Addressing Your Invitations: Handwritten or Not?

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There are three parts to addressing your invitations:

1. The inner envelope, with the names of the invited guests (sometimes omitted in informal invitations)
2. The outer envelope return address, with the name and address of the place you want gifts to be sent to
3. The outer envelope guest address, with the name and address of the guest(s) you’re sending the invitation to

There are several ways to address your invitations, in order of formality:

1. Caligraphy by yourself or someone you hire
2. Handwritten by yourself (or a team of you and your friends and family at an addressing party, my personal favorite)
3. Printed directly on the envelopes by the printer who prints the invitations (only available for return addresses)
4. Printed directly on the envelopes at home using your computer
5. Printed address labels (we recommend clear labels so you don’t have to find ones that match your envelopes)

You can use more than one method of addressing in combination.  For instance, you can have your printer print the return addresses in matching ink and font to your invitations, and then handwrite the addresses and inner envelope names or use labels. 

I recommend making the decision about the method of addressing your invitations based on a combination of the formality of your wedding (remember, your invitations set the tone for your event), the formality of your guests (your grandmother may be shocked at seeing her address printed on a label), your budget, and the amount of time you have to dedicate to the task.  If you have the budget and you are having a very formal wedding, hire someone to do the addresses in caligraphy.  If you have a small budget, but have lots of time and a formal wedding, write the addresses yourself.  If you’re in college, have little money, are having a medium-formality wedding, and are planning to get married right after finals, by all means print those labels and slap them on.  It’s better to get the invitations to the guests less formally than to not invite them at all because you’re trying to handwrite the addresses in between classes and just didn’t have the time to finish the task. 

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