A Stationery Journey

Wedding stationery is one of those things that I never really saw myself getting too invested in. Sure, its pretty, and I've always enjoyed flipping through those gigantic wedding stationery folders at fancy boutiques, but it's an awful lot of money to spend on things that pretty much go straight in the trash. (Think about it. How many wedding invitations have *you* ever saved? Hmmm?) When the time came for me to begin my stationery journey, I was perfectly content to troll etsy for a design I liked. I searched, I found some stuff, and I waited until time got closer to make a final decision. And that's when my friends intervened.

One very cute tandem bike design I considered, from Paper and Pinafore.

You see, I have a lot of awfully talented friends. Friends who write books, design magazines, bake delicious confections, give me free legal advice . . . well, you get the idea. And when it comes to my wedding, I have the benefit of lots of talented married friends. "You MUST get Amie to do your invitations," they said. "She is amazing. And she LOVES it." 

Sure, sure, sure, I'd say, thinking in the back of my head that the last thing this busy woman needs is to design an invitation suite for me. But over and over I heard the same words of praise, the same reassurances that it's her passion. And so I asked her to help me out, and she graciously accepted.

A very cool suite that is held together with grommets, by Ruff House Art.

Now you'd think that once you bring a professional on board, that's when things get easy. Well, you'd be wrong. At our first meeting, Amie took me to Paper Source, aka pretty paper mecca, where she patiently explained all of the various pieces and parts of a wedding invitation. There's the enclosure. There's the invitation card. There's the info card, the rsvp card, the map, the directions, and the return envelope. She walked me through the various types of enclosures (what the hell is an enclosure, anyway?!), at which point I overloaded. Who knew there was so much that went into an invitation? 

But after several months of emails and a few more meetings, we had a design. We had a layout. We had copy. We had enclosures. We had colors. And finally, we had the invitations.

Pieces of our stationery waiting to be assembled.

Last weekend several of my girlfriends came over and helped me put all of the invitations together. They helped me glue, fold, cut, tape, stamp, and address. It was amazing. I have such awesome friends! :') 

Everyone hard at work. 

One little detail that I came up with myself was to integrate a touch of Japanese through washi paper and mizuhiki cords. In Japan, people often use paper "belts" and mizuhiki cord tied in elaborate knots to secure their cards and letters. 

Examples of mizuhiki knots on wedding cards. (Photo from Monique Monteverde.)

Working with the mizuhiki turned out to be much more of a challenge than I anticipated. More than one of my girls quickly found other tasks to keep them busy once it was time to tie the mizuhiki knots! But they turned out absolutely beautifully, and I'm really glad I incorporated them into the invitations. (Spoiler alert: This is not the last you will see of the mizuhiki!)

A completed invitation secured with washi and mizuhiki.

In the end, I am so happy that I asked Amie to help me create wedding stationery from scratch. It was definitely overwhelming at first, but when I saw all the pieces come together, and I knew all of the input that I had in every detail, well, it was a wonderful feeling. 

The final product--absolutely perfect!

There you have it folks! It was a long journey but totally worth it. By the way, Amie is thinking about starting up her own independent service soon. When she does, you MUST get her to do your invitations. She is amazing. And she LOVES it!

STDs You Actually Want to Receive

I, like everyone else, have received my fair share of Save the Dates and wedding invitations. I have kept precisely 0 of them. Now that I am planning my own wedding stationery, I am rather appalled at how insanely expensive this stuff is. A couple could easily spend thousands of dollars designing, printing, and sending out their stationery. That's a lot of scratch for stuff that inevitably ends up in the trash.

While I am planning on going a more traditional route for the invitations, I figured I'd have fun with the Save the Dates, because why the heck not? There are lots of amazing ideas floating around the internet for creative Save the Dates. 

Downloadable Save the Date origami bird? Check.

Lotto card scratch off Save the Dates? Yep.

Co-opted scene from "The Graduate" Save the Dates? Uh huh.

Crossword puzzle Save the Dates? 1 across: three letters; an affirmative answer

Insane indie-rock stop-motion animation Save the Dates? Got it.

Basically the possibilities are endless. But one day as I was perusing the internet (as I am wont to do), I ended up finding an artist on etsy who was advertising custom comic book Save the Dates. They were a fair price, we'd be directly supporting and working with the artist, and they were freaking awesome. I floated the idea by Austin, and we were sold. 

I ended up contacting the artist, Mark Welser, in early February. We told him our story, interests, backgrounds, etc. I told him my hope to integrate Chicago, our dog, and Godzilla, and he was more than up for the challenge. After many emails, pictures, and sketches back and forth, we finally have our very own Save the Dates:

Our amazing Save the Dates, by Mark Welser

I think he did a pretty incredible job capturing us (and Godzilla), don't you? They're currently being made into magnets, and will start going out next month. I'm suuuuuuper excited! 

You can see more of Mark's very imaginative Save the Dates on his facebook album.