If Money Were No Object

I have a not-so-secret confession to make. I. Love. Paper. So. Much. Yep, I'm fully aware people throw wedding invitations away, but that does not mean I love them any less. So one of the things I've spent a gazillion hours obsessing over is how to address mine. That said, J. and I made an early decision to try to save money on our wedding paper so that we could afford other things like our great band, and my fabulous dress (J. don't even think about clicking on that link)! While I really wanted some heavy-weight, letterpressed fabulousness from the White Aisle, it just wasn't going to happen unless I won a contest (I tried and I did not win).

Ultimately, I found great invitations at a great price (to be discussed after mailing), so it all worked out. But a small, whiny, vociferous part of me still felt like, hey, if I have to compromise on the invites, can't I at least have calligraphy?

I mean really, when you look at something like this, how can you not luurve it? And in my beloved Bickahm font too? But all this gorgeousness comes with an experienced calligrapher and a hefty price tag- $4 per envelope! I could not justify spending more on calligraphy than I did on my invitations! (Source: Rose Calligraphy)

So I turned to the ultimate wedding survival resource, Etsy, and found that there are many calligraphers outside of New York City, who will charge significantly less for similar services. For example, DancingPen charges only $1.25 per envelope for this cute french script! But as lovely as it is, the price was still more than I wanted to spend, and not quite "us," so I continued my search.

The next place I looked was the Wedding Bee boards, where I found Calligraphy by Tammy! Tammy's work is simply lovely, and her pricing was spot on- $93 for all my invitations! But I just couldn't pull the trigger. So I did what any responsible person would do (something quite uncharacteristic of me): I slept on it. And I talked to J. about it. And we both felt that if we were going to spend $93 on something that would be tossed away with the envelope it was written on, we really ought to love it. So I kept thinking.

One idea I stumbled upon, which held real potential, was that of "faux-ligraphy." The idea is that you use your home printer to print addresses on your envelopes in the desired font using the lightest possible gray ink. Then, you trace over the print with an ink pen. Apparently this technique is quite effective. Card Girl's tutorial makes it looks easy! But I lack a steady hand. And my slippery metallic envelopes might not survive the printer. And would I have the patience to do this 100 times?

I turned to The Martha. And she was there for me in my time of need with this great idea for wrap-around mailing labels. Vintage? Check! Pretty? Check! Cheap? Cheeeeeck! Martha's weren't quite right for my theme, but armed with inspiration, much research ensued!

Friends, let me tell you, there's so much free mailing label goodness on the internet superhighway. Whether you want polka dots, cherry blossoms, or damask, its out there. Unfortunately, free vintage-green labels were more difficult to find. Back to etsy I went!

And that's how I found Sarah Guze Brown at Belletristics! Sarah worked with me to choose colors, fonts, sizing and spacing, until we created the perfect wrap around mailing label. We went through a couple of rounds of proofs and for the low low price of only $10, we had mailing labels. Ta- da!

To see my wrap-around label in all its glory, and many other fabulous designs, visit Belletristics' blog!

Sarah made the labels in a word document, so that I could add the addresses and print them myself on a package of $15 sticky paper. Then I can cut them out and apply them to my envelopes. Considering that a package of basic Avery mailing labels costs about $25 (which while effective, does not exactly make me feel weak in the knees) I'm pretty psyched at how my alternative came out!

How did you address your wedding invitations?