A long overdue post concerning Wedding Invitations

Back in March I posted the design Sean and I made for our wedding invitations, but in the hustle and bustle of everything I never got to share just how everything came together.

I mean to remedy that today.

One of the biggest components on the invitations that I didn't anticipate were the envelopes. We used vellum envelopes so our design could be seen through them on the opposite side. All the work came in for the addressed side. I bought a few stamps from a local craft store and slightly modified one to make it look like flowers were spilling out of a mason jar. The outline of the jar acted as a little address frame and I added a large "M" on each label which started the line "Mr. and Mrs. so-and-so" above each address. I am fortunate to be friends with some lovely, supportive women who came over and helped me create these designs one Thursday for about four hours. Even though I bought "quick-drying" ink made for vellum, it took about a half hour for the pigments to set enough to be stack-proof. After each envelope went through our little assembly line, we hung them up on a ramshackle drying system we rigged up around the house. The end result was exactly the look and feel we were aiming for, and I felt proud of our little pieces of art we got to send out to all our family and friends at the end of the week. Below are more pictures of the process and the final product. Enjoy!

Lindsay, Shannon, and Sam form a stamping brigade to rival the best of them. I could never have done this without their help!

Sam hangs a completed envelope on our drying line, which consisted of several lengths of yarn hung across the living room ceiling. Lewis observes from his post on the couch.

The first batch of envelopes drying on our clothing rack.

The state of the living room at the end of all the stamping madness. They actually looked sort of beautiful strung up with the light shining through them.

Signed, sealed, delivered! A shot of the inside of the invites, complete with hand-punched RSVP cards, and an addressed and sent envelope.

Save-the-dates: a collaboration of love.

So after plenty of brainstorming, tedious sketching, and trips to the University's media lab, Sean and I have produced a successful collaboration: our save-the-dates. I have to admit, I'm super proud of them. Sean did the initial heavy lifting after I asked him to sketch out two deer with the buck's antlers forming a heart. He took that idea and exceeded what I had imagined, once again begging the question: why wouldn't I want to marry this man? After that, it was a matter of me puttering around in the studio making tracing paper overlays, sketching banners, and gouaching hearts on the (almost) level floor at the arts center. The result, I think, is well worth the time and effort of making custom save-the-dates. Of course, since it took us longer to design them than anticipated, we may just save them and use them for our invitations instead and skip the save-the-dates altogether or do electronic ones. It would certainly help to shave down the wedding budget a bit.

I wish I had a print of it to show, rather than just the design. As a printmaker I get very excited about paper products, and we want this design to find it's home on some chipboard, so it really will look quite different once it's printed on that toned background. I also have had a recurring dream of this design being letter pressed (I am drooling right now just over the prospect of it) and thankfully one of my lovely bridesmaids did some legwork and sent me an email chock full of links to different print shops willing to letterpress your personal designs for you. The forerunner right now seems to be Cranky Pressman Printery & Bindery. They have penned all the information on their site in an affably cantankerous manner, and this actually is to their advantage; everything appears very straightforward as opposed to sites that opt for a more flowery and polite approach. It's also an Ohio based shop, which means I can check convenience and support of local vendors off my list as far as invitations. An online form makes it convenient to request a quote.

I am so excited that these are finished, not only because I have been anxiously awaiting the finished product since this ideas birth, but also because I get to check another little box off that monstrous bridal to-do list that stretches for miles, it seems. But hey, it will all get accomplished by June 11. And I get to celebrate a thousand tiny victories, such as this.