Does anyone know of calligraphy software? I want to address my wedding invitations and have bad handwritig.?

Question

I know it's not "proper" for me to print my wedding invites on the computer but I have terrible handwriting. Does it make a difference if they addressed on computer labels using a nice script font?

Answer 1

ONE NAME: Dymo Label Writer



This little gem can shoot off gorgeous scripted labels (with graphics if you prefer).The script looks just like it's handwritten. Beautiful, and fast.



I also have hideous handwriting (I'm talking doctor's script) and so does my husband. We could only find ONE local 'calligrapher', and she wasn't available by our wedding date...and she wanted over $1000 (!) to do all of our invites. We're not cheap, but my now husband almost fell off his chair. No way, we decided. So we used to labels. At first I was paranoid, as I was going against 'etiquette'. But in the end, our invites looked clean, neat, and fabulous! No one complained.



We had no one else to help us, as I was in one city, he was in another, and my maids were in another. I wasn't going to ask my friends to leave work for a week to fly down and address my invites.



Traditional etiquette says that everything must be handwritten. But that was also from back in the day when women went to school specifically to learn how to 'write properly' and didn't usually work outside of the home. Times have changed. If you use a label writer or software, this is acceptable to most.



If you know that some of your guests (typically older) may be offended, simply hand address those. Even someone with hideous writing like me can usually address 1 or 2 things, although it may take 2 hours of careful writing and 3 envelopes. ;)



So I say go for it! The only thing you need to do for sure is to hand write your thank you cards! THAT would be bad if you did not!



It took me AGES and I often wasted 3 cards on each person since my writing is sooo bad! But I did it! I just printed, no handwriting. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to read it. ;)



Good luck!

Answer 2

You are off to a good start! You recognize that printing addresses on your invitations is a major no-no.

Rather than breech etiquette all together, let’s come up with some alternatives!

1) Many invitation retailers will hand address your invitations for you. It’s a premium service, and you should expect to pay for it. However it’s much better than printing them. You may not notice a difference between quality calligraphy and a script font, but many people will.

2) Do you have a friend or friends with good penmanship? If so, ask for their help. Aunt Sue and Aunt Edna are not going to compare handwriting on their invitations. Nobody will notice if two invites weren’t done in the same hand.

3) Practice, practice! Maybe your handwriting isn’t the best, but if you slow down, take your time and do five or six invitations per night, it wont be so bad! Find a quality pen you really enjoy and go slow!

Nobody is going to complain if you go with printed invitations, but they will remember. It's up to you to decide if that's the first impression you want people to have of your wedding.

Good luck!

Answer 3

I asked a similar question when I was prepping my invitations. Finally, I just thought back to how every single invitation has come addressed to me, and I had to confess - I don't even remember. :) I have always, always thrown the outer envelope away and stuck the invitation on the frig until it's time to attend.



No one is going to mind that your handwriting is messy as long as it's legible enough for the post office to deliver it. And it's generally only the older generation who will even notice that you used the computer rather than addressing them by hand. After agonizing, I finally ended up hand-addressing them... thinking that the only ones who are apt to care will wish it had been hand-addressed. (Just for you, grandma!)



As for the script font, no it makes no difference which font you use, one's not more formal than another, so if you do go the computer route, I wouldn't waste any extra money on special software. If you're going to spend the money on something, send them out for calligraphy ($1 an envelope is pretty common). Otherwise, save your money! Use Word, or just bite the bullet and do them by hand. I promise, no one will say, "ew, such ugly handwriting!" :)



Edit: Reginachick, I have never heard of calligraphy costing $1000! That is outrageous. But, I suppose if you're the only calligrapher available, you can charge whatever you like. I'm in a metro area so I had lots of options, and was seriously considering someone who quoted $50 for my 42 invitations. Still more than I wanted to spend, ultimately. I was just weighing my quote against the price of new software. :)

Answer 4

The outer envelope (which has the stamp on it) should not be in calligraphy. Use plain Helvetica or Times for that. Print it yourself on clear labels or directly on the envelope through the printer. You want the post office machinery to read your invitations clearly so that they are delivered swiftly.



If you look online for fonts, there are a lot of free fonts and many would look very elegant on an inner envelope or for your invitations themselves. I don't have any specific recommendations. I just googled FREE FONTS and found a ton.

Answer 5

Why not use a standard font? Most wedding invitations these days are sent through the mail, so people don't expect them to be hand - addressed. Would you rather look too efficient, or lose an invitation in the mail because the font was too fancy?

Answer 6

Try dafont.com, they have some calligraphy fonts you can download for free.



http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=601