Weddingbee Blog

Before I unveil our invitations, I have a confession to make.

I am a textile whore. A fiber snob.

That’s right. I love textiles! I need to touch everything. I can’t make a purchase, any purchase, without touching the item first. It’s very hard for me to order clothing and fabric online because I can’t touch it. I have to rely on natural fibers to guide me towards good fabric online. I even have a hard time with simple things like pots, pans, and dishes, because I need to touch and feel them. Silly? Yeah, probably, but my skin has a strong aversion to synthetic fibers.

How did I get to be this way? It’s all Mr. CC’s fault. Before I met him, I loved textile arts, and by that I mean knitting and sewing. I liked natural fibers, but I was not nearly as snobby about them back then. I was able to justify sacrificing natural fiber for price (in some instances). Then I met Mr. CC. And soon, I was introduced to Civil War reenacting. Now, I know what you all are thinking. Yes, it’s redneck and Southern. I don’t care. It’s fun. I get to go camping, which I’ve always loved, and wear (as) authentic (as possible) Civil War Era gowns, complete with corsets and hoop skirts. Anyway, it is an extremely expensive hobby. A good dress runs anywhere from $200-$400, depending on the material, and a ball gown runs upwards of $600. People, this is highway robbery. Okay, I’m totally getting off topic. Long story short, I couldn’t afford to buy my gowns, so I make all my own clothing, right down to the crotch-less drawers (yes ma’am!) and corsets. And that’s where my fiber snobbery was born. You cannot wear synthetic fibers in Civil War reenacting. Period. You will die. Okay, so the wool is bad enough. And with 6-8 layers of clothing on during the dead of summer, you need to get some air in there. Plus, polyester didn’t exist in 1861. All of my gowns and garments are 100% natural. They’re mostly cotton, but there’s some silk in there too. The snobbery spilled over into my knitting as well. You won’t find me knitting with anything synthetic anymore.

So, let me show you the array of fabrics that have been purchased in honor of our nuptials.

My first fabric purchase was 100% raw dupioni silk. I bought 6 yards in the most gorgeous blush pink with the intention of turning it into my rehearsal dinner dress. I have since thrown those plans right out of the window and now have no concrete plans for this fabric. Any ideas? It actually still matches our color palette nicely.

I bought this “silk” brocade, only 2 yards, with the idea that it would scan nicely into my computer and I could make envelopes with it. So, first of all, it didn’t scan nicely at all, and secondly, Mr. CC hated the fuchsia and orange color palette with a passion (too modern for Mr. Traditional). It’s really beautiful in person, but it’s synthetic, and kinda makes my skin crawl. It would make a lovely corset though. I’m not sure what it will end up as.

I bought this brocade off an Etsy seller who was going out of business. It’s also “silk” but it’s of higher quality and actually feels ok. It matched our burgundy and sage color palette (which I decided was too wintery for our June nuptials). There’s a lot of it. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it, but I think it’s beautiful.

This is a recent purchase. It matches our color palette perfectly, and I love love love paisley. I got a great deal on this at Jo-Ann’s. I bought the whole bolt. It’s 100% cotton lightweight upholstery fabric. I’ll share the project this was used for later.

This is also a recent purchase. It’s Jo-Ann’s version of Celadon, and it is just a touch lighter than Alfred Angelo’s version. But at $7.99/yard (compared to AA’s $11.00/yard), I just couldn’t pass it up. I bought a lot of this too (yay for coupons!).

So, what does all this have to do with our invitations? Well, I’m a textile girl. Until I started on our invitations, I knew nothing of paper, Photoshop, Illustrator, or the tools I might need. So, I’m basically pre-apologizing for our invitations. I love them, but they certainly aren’t anything nearly as fancy as some of the invitation suites I’ve seen on Weddingbee. They pale in comparison to Mrs. Cupcake’s unbelievable invitations. But they are ours and I’m extremely proud of them, and you all shall see them soon.

Are you a sucker for fabrics? What is your favorite place to buy fabric?