Mail Merging: A Life Saver

Mail Merging: A Life Saver

How to create address labels and letters in a flash!

By: Miranda Weidemier


As you know, there are lots of things to be personalized and set out throughout the course of planning your wedding. Starting with “Save the Dates” or engagement party invitations and ending with thank you cards. These can be dreadful and tedious processes, especially when you have 300 people on your guest list. Microsoft Excel and Word will become your best friend when dealing with mailings and letters. By using the “Mail Merge” feature in word, you can customize mailing labels and thank you letters for all of your guests in minutes.

First, you will need to make an excel spreadsheet with your guests’ information. Important columns to include are title (Mr., Mrs., etc.), first name, last name, address, city, state, and zip code. Your spreadsheet should look something like this:

Make sure all of the information is formatted correctly in the spreadsheet before moving on to the mail merge. One thing you will need to format is the zip code column. You will notice that if a zip code starts with a zero, that zero will disappear. To format the column, you will need to highlight it, right click, and click Format Cells. You can then select “Special” from the category box, select “Zip Code” from the Type box and click okay. Now you should save this spreadsheet. Once your information is complete it is ready to start the mail merge!

Next, you will open a new Word Document. Click on Mailings > Start Mail Merge and select the type you want to run. Labels is probably the one you will appreciate the most. Then, Click Select Recipients > Use Existing List. Find your excel spreadsheet and open it, this will connect your document to your spreadsheet. Click Mailings > Edit Recipient List, here you can select the columns you want to include in your merge. You will want to format these fields as you want them to appear on the label itself. This means inserting a space between each field, putting a comma after “<<City>>” and entering the fields into three lines like a traditional address is written. You will also want to format font size, type, and color at this stage. Double check to make sure you have completed all formatting.

You can now preview your labels to make sure they look exactly how you want. If not go back and format them to your liking. If you are happy with the results, you can complete the mail merge and print and any kind of labels you desire. A label will print out for each address on your guest list. It will look something like this: