The Invitations (Part 3) DIY Wedding Calligraphy!

If you haven’t been keeping up with my invitation saga, here’s a little update for you:

Part One: I had a TON of invitation ideas that I narrowed down to just a couple.

Part Two: I finalized the wording and layout, then sent them off to the printer.

Up Next? Envelopes, of course!

Choosing envelopes for my invitations was pretty simple…

If you remember correctly from my last post, I used zazzle.com to print all of my invitations and RSVP’s, and they just so happen to include white envelopes with all invitation orders! This was both kind of cool and and not so great at the same time. It was kind of cool that I didn’t have to go out and buy envelopes. The not so great part was that I had to wait until my invitations came to start working on them!

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to address all of my invitations myself to save money… but my handwriting doesn’t exactly look like this:

Photo Courtesy of www.betsywhite.com

So I decided to go with a less-traditional style of addressing known to many as “Fauxligraphay”, or: Tracing a fancy font onto your envelopes by hand. Here’s what you will need:

• PLENTY OF TIME. Seriously. This is going to take a while, especially if you are having a larger wedding. I sent out about 40 invitations, and spent a couple hours a day tracing for about a week. This is not a project for the impatient.
• Computer & Printer
• Invitation & RSVP envelopes
• Writing tools with smudge/water resistant ink: Calligraphy pens/felt tip pens/heavy flow ballpoint pens.
• A cool font you feel comfortable tracing. REMEMBER: A super fancy font will be more difficult and will take longer. (I used Learning Curve, which you can download here.)
• Scissors or a paper cutter
• A lightbox/A window/Any clear surface you can shine a light through. (I used my glass coffee table with a lamp on the floor under it. This was extra nice, because I could sit on the floor in front of my TV while tracing!)

STEP ONE

You will need to create templates for all of your addresses. I used Adobe Photoshop, but you can use Microsoft Word or whatever.

FOR YOUR MAIN ENVELOPES (GUEST ADDRESSES): Start by making a box the same size as your actual invitation (mine was 5″x7″.) This is so you can cut them out and slide them easily into your envelope to trace them. Type out the guest’s address (using your special font) where you will want it to appear on the envelope. Make sure you leave plenty of room at the top for your stamps. Enter your guest’s addresses one by one, and print out all of your templates. Make sure you DOUBLE CHECK your addresses!

HINT: If you begin with an 8″x11″ document, you can probably print out more than one template per page, thus saving paper!

FOR YOUR RSVP CARDS: This is basically the same process as above… (My RSVP’s were 4.25″x5.5″). You will only need one template, since you will use the same address on all of your RSVP envelopes.

FOR YOUR RETURN ADDRESS: For this you can use the same template as your guest addresses, just insert your address, and move it to the top area of the template, so it will all fit onto your flap. (You can see my return address template in the photo below, to the right of the envelope I’m working on.)

STEP TWO

Cut out all of your address templates. (I used a paper cutter, so I could cut out more than one at a time.) Here are my RSVP and Return Address Templates all cut out:

STEP THREE

Insert your template into your envelope, and use your lightbox (or glass coffee table, or window) so you can see the font through the envelope. (I’m using my RSVP envelopes here as an example.)

STEP FOUR

Carefully trace the addresses using the writing implement of your choice. I used a combination of Paper Mate felt tip pens and Sharpie pens, but you may want to use chisel tip calligraphy pens if you choose a font where the line width changes.

And here are the return address templates in use. As you can see, I lined up the top of the template with the crease of the envelope flap so the address would be even:

STEP FIVE

Remove your address template, and you should have a little somethin’ that looks like this:

STEP SIX

Now continue tracing and tracing and tracing!! Like I said before, I sent out 40 invitations. This means I traced each of my 40 guest’s addresses, my RSVP address 40 times, and my return address 40 times. This will take a while, but don’t burn yourself out. Work on this project for a few hours a day in front of the TV or while listening to music, and you will be done before you know it. The results will be well worth it and VERY budget friendly! GOOD LUCK!!!

UP NEXT: The Final Invitation Revealed!!!