Welcome to post three of a five-part series I’ve developed just for you called, “Your Perfect Invitations”. Every Wednesday in June I will post a new blog full of special tips, tricks, advice and other goodies all based on helping you pick out the perfect paper goods for your wedding. If you stick around for the end, there might just be a special treat for you, my lovely readers, so be sure to keep coming back each week to see what I have up my sleeve! Now, let’s get on to the good stuff!
Last week we went over the selection and wording of Your Perfect Invitations and the week before that I covered the organization and time management involved when gearing up for Your Perfect Invitations. This week, it’s all about addressing those envelopes! A tedious task that can leave your hand hurting and your mind in a quiet dismay, wondering why you didn’t hire someone to do this for you, but don't fret addressing your envelopes does not have to end in suffering! If you follow the tips I have, you’ll be on the high road to completing this task with happy hands and a happy heart.
Traditionally, invitations are hand-addressed including the outer invitation envelope guest address and return address, the inner invitation envelope for the guest names, and the reply card envelope return address. Of course the times are a changing not only does everyone seem to be on a time crunch, but the traditional way of marriage is also turning into a thing of the past. You’ll now see a lot of address labels or addresses printed directly on the envelope. The point of having an envelope hand-addressed is the sincerity that comes with it, but I can understand that 300 envelopes staring you in the face might make you second-guess how sincere you really want to be! To help with your sanity, I have a couple of tips for you to work with so the process is not so daunting.
1. Get help! Put your wedding party, moms and friends to work! This is a great time to bond with your closest pals while also achieving a huge goal. Provide drinks and snacks and invite everyone over for a couple of hours and I guarantee you will have those addresses knocked out in no time.
2. Work on it in chunks. Plan to tackle the task on your own? Breaking out the addressing into small portions helps in numerous ways! Your hand won’t get as tired, and therefore your writing will look more cohesive throughout all your addressing, and you won’t get so bored. I practice this with my own business to spice things up and keep my mind fresh. Trust me, it works!!
3. Request your envelopes early. Instead of waiting until your invitation order is complete to address your envelopes, ask if you can go ahead and receive your envelopes so you can get a head start on addressing! Most companies will do this for a nominal charge.
My last tip isn’t so much about addressing, but about receiving your RSVP’s. It does happen that a person will forget to write their name on their response card before getting it in the mail. Oh no! Here’s how to prevent the stress of who responded and who hasn’t: Remember I told you that having all your names on an Excel sheet makes things easier for everyone involved because you can keep track of multiple things regarding a guest. Well, before mailing out your invitation sets, lightly mark the back of each response card with the number that coordinates to them on your handy, dandy, Excel file. Of if your address list is hand-wrote, make two numbers- one on your master list and that same number on the back of the response card. Then if you get a blank reply back, just look and the number on your master and viola! you know who the sender is. Pretty easy, right?
Now that you’re ready to address, it can get tricky. Addressing for married couples, single couples, children, doctors… Everyone has a different title! Eek! No fretting needed, here’s a chart to make the addressing process easier on you. And do feel free to leave a comment or email me (renee@greenerme.net) if you need assistance with a specific type of name and/or address!
First big rule: Spell out your addresses! Avenue, Boulevard, Street, Place, Apartment, State Name – It all gets spelled out!
Now, on to the titling…
Married Couple, no kids - Outer Envelope
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Copeland
1234 South 15th Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma 12345
Inner Envelope
Mr. and Mrs. Copeland
Married Couple with kids - Outer Envelope
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Copeland
1234 South 15th Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma 12345
Inner Envelope
Mr. and Mrs. Copeland
Charlie and Sydney
**Note: if the kids do not live at home, they should receive their own invitation. In this next sample, let's pretend that Sydney lives elsewhere - Outer Envelope.
Miss Sydney Copeland
1234 South 15th Street
Apartment 321
Tulsa, Oklahoma 12345
Inner Envelope
Sydney Copeland
Unmarried couple - Outer Envelope
Miss Cindi Smith
Mr. Frank Copeland
1234 South 15th Street
Apartment 123
Tulsa, Oklahoma 12345
Inner Envelope
Miss Smith
Mr. Copeland
Doctor, married couple - Outer Envelope
Dr. and Mrs. Frank Copeland
1234 South 15th Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma 12345
Inner Envelope
Doctor and Mrs. Copeland
Single person + Guest - Outer Envelope
Miss Cindi Copeland
1234 South 15th Street
Room 123
Tulsa, Oklahoma 12345
Inner Envelope
Miss Copeland and guest
See, this isn’t so bad, right? Right! I’m confident your envelopes are going to look magnificent when you’re done!
If you’re still not feeling the whole addressing thing, you have options. I’m not a big fan of labels as I am printing directly on the envelope, as I think the address printed labels stick out a little too much. Your invitation designer can help with the printing on envelopes- easy! You can also hire a calligrapher, someone who will delicately and daintily address each of your envelopes in a hand-written script that will have all your guests swoon.
This concludes the addressing portion of the Your Perfect Invitations series! I hope you are now on your way to happy envelope addressing! Let me know if I can be of assistance in any way – I would love to hear any questions or additional tips that you have when it comes to addressing your envelopes! I’ll see you all next week when I cover additional paper goods for your big day, as well as thank you cards! Everyone needs a little appreciation, right? See you then!
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