Bride-to-be Blogger Carly: Learning Calligraphy and Addressing the Invites Myself
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Sean and I received our invitations in the mail a few weeks ago. They look beautiful and are everything I could have asked for (including easy to design, order, and assemble). Since that box came in the mail, however, it has been staring at me—daring me to make the next move and address them.
That’s where I’ve run into some trouble. How do I address them? I know some people hire calligraphers, but that’s not the route I want to go down. We could print labels, but there’s something to a handwritten invitation that I really appreciate. So, I don’t want to hire someone to write them but I want them handwritten. Sounds like I should put pen to paper and get going myself.
I’ve had it in mind the last few weeks that I was going to address the invitations myself but haven’t done anything about it. I have nice handwriting, so I think they will look nice, but should I take it a step further and teach myself the art of calligraphy? Weeks have gone by as I’ve mulled this over and still the invitations sit in their box taunting me with the countdown to their scheduled send-out (Sean has marked this date on our calendar as subtle motivation for me).
So on Monday, I made my first move. On my way home from work, I stopped into an art supply store and bought myself a calligraphy pens. (I had to buy a couple because they come in many colors and I had a lot of trouble choosing, but I’d be damned if I left that store empty handed!)
Ok, so now that I have these calligraphy pens, I guess I should get addressing! Last night I did some practice doodling and it looked pretty good! I looked online and found some calligraphy trace-ables that I can practice with, to get the look down. There are also video tutorials I can watch through YouTube, and apparently a calligraphy guru I can visit at the art supply store who can provide me with some tips.
But I thought I’d come to you all (since you’ve been ever-so-helpful through out my planning!) to see if you have any advice or tricks. One thing that has been puzzling me is how to make sure I’m writing everything in a straight line. Other than using a ruler to draw 3 or 4 straight lines on each envelope, is there any trick you can offer me to achieve the same results? (I’ve been thinking about gluing 4 pencils together to draw 4 lines at once, but I think the spacing will be off. My send-out deadline is quickly approaching so I’m looking for a wedding invitation MacGyver to help me out. Any advice?
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