The sanity-saver in all this is that I happen to have Microsoft Office so we were able to use an Excel-Word mail merge to properly format the addresses so when it came time to print the envelopes I only had to feed them through the printer one at a time.

Preparing our guest list in Excel

To get started I created a new Excel spreadsheet using a template my brother in-law created for his wedding a few years ago. The key to the spreadsheet is that you want to prepare it for a mail merge so that you can print the envelopes without writing out each and every address.

1. Number
2. Status (sent / replied)
3. Regular Names (John, Joe, Mary, etc.)
4. Envelope Name(s) i.e. "Mr. and Mrs. John and Jane Doe"
5. Street Address
6. Address 2 (for Apartment Number, Suite, Flat, Unit, Etc.)
7. City
8. State
9. ZIP
10. # in party
11. Beef (Replace these with your food options if it is per-plate)
12. Chicken
13. Vegetarian

Preparing the Word Template

Setting this up was tricky because our envelopes are not standard envelopes. We were lucky, however, that they had pretty large dimensions (8×8in. with the flaps open, 8×5in. flaps closed). I ran a few test pages on 8×11 inch paper and lined them up with our envelopes to make sure that the return address and mailing address information would print correctly.

Printing the Envelopes

I happen to have a Laser Printer at home so we fed the envelopes through the single-sheet feeder one at a time. The envelopes went through with mild bending. No creases but they got a little warped. However, once you stuff the invitations in the envelopes it will straighten things out. Overall it took about 2 hours to print out 150+ envelopes. Time consuming but at least we saved a few bucks instead of having the printers do it.

Things to put in the envelopes

Now is the time to make sure you have everything. Etiquette suggests that you do not explicitly say anything about gift registries or receiving money. To be as pseudo-polite as possible we included an extra slip of paper provided by our reception site that had driving instructions to the hotel that included the web address for our free wedding website provided by theknot.com. On theknot.com we have detailed driving and hotel booking instructions, our gift registries, and the story of how we met.

• Primary envelope, with extra colored paper lining for effect. Nothing printed. 
• Stamped response envelope with our mailing address printed on the front (costs extra)
• Response cards. Make sure response cards asks for names, # of people attending, and the meal choice (if necessary). 
• On the back of the response card, put a code number that corresponds to your Excel sheet just in case the response name is illegible.
• Invitation card
• Information card with driving instructions, hotel booking information, and website information.

Where to get invitations? Chinatown, Stationery store, or Costco?

Costco, the purveyor of supreme value, sells wedding invitations, response cards, thank you notes, and other wedding-related stationery. This fact is not immediately apparent on the website but if you search for "wedding invitations" on Costco.com the search result will take you to Costco's wedding invitation website. (or bookmark http://pal.einvite.com/?Cobrand=PAL&Site=PAL&vk=1777211146) The site is pretty easy to use and they have a decent selection.

Since we live in the San Francisco Bay Area we thought we could get a printshop from Chinatown or around the area to get things printed out super cheap. Unfortunately we couldn't figure out where to start and we read some negative things about the service from places in Chinatown. Of course that is to be expected since nowhere in Chinatown will ever give you decent service

In the end, we decided to go with a small store called Lobella in Daly City. The proprietor of the Lobella, Nancy, has been very helpful and informative. We visited with her several times and she was always helpful without providing too much opinion which is important in making the wedding invitations your own.

Which paper company?

Since we were in Lobella, we had the choice of invitations from Birchcraft, Checkerboard, and maybe one other vendor. Birchcraft invitations tended to be more gawdy and ornate. Think tassels, embossed pictures of couples, frilly stuff, and heavy on the cute factor. For the most part Checkerboard invitations are subdued and conservative with darker colors and overall a more mature appearance. We chose Checkerboard because Birchcraft's selection was slightly too ornate and cutesy. However, we could be accused of choosing "boring" invitations. Unfortunately for our wallets Checkerboard invitations are slightly more expensive than Birchcraft.

What about prices?

Lobella Stationery prices are regular retail ordering for Checkerboard (www.checkernet.com), you see Checkerboard's full retail prices. I was hoping for a discount but Lobella couldn't do that for us because we didn't have enough volume. Interestingly enough, Checkerboard is a wedding invitation vendor on Costco.com. If you're considering a Checkerboard Invitation, check to see if Costco has the design you like (or similar) you could save big bucks. The price difference is approximately 25% (truth in advertising from the Costco website). Costco has some nice designs. At Lobella our Checkerboard invitations retail for $450 including envelopes (200 quantity), similar products at Costco were about $100 cheaper.

However the $100 difference is that it's all self service. No hand-holding or helpful input to make ordering easier or to make sure your spelling is correct or to tell you that it's rude to say certain things. You make your own design, order from Costco, cross your fingers for a good result, wait a few days, and - yikes - you have 200 invitations in your mailbox. With Lobella, Nancy made suggestions about wording, called the printers, and generally arranged the process to be as smooth as possible.

You could, however, save big bucks if Costco AND your stationery store both have the same design. Buy the invitations from the stationery store to get the hands-on help and then order the response cards and reception cards from Costco to save the 25% on the easy stuff

Lobella

508 Westlake Center

Daly City, CA 94015

650-757-1403

http://www.yelp.com/biz/lobella-daly-city