While some of the costs of a formal event, such as renting a facility, are mostly unavoidable, there are some aspects of the event planning process that present opportunities for saving hundreds, even thousands of dollars.  The typical cost of having a professional calligrapher write addresses on invitation envelopes ranges from $2 to $4 per each envelope.  In a large wedding, for example, with a hundred or more invitations being sent out, this expense can add up to a significant amount.  Software tools for printing your own invitation envelopes are available and will definitely save you money, as well as allow you to preview what each envelope will look like before printing.

Set up guest name and address formatting.

Formatting of names is normally done on the Invitation Worksheet.  Typically, only one invitation will be sent out to each family, so the formatting needs to be done at the "Primary" guest level.  You can choose from some of the predefined formats in a drop down, type in your own, or mix the two methods.  Make sure the "Print" column is checked off.

Select which envelopes to print.

Under "Reports", select one of the envelope print options.  You can print "outer" envelopes with full name and address, and optionally the return address.  You can also print "inner" envelopes with name only, if your invitation packets will include them.

Set up envelope print parameters.

On the envelope specification page, you can tweak many options to make sure your envelopes print correctly.  Please specify the exact dimensions - width and height.  Choose a font and font size from the many available professional decorative fonts.  Specify whether you would like to print all envelopes or just a few specific ones - perfect for reprinting or handling some last minute additions to your guest list.  Additional filtering can be applied by category.  Select whether you would like U.S. states and Canadian provinces to print as fully expanded or abbreviated, for example "California" as opposed to "CA".  Check off "Print Return Address" if you wish to do so.  As you change various parameters, the preview at the bottom will reflect them immediately.

Create and print the PDF file.

Click the "Create PDF" button at the bottom.  A brief informational message will instruct you to avoid altering any print scaling - click "OK" do proceed.  The software will now generate a PDF file that you can use to print on any quality inkjet or laser printer.  The reason for using PDF is because this specific file format enables precise positioning and preserves exact fonts.  Please refer to your printer manual on instructions for setting up envelope stock for printing.  We recommend initially feeding and printing just one or two envelopes to make sure the alignment, orientation, and scaling are correct.  You can even experiment on blank paper at first so as not to waste any actual envelopes.

Congratulations!

If you got this far, you are probably very proud of accomplishing such a seemingly difficult task.  Not to mention, you have just saved yourself several hundred dollars on calligraphy costs.  And you can always go back and reprint any envelope at any time or print additional ones if needed.  You are now an invitation envelope printing expert!