Not horrible. It looks a lot better to not have it hand written plus is you have a high number if invites, it saves A LOT of time. I had clear labels for my envelopes because the envelope was red and I didn't want a white label right there in your face. The clear just shows the black address and looks classy. Are you doing labels for your return address as well?
HEYY im doing the same thing! i seriously just finished typing up all the addresses! haha im using wide or extra large (something like that) Clear labels! so much easier then printing on the envelopes themselves or hand writing which i was going to do and them i decided i had enough to worry about! no one inspects the outside of the envelope anyways haha
I did white labels on white envelopes. Just a warning, we got the free VP ones for our return address labels they they aren't quite white. It's not enough to bug me, but they don't blend in with the envelope as well as the Avery ones i bought for the outgoing labels
The Avery labels are what im using as well they worked great for the shower invites so i know theyll be great for this too and Word 2010 has Avery labels built in so its so helpful too
For my return address - I had them printed already on the envelopes. So it's just the guest addresses on the labels.
Thank you so much everyone for the advice! I feel so relieved knowing I'm not the only one! It's a good idea to use fancier labels too! Thanks for the tips!
We printed directly onto the envelope, that way be could also add a design to plain white envelopes that went with the design of our invites. No way was I hand writing out 90 invites.
Create an excell spreadsheet with your guest list (Name, address, city, state, zip) and import it into MS Word. You can customize the size of the envelope in MS Word, and print directly on them. If you can find the same print/font that was used on the invitation that would look great. Almost all printers can adjust to print on just about anything/anysize. It would look way better then labels.
I hand wrote mine only because I have decent handwriting. If labels would have looked decent on our envelopes, I would have used them. They give you a clean look.
I did "fake calligraphy" on mine, because I personally don't like the look of labels. I made my own invites and spent a lot of time designing them that I wanted the envelope to look just as pretty to match haha. That being said, I only had to make a little less than 50 invites which wasn't a lot (however I did it for the inner, outer and rsvp envelopes so I guess it added up).
I printed lightly on the envelopes from my computer and then I traced over all of them with a metallic gold gelly roll pen. The printing on the envelope was the hard work. The tracing was just busy mindless work that I could do sitting in front of the tv.
I don't think it matters if you use labels though. It's up to you.
I made my return address labels on Vistaprint. They're white and I used the wedding logo I designed. Our envelopes will probably be light blue or kraft brown, so the white label will definitely show up. I'm not super concerned about it though!
For the envelopes themselves, I think I'm going to print directly on the envelopes. I found this picture on Pinterest and loved the way it looked:
Not horrible. Personally I hand wrote everyone. It took forever, but I still did it. Though I have never recieved a hand written one for anyone elses wedding so I think its pretty common
Technically, labels on personal correspondence is bad etiquette, especially for wedding stationery. But there are very few people who know or care about that. I definitely prefer handwriting though and it's a nice touch that people rarely take the time to do these days, so it feels special to receive.
I also did fake calligraphy like MrsOhler and it worked really well. However I used a "lightbox" technique. I printed all the addresses on a word document, turned the Ipad brightness factor all the way up and flipped a clear Pyrex dish on top of it. Then I traced the addresses onto the envelopes. Took some time but stationery was really important to me, and people thought we had them professionally done, so I was very happy with the result.
I have received a few wedding invites with labels. I personally think the labels look kind of silly and cheap compared to the beautiful invites that lie inside but I am sure they can be done in a tasteful manner!
I did white labels on white envelopes. I honestly think the handwritten ones look worst. I know etiquette says to handwrite them though. I don't know how many people actually pay attention to the envelopes anyways. I only have recently because I was planning a wedding.