Calligraphy

About our Calligraphy

Reaves is pleased to offer a classic way to address your invitations and an economical option to hiring a calligrapher.

You may choose from our available calligraphy styles, many of which "match" our invitation fonts. Reaves’ calligraphy uses real pen and ink, but unlike tedious and expensive hand calligraphy, it is performed on computer-driven plotters, not a laser or inkjet printer. Thus, we offer you the best of both worlds—perfectly formed, computer-generated lettering done with actual calligraphy pens and ink—at a very affordable price.

Please note, all 60 and 80 sized invitations come with both inner and outer envelopes. Wedding ensembles are specifically sized to fit properly within the inner envelope and are a traditional part of any wedding invitation. This allows you to address the outer envelope properly for postal service delivery requirements and the inner envelope allows you to address your invitation to your most recognized greeting (e.g. “Danny, Vicki and the twins”; “Jenny and Guest”; “Paw Paw and Me Maw”; “Aunt Beth and Uncle Tommy”).

Available Calligraphy Styles

You may choose from our available calligraphy styles, many of which "match" our invitation fonts. Reaves’ calligraphy uses real pen and ink, but unlike tedious and expensive hand calligraphy, it is performed on computer-driven plotters, not a laser or inkjet printer.

Calligraphy fonts C1 through C88 have matching typesetting fonts while C201 and higher are just for calligraphy.

Calligraphy Ink Colors

Black ink is the most popular ink color for calligraphy (regardless of what color(s) are used on the invitations.) However, should you want to use Brown, Blue or Red there is an additional charge of $50 overall. Please indicate your color preference on the order form. (CURRENTLY: Black ink is the only color available. We apologize for the inconvenience.)

Ordering Seating Cards

We generally expect to start work on you place cards about 2-3 weeks prior to the wedding (with more time in advance if we're printing or embossing a motif on them).

When you're ready to order fill out an order form, save it and email it with your wording to calligraphy@reavesengraving.com.

How to set up your calligraphy list

Please download a template/example for either Word or Excel to see the formatting for how we'd like to receive your calligraphy list.

If you have any questions, please ask.

This video shows how we do our calligraphy here at Reaves Engraving. The machine is hooked up to a computer that does the calligraphy for us. This cuts down on costs, and allows us to produce more quantity while keeping the quality we strive to attain.

Envelope Addressing

Calligraphy Costs

The costs for calligraphy depend on the quantity of envelopes, size of the envelopes and color of the ink used. Prices for the standard, small or tea length envelopes are $2.00 for each envelope set for the first 100 sets and $1.75 per set for each additional set. Oversize, square and envelopes purchased from another company incur additional costs. Using Brown, Blue or Red ink instead of Black ink adds $50 to the overall calligraphy order. (CURRENTLY: Black ink is the only color available. We apologize for the inconvenience.)

Seating Cards

Calligraphy Costs

The costs for calligraphy depend on the style of seating cards — tent cards or cards and envelopes as well as the ink color. Using Brown, Blue, or Red ink instead of Black will have an additional charge. (CURRENTLY: Black ink is the only color available. We apologize for the inconvenience.)