The latest I have come across is how to address envelopes for the invitations.
This has only come up because we are at the point where we are presently getting ready to address our envelopes, and were thus exploring our options. Now, my handwriting is terrible. It's really quite appalling. My parents went through a phase of blaming my infant school for not teaching me how to write joined up (although I can, I just really have to concentrate), but then realised that actually it's just that their daughter is fundamentally incapable of writing neatly.
haha I wish. For more beautiful gifs, check out calligifphy.tumblr.com.
As such, when my Mum presented me with a calligraphy set for Christmas just after I got engaged, this seemed like a potential avenue for exploration in the context of invitations. I began with a first burst of enthusiasm with the idea that I would naturally hand-calligraph ever single invitation, until I realised that would be SO MUCH WORK and did them on the computer instead.
I revisited the idea of calligraphy when we started gathering addresses to send out the invitations, as a way of addressing the envelopes. Naturally wedding planning is ridiculous, and Jon and I ended up having an argument that was far too involved for something as mundane as addressing envelopes. I didn't want to just write in my normal handwriting, because it would look awful. How awful?
However, Jon was of the opinion that a) calligraphy would be way too much effort, and b) my calligraphy skills were a bit rubbish really anyway, so what was the point if it was going to look crap?
I politely told him what I thought of his opinion, he responded likewise, and after a slightly heated discussion over the qualifications of both members of the debate, with a few less-than-generous allusions to each others respective intelligence and sense of taste, and queries as to what the other person knew anyway, the session was adjourned until we could be friends again.
When we reconvened half an hour later, the idea was batted around of printing labels with the addresses on, because that would be neater and we could be decorative without it looking awful.
Except apparently that is Verboten. Not Allowed. Martha Stewart says NO.
"The address on a wedding invitation should be handwritten; printed
labels are not appropriate (though calligraphy done by computer directly
on the envelope is gaining popularity and acceptability)..." from HERE.
Well that's just dandy, Martha, but frankly I wouldn't trust my printer not to mangle any envelopes I put through it, and as demonstrated above my handwriting is less than appropriate if the reason you are declaring all this is for the sake of formality. And no, I can't afford to hire a calligrapher to write my addresses for me. I would rather spend that money on booze.
She then laughingly goes on to declare the invitation addressing etiquette has become more relaxed in recent years, but still gives 17 PAGES of exactly what you must and must not do.
17 pages! And none of these rules are things which I even would have noticed were I the recipient of an envelope which broke any or all of these guidelines. I find myself wondering who has the time to sit down and consider how offended they would be if someone wrote 'Dr' instead of 'Doctor' on the envelope, or used an initial instead of a full first name, or god forbid printed labels instead of hand writing, even in aid of legibility.
Who has that sort of spare time? And who even spends that long looking at envelopes? Surely once it arrives you spend at most a minute investigating the postmark to try and guess who it is from, and then open it and immediately lose interest in favour of the contents which are generally much more interesting.
However, the overwhelming response from the internet was "NOPE". So for fear of actually offending someone we know who cares more about envelopes than we realised, we turned back to calligraphy.
And lo, planning a wedding has accomplished what years of school could not - I am practicing my handwriting.
Eh, it's a start. Right?
