Need honest opinion!

I am really stressing out here!!! We decided to print out our own invitation envelopes to save money. I set it up in Word with no problem. But I can not find a printer that can handle custom size envelopes without jamming or printing incorrectly! and believe me I have tryed many, ink jet, laser and bubble jets!..........So my only options are to maybe bring it to kinkos. Anyone have experince with them or there prices? Or to print out the addresses on clear labels. Is anyone else doing this or is it too cheesy?
Sorry for venting!

Re: Need honest opinion!

If those were my ONLY two options, I would take them to Kinko's. The clear address labels are nice for like B-day invites and stuff but not wedding Invites. Keep in mind this is just MY opinion. Good luck!!!

Re: Need honest opinion!

My girlfriend printed her labels on clear labels for her envelopes. Actually, it looked nice since it was clear it was really hard to tell that there was a label there. I would look into Kinkos and if it is too expensive, I would go with the clear labels.

Re: Need honest opinion!

Honestly, I think the labels are cheesy.

As for printing - any laser should be able to handle up to 80 or 100lb stock which is probably thicker than your envelopes.

Are you using the manual feed? That is the only way to do it.

Re: Need honest opinion!

I received an invitation recently where the addresses were printed on clear address labels and in my opinion it kind of took away from the beauty of the invitation. I recently had kinkos run off cards for my favors since my laser printer couldn't handle the 80# cover stock. If you bring them your own envelopes and have the addresses ready to print it should be pretty cheap. Since I brought my own paper it was only like 5 cents for each copy. Plus I had them cut and score the paper to make it easier to fold. Looks professional, but saves you $$$

Re: Need honest opinion!

I agree with Stef- labels are only good for non-formal events like a birthday party, but even then I find them cheesy.
Are you having problems because of the lined envelope? Claud2001 had this same problem with her invites. Even the professional work printer couldn't do it properly. She ended up sending them to a calligrapher. Might be cheaper than Kinkos honestly.

Re: Need honest opinion!

I used inkspun (http://www.inkspun.com) for my invitations so I wouldn't have to deal with the printer issues you've faced... They charge $0.39 per outside envelope, and turn them around fast. If you want one fewer headache, I'd recommend using them. The results looked great.

Re: Need honest opinion!

i agree with someone earlier who said to try and use the manual feed (if you haven't already)....also make sure you're set up with the right envelope size, that it's set on manual feed, etc....

i did my wedding inner and outer envelopes (which were on heavy card stock) plus my shower envelopes on my home computer and people are still raving at how beautiful and neat the calligraphy font looks...

p.s. if the printer still doesn't work, i would go with kino's, i think you can tell the label is there even when it's clear...

Re: Need honest opinion!

Thanks for all advice! I went by Kinko's and they said that they do not print on envelopes
Just out of curiousity, for those who printed their own envelopes, did you use black and white or color text?
Thanks!

Re: Need honest opinion!

Curley, unfortunately, Kinkos won't help you. I tried them also when I ran into a problem with my invites last year. The paper was too thick to fit into the printer - both inner and outer envelopes wouldn't go through cleanly.
I ended up just using a calligrapher, and they turned out beautiful. It was money well spent, b/c I wasn't about to hand write them myself, nor use labels....they were too expensive and beautiful to ruin the look for printing.

Re: Need honest opinion!

Do you have Microsoft Works???? That program is so much better and easier. There is a place where you can type in the size of your envelopes, and instead of labels, you put the envelope through the printer and it prints it out according to that. Its so easy.
I hate Microsoft Word.

Re: Need honest opinion!

I printed my own and I used black ink (rather than color - gold would have matched my invite but I didn't feel like thhassle of matching golds!).

So here are some tibits to help with printing (I used my little old deskjet and the outers were fine - inners came ok but were more problematic). Also, it is not necessary to do the inners.. Nice touch but not necessary.

Are you outer envelopes lined? If not they shouldn't be too bad.

In Word, make sure you have the right/custom size envelope chosen. (If you do not know how to do this let me know).

If you are using a deskjet, don't put too many but don't put too little in the tray (I would suggest even for laser printers this too - - but use the manual feed tray).

My friend recommended printing them open. Both her and her sister did them that because they were too thick.

Print one at a time. I used Print Current Page.

Look at your printer properties. Depending on the printer and the driver, you can set the paper thickness.

Also, give the printer rests. I would do about 10 and then get a bad one. I would shut down the printer for a couple minutes and all would be ok.

If all else fails use the labels. Are they the best, probably not but I wouldn't even care if someone sent me an invite with a clear label. It wouldn't bother me in the least. It really depends on how picky you are. I think it is worth the cost savings! Envelopes get messed upin delivery and then eventually go in the garbage! I spend so much time making mine perfect and then I saw how some people's looked when they wre received and was angry that I spend so much time on them!

Good Luck. Forum mail me if you have specific questions (I work in computers and have troubleshoot stuff like this in the past!)

Re: Need honest opinion!

i matched my invites by using a grayish-silver ink color....
also, i printed my inner envelopes unfolded and maybe that can help you too because it made them thinner and easier to send through the printer....(my inners actually arrived unfolded anyway)...
if you print unfolded, you have to changes some printer settings...if you decide to do this, let me know and i will send instructions...good luck!

Re: Need honest opinion!

Thank you all so much for the advice. I was trying to print color addresses, but may try to do black and white to give me another printer to try!....... I will also definitely try to keep the envelopes open since I think the thickness is the problem here. Hopefully I wont have to resort to the labels!
Thanks!

Re: I Used Clear Labels

I used colored ink and made the font italic and it looked very nice (not cheesy) For alot of people who thought it looked cheesy I can say the price wasn't- for the clear labels were about $40 a box at staples. I wasn't working at the time so I couldn't get them through work But it looked nice.

Re: I Used Clear Labels

I would find out the cost at Kinkos and the cost of a new printer and then weigh my options. We have an epson printer that worked for our inner and outer envelopes -

Send me forum mail if you want the details.

Good luck