some extra spunk on the return address with calligraphy. Perfect!

Image via AngeliqueInk on Etsy

We needed a few changes because the mister has this thing against hearts (what I assume is a weird boy thing), and I wanted a tad more flourish, so a couple short weeks later, this baby arrived on our doorstep! I can’t wait to use it on our invitations, and pretty much anything I mail until the next time we move.

Ooh the suspense!

Stamplicious!