How do you set up a mail merge for wedding invitations?

Question

I'd like to set up a mail merge for my wedding invitation envelopes but I'm having trouble. I created a list of names and addresses in Excel, but when I try to use that list to create the mail merge, certain data is missing or it's scrambled. Ideally I'd like to have my envelopes set up like this:
Mr. and Mrs. John and Jane Doe
123 Some Street
Anyplace, New York 15498

and for the unmarried people

Mr. John Smith
Miss Jane Doe
123 Some Street
Anyplace, New York 44754

I'd also need indicators for those who have a 2nd line for their address like and apartment number. I'm guessing I'm formatting the headings wrong. Any help would be great. :-)

Answer 1

I'll tell you how to go about fixing your mail merge, but first consider whether what you have done already is close enough. If you are doing 200 addresses and 175 of them merged just fine, merge them to a new document and correct the 25 that failed by hand. You are after a finished product you will use once or twice--you are not trying to create something to send out monthly bills or anything like that. You don't have to take the simplest and best route to still end up with a perfect product. Re-doing everything the right way may be more effort than getting what you have now to work.



There are two axioms of computer programming that apply here--KISS and GIGO. It sounds like you are a real victim of GIGO--garbage in equals garbage out. What I'm saying is to clean up your excel sheet. So I suggest you fix it (if you are an excel whiz, formulas could help, but for 200 addresses it may be faster just to copy/paste into new columns). When you fix it, you need to keep the other axiom--Keep It Simple Stupid--in mind.



You are looking for three to five lines to print on an envelope--but I'll bet your spreadsheet has stuff like "first name" "last name" and "city" and "state" on it. If you were consistent when you typed the addresses in you could get it to work by setting up the Word merge exactly right, but wouldn't it be simpler to just have "name" "address" and "citySTzip"? In excel you can use Alt+enter to make a two-line entry in the same cell. Then the merging part is simple--since you put the multiple name and address lines in Excel when you set the sheet up, all you need are three fields "name" "address" and "citySTzip". If any of those fields have more than one line, you put them on more than one line in excel, so everything would still end up right after the merge. Do some small experiments with six addresses that have slightly different problems, and soon you should be able to see how you can set this up so that the whole list will have no problems at all.

Answer 2

Mail Merge For Envelopes

Answer 3

Your wedding invitations should be hand addressed. Doing a mail merge and printing them on your computer makes them look like a commercial mass mailing, not a personal, formal invitation.



It will take more time and effort to create the Excel file, and run/test a mail merge than hand addressing the envelopes. Enlist the help of bridesmaids, sisters, mothers, etc to make the job easier.