Weddings are already expensive. Why not save some money by printing your wedding invitation envelopes by yourself at home? Keep reading to see how I did it, and for a free template!
First, let me show off our gorgeous Rimike invitation by Bibi Invitations! With a black die cut enclosure that fits perfectly into our black, white, and gold color scheme, this was the very first invitation that caught my eye, so I was super excited that Jonathan liked it as well! We decided to add gold border paper and an ivory ribbon to brighten up the invitation suite, and encase it in a gold envelope… because white envelopes are basic and this is NOT a basic wedding, ok! I actually was worried about the bow but our invitations came pre-tied which was a HUGE time and stress saver.
As we were waiting for our invites to be shipped, I started doing some research on guest addressing. I knew I wanted some semblance of a handwritten look, but I also know the extents of my talents and calligraphy style writing is not one of them, no matter how many times I read this post that made it look so easy. I found some Etsy sellers with pretty writing who would do the front and back of envelopes for about $2.50, but that $500 plus a two week turnaround time after receiving our envelopes just wasn’t practical. Staples and FedEx sometimes allow envelope printing, but it depends on location and the nearest Staples to me is hood so I didn’t want to risk my time and attitude. So instead I bought a printer, created an address template, and printed our invitation envelopes at home for under $30!
Printing Our Wedding Invitation Envelopes
To start, you’ll want an Excel spreadsheet of all of your guest addresses. I suggest one column for name (ie. Mr. and Mrs. Carter or James Brown), one for street address, one for street address 2 (like apartment numbers) one for city, one for state, one for zip code, then a last one for country if you have any international invitations to mail. Next, create your envelope template in Word with the fonts and spacing for how you want your envelope addressed. Make sure you first change the page layout size to match that of your envelopes so you can get the scaling correctly!
I know I wanted a combination of a block font and a cursive one, and I’d seen a few envelopes online with “kindly deliver to” written on them and liked that tiny detail. I used a text box and the font Didot to write the guest address, and wrote out the kindly deliver to in the font Amigirl Script (purchased from Creative Market – they have TONS of affordable fonts!). Complete a mail merge and you’ll magically have all of your addressed envelopes written out – because nobody has time to copy paste 200 times!
Want my Word template of this invitation to use for your own mail merge? Get the link to download it here. No need to request access, just save it to your computer. Once it’s saved, open it in Microsoft Word and make any changes directly there! Remember you’ll have to get the fonts I used first to get my exact look (or use whatever custom fonts you prefer), and you might have to change the paper size!
Although this printer is inkjet, the ink was quite wet so I had to pull each invitation out and lay it flat before the other one started coming out, otherwise the printing would get thrown off and smudge everything. This forced me to print in batches of 10 rather than all at once, but still within two hours, all of my invites were printed off with guest addresses and our return addresses… all for just 30 bucks! I did have to play around with figuring out the right way to load the envelopes, which will differ by printer, but just use a marked scrap piece of paper first to test!
I can’t believe I even considered paying someone to do this because it actually was so easy. Way easier than actually stuffing all the envelopes, licking them, and applying stamps. Luckily Jonathan helped me with that process so we managed to address, stuff, and send out our invites all in a day! I sure did carry them to the post office in my Bride tote from the Natural Hair Bride Box, though I sadly had to add an additional 21 cents postage due to the thickness of the invitation (darn you pretty bow!).
Love this idea! I am just so confused on how you got the names from the excel spreadsheet onto the Word document. Is there a setting that lets you link them so they automatically fill in? Or did you manually copy and paste each address into the templet.
It was a while ago so I don’t remember too clearly but I believe there’s an excel function called mail merge or something that transposes addresses from a spreadsheet into a word document.
Do you happen to have a visual for the Excel spreadsheet? I’m scared to make a mistake, then have to redo the spreadsheet with all of the addresses. I’m not super well versed with Excel, but know the basics.
Hi, i am trying to do my wedding invitations envelopes printed and i am wondering how do you do the return address on the back of the envelope thank you.
We actually printed the return addresses first, and it just took a bit of trial and error figuring out which way to insert the envelopes to get it printed correctly!
Hi there, just wondering how you did the return address on the back flap? Thank you!!
Love these! I will definitely Do the same for our envelopes. I have a printer at home that I can dust off and use.
Yes! Just do a test to check if the ink needs some time to dry, or if you can print them all at one go. Best of luck!
I love this! Thanks so much for sharing. My fiance and I are planning our October wedding and are looking for affordable (yet elegant) invitations. I was wondering, did you order the envelopes separately, or did they come with your purchase from bibi? If you purchased them separately, do you mind sharing the website or store where you purchased them from? Also, are you including RSVP cards with your invitations?
Congrats hon!! The envelopes came with our order, and we got to pick the color which was wonderful. And we didn’t include RSVP cards to save costs, though Bibi Invitations offers that option. We just asked everyone to RSVP on our website!
It’s amazing how you come up with great ideas. If it was me I probably would have paid someone but considering how you save so much money doing it yourself. I am glad that you thought alternate alternative to DIY ideas saving you and BAE money. Johnathan is so fortunate to be marrying a smart,intelligent, educated,beautiful and minded originated black women.
Nothing like being on a strict budget to stir up some creativity! And yeah, he’s pretty lucky ?