Photos by Katie Grant
Hello Hello!
Somehow it has been almost a whole year since our wedding! This time last year it was only a few days away and we were getting so excited, doing all the last minute things and getting everything ready. I don’t know where the time has gone and seriously can’t believe we’ve been married for nearly a whole year already!
I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic so have been looking through photos, watching a few of the “Wedding Week” vlogs I filmed (slightly cringe-y but so fun to look back on!) and decided that I’d love to create a little more wedding content to share on the blog.
I’d planned to write a lot more about the details of our wedding as well as all the tips and tricks I learnt in the process of planning, yet somehow never got around to it (other than this post about our wedding video and this one that was a round-up of the day.)
I guess I just needed a little break from all the wedding things, but I am feeling so inspired to blog about it now because I had the best time planning and have so much advice to share with any brides-to-be out there!
(Number one tip - have fun with it! Don’t take it too seriously and don’t let it stress you out too much!)
If you happen to be planning a wedding and have any suggestions on posts you’d like to see or questions you’d like me to answer, I’d love to hear them and hopefully help you out!
Today I want to talk about wedding stationery because I had so much fun organising our beautiful invites and worked with some awesome vendors who I would highly recommend! I also have a few tips and tricks to share that I learned along the way!
Custom design by Kelsie of Violet Street Boutique
To design our invitations, I worked with the wonderful Kelsie White.
Kelsie’s a local Graphic Designer and Illustrator (based in Melbourne now) who I had met a few times before at a number of Perth Upmarkets where she was selling the cutest paper goods (cards, notepads, other stationery) under the label K Gets Organised (now Kelsie White Designs).
I have always loved her style (her hand-lettering and illustrations are so gorgeous) and she was so friendly and sweet every time we met, so when I started thinking about invitations, I immediately thought of her and decided to reach out to see if wedding stationery would be something she could help us with.
Luckily for me, it turned out that she already designs gorgeous wedding goodies under the label Violet Street Boutique. On Etsy she sells printable invitations, and also offers a custom design service which was exactly what I was hoping for. I thought it would be so special to have some unique illustrations designed just for us (because Tom and I are such stationery lovers) and Kelsie was such a pleasure to work with throughout the whole process.
To get things started we chatted about my ideas and I then sent over a few photos and my Pinterest board for inspiration. I loved the idea of having our names hand-lettered in Kelsie’s signature style, surrounded by some kind of floral boarder, along with an illustration of our rings and the chandeliers we would be having at our reception. I wanted the invitations to reflect my vision for the day - a “magical garden wedding” and give guests a taste of what was to come.
Once we’d discussed our ideas, Kelsie sent over some sketches, we sent a few emails back and forth and then she went to work creating her water-colour magic!
She designed the main invitation, the gifts card and later on the menus too (which also doubled as place cards for guests).
On a number of wedding blogs I’ve read, they say that it’s rude to include information about gifts/wishing wells with your invitations, but in Australia it’s really common (and every wedding I’ve been to has done that). I’ve also noticed that a lot of people still do the RSVP cards, but we decided to keep it simple and asked everyone to RSVP via email (I’d definitely recommend this - it keeps things simple and makes it easy to keep track of!)
Having the custom illustrations done was a bit more of an investment, but I feel like they added such a special touch and I’m so happy with how they turned out! Also, as I said before, Tom and I are big stationery lovers, so we were happy to spend a bit more on the invitations and cut back in other areas (like cars… I was not at all fussed about wedding cars!)
It was also wonderful to be able to work with Kelsie (someone who’s work I had admired for a long time) and to be able to support a local designer too!
If you’re planning a wedding (or any event really) and needing invitations, I’d definitely recommend checking out Violet Street Boutique on Etsy. Kelsie has a great selection of printable designs in addition to doing custom work and she is so lovely too (which for me is so important - working with super sweet people makes all the difference!)
The menus doubled as name cards and were titled “The Feast”
(which I deliberately chose as it reminds me of Dumbledore - “let the feast begin!” )
“Please join us for a celebration of love, laughter, friendship and family”
Printing with Peterkin
Once the design was completed it was time to organise the printing!
(note - Kelsie can also organise printing now, however at the time of our wedding she had just moved to Melbourne so it was easier for me to sort it out!)
On Kelsie’s recommendation, I decided to go with Peterkin to have everything printed. They had such a huge selection of different paper types and envelopes and their service was fab. I’d highly recommend them!
My tip if you’re organising your own printing would definitely be to do a test print first, just to check the colours come out how you’re expecting and also that the text is clear (ours needed to be tweaked just slightly to be more readable!) It’s also a great opportunity to order a few paper samples to help you decided as their selection is huge!
Another thing to keep in mind when choosing invitations is the size and cost of postage (because it can really add up if you’re sending out a lot of invites!!)
Thanks to Kelsie’s expert tips, our invitations were 125x185 mm which fits 130x190 mm envelopes as the postage is cheaper at this size!
On a side note, Tom and I were… let’s just say… a little frugal… when it came to postage and decided that we would spend a day hand-delivering most of our invitations (for those who lived close by) in order to avoid paying for stamps. A bit ridiculous given the amount we spent in other areas, but it was a fun day and saved us a little money (which could then be put towards more fun things! Just #keepingitreal … you gotta do what you gotta do right?! ;)
Extra Little Details
We chose to go with a deep plum coloured envelope (from Peterkin) and then I addressed all the invitations with a dip pen and rose-gold ink. I love how it turned out as the contrast of the gold on the darker envelope was so pretty, but in hindsight I would probably just use a normal pen, because addressing all those envelopes with a dip pen (when I am not a particularly skilled calligrapher) was not the easiest feat and took a significant amount of time!
For an extra touch we also included a gold wax seal on the invitations. Tom has a little collection of sealing wax and stamps (I told you we are stationery lovers!) so it was a great opportunity to actually put them to use!
… although to be totally honest… we ran out of gold wax half-way through so only half the invites had the seals! By the time we ran out we were at the “screw it, can’t be bothered” point!
If you’ve planned a wedding… even if you love planning… you will understand this.
As Aleisha from the Bridechilla Podcast would say - we put it in “the fuck it bucket” ;) - I highly recommend this podcast!!
I love how our photographer Katie Grant styled our stationery, using some spare ribbon from the bouquets. The ribbon was another of my favourite little details. It was “feathered silk” in a gorgeous blush colour from Lines and Squares. I’d recommend checking them out if you’re after something to add a special touch as it really is so lovely, and it came so beautifully presented on the cutest wooden spools. They had such lovely attention to detail in their packaging - you can see a photo I shared on instagram when it arrived here.
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a closer look at our invitations!
Let me know if you have any other wedding related questions or specific posts you’d like to see by leaving a comment or hopping over to Instagram @laurennatalia29!
Lots of Love
Lauren
xxx