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The Organized Wedding Consultant Online Help: Working with Invitations & Notices

Views discussed: Envelope/Label Text, Envelope/Label Printing, Listing

You'll find instructions on how to tell the program who is invited to what and information on how the software creates envelope text in the help article "Working with the Address Book". This help article assumes that you've already read "Working with the Address Book".

The entire "Notice List" section of the left-hand menu works exactly the same as the "Invitation List" section, so this discussion is all phrased in terms of invitations, not notices. The distinction is that "notices" are things for which you don't need to track responses, like save-the-dates and announcements. Also, notices don't have a "B-List".

A good place to start is "Envelope/Label Text" under "Invitation List" in the left-hand menu. This view shows you all of the envelope text in one place, for both outer and inner envelopes. If you've used "Set Etiquette Options" to specify that guests' names will be printed directly on their invitations as well as on the envelopes, you'll see a column for the text of their names as well. ("Set Etiquette Options" is in the lower right.)

Inviting Guests to Events

If you're already familiar with how to go through "Households" to invite people to events, you can get to the same functionality from "Envelope/Label Text", as well. Just click the button labeled "Add an Invitation" in the upper right, and choose the household you'd like to work with. The same functionality is also available from the next two views in the left-hand menu ("Env./Label Printing" and "Listing").

Envelopes from Calligraphers and Printers (The "Envelope/Label Text" View)

If the client is going to have the envelopes done by a calligrapher or a professional printer, then "Envelope/Label Text" is the place to be. To print all of the text for the calligrapher, click "File" in the top-left corner of the main window, then click "Print List" or "Print Preview List".

If the envelopes are going to be printed by a professional print shop, the print shop might accept a printed list, but they'd probably prefer a spreadsheet. To export all of the text to a spreadsheet, click "File" in the top-left, then click "Export to Spreadsheet". The file that's produced (a "CSV" file) can be read by Lotus, Excel, and other spreadsheet programs.

Printing Envelopes Yourself (The "Env./Label Printing" View)

The "Envelope/Label Text" view is a good place to verify that all of the text is correct, but If you're going to print the envelopes on your own printer, "Envelope/Label Text" isn't the best place to be -- there are buttons labeled "Print Envelope" and "Print Preview Envelope" in the lower right, but they only print or preview one envelope at a time. To print the envelopes in quantity, go to the next view down in the left-hand menu, called "Env./Label Printing". You can print envelopes efficiently from this view.

One thing that might seem strange is the column of checkboxes for which envelopes to print. After all, you're going to print all of them, right? Well, yes and no. Envelopes for wedding invitations can have all sorts of textured paper, or artfully ragged edges, or other features that can gum up your printer, so you frequently want to put them through the printer in small batches. The "Env./Label Printing" view has the features to deal with this situation efficiently:

• If your printer can handle the envelopes with no problems, click "Check All" on the right-hand side of the window. This button will check all of the envelopes for printing in one big batch. Then click either the button labeled "Print Preview Checked Envelopes or Labels" or the button labeled "Print Checked Envelopes or Labels", and you'll be on your way.
• If you think the envelopes might give your printer trouble, first click "Uncheck All" on the right-hand side (which will remove the checkmarks from the entire list), then click "Check Next Batch to Print". A small window will ask how many envelopes at a time you'd like to print. When you click "OK", the first batch of envelopes (however many you've said) will be automatically checked. Then, when you click one of the print or print preview buttons on the right, the software will only print the checked items. The next time you click "Check Next Batch to Print", any envelopes that are checked will be automatically unchecked, and the next batch of envelopes will be automatically checked -- ready for printing the next time you click one of the buttons to print or print-preview.

Return Addresses

There are two different ways you can tell the software what the return address should be on the envelopes.

• Go to "Envelope/Label Text", under "Invitation List" in the left-hand menu. There's a checkbox labeled "Show text preview" on the right-hand side, and if it isn't checked, you'll need to check it before you can get to the return address. Once it's checked, click "Envelope Details" in the lower right, and you'll see a window where you can enter the return address.
• Any time you print or preview envelopes, you'll go through a window titled "Print" or "Print Preview". This window has a gold frame, near the bottom, containing a button labeled "Fonts, Layout, and Return Address". If you click this button, you'll see a window where you can enter the return address.

Printing on the Flap of the Envelope

It's quite common to print the return address for wedding invitations on the flap of the envelopes instead of the front. If you'd like to print your clients' envelopes this way, use either of the methods described in the previous paragraph to get to the window where you can set the return address. When you look at this window ("Fonts, Layout, and Return Address"), you'll see that there are checkboxes to say whether you want to print the delivery address, and also whether you want to print the return address.

To get the return address on the back flap, you run the envelopes through twice: once with "Print return address" unchecked but "Print delivery address" checked, to print only the delivery addresses; then you turn the envelopes over and run them through again, with "Print return address" checked and "Print delivery address" unchecked, to print the return address on the back flap. You'll want to use this same window to change the horizontal alignment of the return address from "Left Aligned" to "Centered" before printing the return addresses so that they'll be centered on the flap.

A-List and B-List Invitations

You specify which invitations are A-List and which invitations are B-List in the "Household" window, discussed at length in "Working with the Address Book". Double-click an invitation in "Envelope/Label Text", "Env./Label Printing", or "Listing", and the "Household" window will appear. The tab for the invitation you're working with will already be on top. There's a checkbox in the upper right of the page to indicate whether an invitation is on the B-List.

When the time comes to start sending out B-List invitations, the place to go is "Listing", under "Invitation List" in the left-hand menu. There's a button on the right-hand side of the window labeled "Change", and you can use this button to show both A-List and B-List invitations. When you do so, two additional columns will appear in the list -- a column named "List" (which shows either "A" or "B" next to each invitation) and a column named "Invited". "Invited" is always checked for A-List invitations (because everybody on the A-List definitely gets an invitation), but for B-List invitations this column contains checkboxes. When you decide to send out a particular B-List invitation, just check the box, and the software will update the various totals (for instance, the view that predicts how many people will actually attend) to take into account the B-List invitation.

Mailing Labels

Although mailing labels are not common for wedding invitations in the U.S., there are times when you may want to use them. One situation is if you are planning an informal event in addition to the wedding and you would like to use mailing labels on the envelopes for that event. Your client may also hand you invitation envelopes that absolutely won't go through your printer, if which case clear stick-on mailing labels are a reasonable alternative. Using mailing labels is actually quite common for Hindu and Muslim weddings, for which the "wedding cards" (functionally equivalent to Western wedding invitations) are often wonderfully ornate and may have embroidered fabric, tassels, or other decorations that make feeding them through your printer (them, or what they're mailed in) out of the question.

If you decide to use mailing labels, you can set things up in either of two places:

• In "Envelope/Label Text", click the circle labeled "Mailing labels" in the lower right. Be aware, however, that this view is designed for printing or previewing the text of one envelope at a time, so if you print or preview your mailing labels from this view, you're only going to see one mailing label printed on each sheet of labels!
• In "Env./Label Printing", click either "Print Checked Envelopes or Labels" or "Print Preview Checked Envelopes or Labels". In the window that appears next, there's a gold frame that contains a list of invitation-related things to print. Use this list to select the labels you'd like to print or preview ("Return Address Labels", "Delivery Address Labels", etc.), then click the "Print" or "Preview" button at the bottom of the window.