Today, you’ll learn how to print invitation cards for four different events—a 25th anniversary, a child’s birthday, a wedding, and a Bar Mitzvah. All four invitations will be printed on LCI Paper’s A7 sized Radiant White cards. This popular blank invitation card measures 5 1/8 x 7 inches. By changing fonts and adding simple graphics within Microsoft Word, you’ll find that you can create custom invitations in different moods, from elegant to whimsical.
WEDDING
Our first project is an elegant wedding invitation. When printing a custom invitation card of any kind, the first step is to set up a template to match the card size. We’ll enter a custom width and height--5.13 by 7--to match our invitation card’s dimensions.
The template is now created and we can enter the text that will appear on the invitation. Sample invitation wording for all the events covered in this video is available at LCIPaper.com, so we’ve got you covered.
We’ll use the Century Gothic font to turn average into elegant. If you want to expand your font collection, you can turn to a number of free font archives on the web.
A combination of two different fonts adds another dimension to a wedding invitation. Since the bride and groom are the main attraction, we’ve used the Tagettes font to highlight their names. We’ve also made their names larger than the rest of the invitation wording by changing the font size.
Now that we’re happy with our invitation wording, fonts, and font sizes, there’s just one more setting we need to adjust. By clicking File, Print, and then Properties we’ll access the printer driver and communicate to the printer that we will be loading a non-standard size card into its tray. Under paper size, we’ll enter the custom dimensions of our invitation card.
We’ll print the card in an Epson inkjet printer. Our elegant wedding invitation is shown in our Jumbo purple-lined double wedding envelope.
ANNIVERSARY
Let’s turn our attention toward another formal occasion, a 25th anniversary celebration—the silver anniversary.
We’ve chosen a script font and a rings and hearts graphic available within our version of Word by clicking Insert, Picture, Clip Art.
Whenever we import a graphic or picture, it’s important to format it by right clicking and selecting Format Picture.
Under the Layout tab, we’ll send the graphic behind the text as opposed to wrapping around the text.
Since the theme is a Silver Anniversary, we’ll change the color of the blue graphic to grayscale, giving the graphic a silver look.
To widen the space between each line of text, we’ll adjust the line spacing. Since we’re looking for a fine adjustment, we’ll choose More.
We’ll enter a custom value of 1.15. We reached this decision by first experimenting with different settings of 1.1 and 1.2 before deciding on 1.15.
BAR MITZVAH
The templates for our final two invitation cards will be laid out in the Mac version of Word. First, we’ll design a Bar Mitzvah invitation card.
We’ve inserted a Star of David graphic and formatted it in the same way that we loaded and formatted the graphic used in the anniversary card template.
We’ve selected our text and changed the font to a decorative font suitable for a special occasion.
Since this card will be paired with a silver envelope, we’ll coordinate by lightening up the Star of David graphic. We’ll do this by changing the graphic’s transparency.
Since Benjamin is the reason for the Bar Mitzvah, we’ve enlarged both instances of his name. We also moved “Benjamin” up and in front of the Star of David graphic.
This Bar Mitzvah invitation is paired with a Stardream metallic Silver A7 envelope.
BIRTHDAY
Now we’ll make a child’s birthday invitation using fonts and graphics for a whimsical and fun look.
As with the other cards, we’ll start by typing our invitation wording.
With a font change, we’ll transform the invitation.
Adding a balloon graphic and sending it behind the text adds flare and fun.
We lightened the balloons using the same transparency technique as in our Bar Mitzvah invitation. We used two font colors so that the important information is more fun to read.
Our Carnival Serene Blue A7 envelope compliments the invitation and goes perfectly with a young boy’s birthday party.
Using Microsoft Word to change fonts and graphics is a simple way to create cards for different types of events. With a simple font change and the right clip art, you can create memorable invitations for all of your important dates.
Joshua Birch
Can you remember the last time you picked up your mail and saw a square envelope among the regular rectangular envelopes? Chances are, you've received very few pieces of square mail. A square invitation is special and cuts through the clutter of junk mail and bills, but also requires additional postage. So most of us use standard sized envelopes and save those beautiful, striking, square envelopes for those rare and most important of occasions. 
Our 
Like luscious candies dipped in sugar, delightfully colored base papers and a specially formulated mica coating combine to create Aspire Petallics. 
As mentioned in the first paragraph, our metallic envelopes react differently to the light, depending on how you hold and manipulate the envelope. The Reaction brand, made in the Bavarian Alps of Germany, provide the most dramatic reaction, hence the brand name. Mica pigments produce a bi-color effect. 
As I mentioned at the end of the previous section, the invitation card should measure about 1/4" less than the envelope. In this case, since I'm using inner and outer envelopes, the card should measure 1/4" less than the inner envelope, since the card will be placed inside the inner envelope. Since I've chosen Tiffany sized double envelopes where the inner envelope measures 8" wide by 5 3/4" high, I'll look for a card that measures 7 3/4" wide by 5 1/2" high. 
When I open up the invitation template in Word, I see sample invitation wording that I can tweak to my needs. More sample invitation wording can be found by going back to The ABCs of Printing at Home and clicking 
The first step in addressing your wedding envelopes is of course to go through your guest list and determine how to properly address each guest or pairs of guests. Where a typical Mr. and Mrs. Joe Smith is an easy one, how do you go about addressing the doctor and the judge who are a couple, yet do not live together? What about the freshman in college who still lives with his parents; should he get his own invitation, or be included in his parents’? Scenarios such as this may make envelope addressing complicated, which is when traditional etiquette guidelines may come in handy. The following chart contains these traditional guidelines.
