Is it necessary for us to hire a calligraphy person for our envelopes?

I'd do it yourself and save a passel of money. The first thing I do with an envelope is toss it in the recycling bin! I don't care if the handwriting looks fancy (or if it's handwritten at all, frankly), as long as my name is spelled correctly and it gets to my mailbox on time.

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I am a calligrapher and to pay someone to address your envelopes is not inexpensive. You can expect to pay up to a dollar a line; that adds up quickly. Some calligraphers charge even more than that as charges are sometimes by the word (more than three letters).

I am often surprised that people pay to have their envelopes addressed but they insist on giving really cheap favors that are worthless. I, personally, would rather get a better favor than a pretty addressed envelope.

And shame on me for even saying this because I am a calligrapher!!!

You can address the envelopes yourself. Take a piece of lined paper that fits in your envelopes. Now, remove the paper and with a thick black magic marker and a ruler, trace the lines where the address will be written. All you have to do is insert that paper in the envelope so you have straight lines you can see through the paper so your addresses are printed straight and aligned on the envelope fronts. That is the hard part, made easy.

If you have a friend with good penmanship, then ask them to help you as a favor. If you get hand cramps easily, just do five to ten invitations a night for a few nights and you will be all set to drop them all in the mail. Words of wisdom: have your invitations weighed before affixing postage to be sure you have the correct postage and your choice of stamps. Because if the invitations need two cents extra postage, you may not have the opportunity to shop for pretty stamps if that is important to you.

Weddings are an industry with dozens of differently skilled people trying to get in on a very lucrative act. This is a fairly new one, believe me there is no reason on earth why you should pay someone to write names and addresses on envelopes for you. Once upon a time the wedding costs included new outfit for the bride and bridesmaids, groom and groomsmen, a bouquet for the bride, the cost of marrying in church or wherever,the celebrant and a wedding breakfast. If you were rich it also involved a trousseau for the bride paid for by her parents and a new carriage for the groom paid for by his or by himself. That was it. Now we have the stationers for invitations, the wedding planner to make sure that we spend far more than we can or should afford, the florist for flowers for almost everyone and to decorate the wedding and reception venues, the clothes, the gifts for the bridesmaids and bouquets for the bride and her mother (the mothers being given at the reception, the reception venue with cocktails and buffet followed by the party and dinner..the brides cake and the grooms cake, the cars and the champagne and so on and on..sometimes even with hired jewellery! People who can not afford to buy a good second hand car spend the price of one on turning their wedding into a retail circus because that is more and more what is expected and they do not feel properly married without all the fuss and expense. If anyone tells you that on top of all the other nonsense you have to have a calligrapher then just think of all that money being thrown away on the very day the invitations are received!

You could, if you really want the bother, try printing an envelope out on your computer, once you have sorted out sizes and fonts you can have all the calligraphy you want, but to be honest, I would not bother because life, when you come down to it, rarely lasts for more than a hundred years and you have better things to do with yours.

There's no need to pay someone to address your invitations. My mom did them for me last year because she had the best handwriting in our family ;) She didn't even use a fancy pen, just a regular blue ball point. We did run the envelopes thru the printer to put the return address on the outgoing envelopes as well as the response envelopes, but if you ordered your invitations from a professional place then they've probably already done that for you in embossed type to match the invitation text.

no,you don't have to hire someone to write your envelopes - its a silly,unnecessary expense if you or someone you know has nice handwriting

i may be in the minority on this,but while handwritten may be preferred,i would rather see a printed label than sloppy handwriting.make a label part of the scheme though,as hiding it with a clear label doesn't look good.alternatively,just pick a fancy font from your computer and print directly onto the envelope.i look at an envelope for all of 2 seconds to ascertain it is for me,rip it open,take contents out and discard the envelope

Family friendly employee? I don't know what culture you are, or why you have these rules. I live in the US, and here it is rude NOT to look someone in the eye while talking to them. I do it all the time. To speak to someone while looking away is considered rude here. Maybe the help was doing what comes natural. If you have issues with someone looking into your wife's eyes while speaking to her, you seem to have some jealousy issues. There is nothing wrong with the younger staffer making eye contact while having a conversation. It does not mean they're disrespectful. Some things come naturally. It's going to be hard to get this point across as some actions are just normal and looking someone in the eye is one of those automatic actions for most people. When you talk to someone...where do you look?

No one keeps the envelopes, and a professional calligrapher costs a pretty penny. You can buy calligraphy kits for around $15, and it's fairly easy to learn yourself. Or, set it up on your computer so you can print the addresses directly on the envelopes (any co putter and printer can do it). Otherwise, just pick who has neater handwriting (you or your fiance) and they address them.

As long as you can print nicely and clearly, that is all that is needed. Tip: Use a dark marker to make straight lines on an index card, then slip it into the envelope so you can see the lines through it. This will make it even easier to write neatly...the address will stay in a nice straight line!

OMG NO! lol

Don't hire someone for that!

I COMPLETELY agree with you. We live in the 21st century as well.

I just used clear labels with a nice font to be perfectly honest with you. I also used a wax seal with a stamp on the back as a cheap and effective way to "formalize" my invitations.

They will throw out the envelope - don't waste money and stress on it!

ADD: I'm with you cjsmummy!