While the guest address is the star of your calligraphy envelope, your return address is still a key component! Even though my calligraphy style promotes legibility to ensure your envelopes make it to their recipient, things happen during the transit process, and you need a way for your envelopes to get back to you should something arise.

Today’s blog post will outline different considerations and options for including your return address on your wedding invite envelopes, holiday cards, thank you cards, and more!

RETURN ADDRESS PLACEMENT

To start things off, where should you place your return address? When you address an envelope for perhaps a bill or just sending a card to a friend, you likely put the return address on the top left corner of the envelope. When addressing envelopes for weddings, events, or even special holiday cards, it’s preferred to put the return address on the back flap of the envelope.

You may have heard stories of post office machine confusing the return address on the back flap as the guest address – resulting in the sender getting their invites or cards sent back to them! While this does occasionally happen, us calligraphers have different tricks to make sure it doesn’t happen to YOU, such as using different size text or design. So have no fear!

RETURN ADDRESS ETIQUETTE

In my humble opinion, there are no hard and fast rules on how to address anything these days. Yes, there is tradition, but don’t feel forced to follow tradition if it doesn’t fit your personality!

For weddings, traditionally speaking, whoever is hosting the wedding would be noted as the return address – so that may be a parent or the couple themselves.

Other options are first names only (Alex and John), first and last names (Alex Jones and John Smith) last names plus wedding (Jones and Smith Wedding), or even no name at all and just the address! If you do decide to use last names, the one consensus no-no is to combine last names (Alex and John Smith) as you aren’t married yet.

For non-weddings, I say do whatever the heck you want! On these holiday cards, I did first initials and thought it was a really classy and elegant look.

RETURN ADDRESS OPTIONS

Now the fun part – all the different options for getting your return address onto the envelope.

RETURN ADDRESS LABELS

Perhaps the simplest, most well-known option is creating return address labels to stick on the envelope. These can be printed at places like VistaPrint and Shutterfly or even designed on your own computer and printed at home on label paper and be used long after your event.

Pro: affordable, simple
Con: white labels on a color envelope can look inelegant, inconsistent style with guest address

PRE-PRINTED RETURN ADDRESS ON ENVELOPE

If you are ordering envelopes online, often times you can have your return address pre-printed for a small fee. This is a huge time saver, as no one needs to stick, stamp, or write the address. It’s also provides for a clean look.

The only downside? If you run out of envelopes or need more for any reason, you can’t just use extra envelopes you have in a pinch. Well, I mean you can but then you need some other option for the return address since it won’t be pre-printed!

Pro: no assembly time
Con: extra cost, lead time for printing, inconsistent style with guest address

Don’t forget, if you’re working with a calligrapher be sure to order 20% extra envelopes upfront in case of errors! We’re human after all and ink has a mind of its own.

RETURN ADDRESS STAMP

Similar to labels, you can order your return address a stamp you can use over and over again. A service I offer is to actually design your return address stamp for you for a cohesive envelope look! I will hand calligraphy your name and write your return address in block letters, digitize it, and turn it into a stamp. This means the calligraphy of your guest addresses matches the calligraphy of your return address, since it was all written by me.

There’s also a variety of ink colors available, so if you use colored ink for the guest address, chances are we can find a similar color ink for the stamp.

Pro: cohesive style with guest address, stamp is yours to keep
Con: time to apply the stamp, slightly more cost

CALLIGRAPHY RETURN ADDRESS

The crème de la crème option? Have a calligrapher also calligraphy your return address! Given the small real estate, your names would be in calligraphy and the address in block letters. This is the one route to ensure a 100% match in writing style and ink color. The tradeoff is this is the most expensive as it takes the most time for the calligrapher…but no time at all for the client!

Pro: most cohesive style with guest address, hands off for client
Con: most expensive option

Well, there you have it. Did you ever think there was this much to consider when it came to return addresses? The devil is always in the details and working with a calligrapher like me can help make the entire process simple. Inquire today for your own calligraphy addressed envelope!