Weddingbee Blog

So I haven’t revealed anything to you guys about our invitations yet. There are a couple of reasons. First, because I didn’t DIY them, there hasn’t been a whole lot to blog about in the process. Second, I chose our invitation designer because I fell in love with the invitation suite she created for Mrs. Perfume, and the Dude and I ended up choosing a very similar design. I wasn’t sure if I should share them with you guys, since y’all have already seen invitations like these before. Lucky for you, I decided that I had too much information I wanted to divulge, so I’m going for it. Props to you, Mrs. P, for inspiring me so much!

Lindsey Ryan Designs created our elegant, English-garden-with-a twist-of-whimsy invitation suite. (Lindsey is a stationery designer and printer with her own Etsy shop.) We wanted to keep the invites as simple as possible, using the minimum amount of paper. Originally I didn’t even want an inner envelope or a belly band, but Lindsey talked me into both. I’m glad she did, because the invitations wouldn’t have looked as beautiful otherwise.

(Click to enlarge)

As you can see, we went with the pochette inner envelope. Lindsey actually chose this for us–I think it’s her favorite kind to use. It’s pretty unique, and I think it fits the feel of the invites really well.

Next up is our RSVP card. We decided to go with a postcard in order to save money on postage and use less paper. We’ve received a ton of RSVPs already, so I think the simplicity of a postcard might actually encourage guests to send theirs in on schedule. I love the subtle touch of handwriting Lindsey added to the bottom right corner. It almost looks like someone absentmindedly jotted down a note to herself on the corner of the cards!

The last piece of our invitation suite is the map and directions to our venue. We got lucky, and our venue gave us these cards. They are printed on recycled paper, and we even got to choose between white and ivory. I was just glad it was one less thing to worry about.

Not too exciting, but it gets the job done.

Now for my favorite part, the part that almost didn’t happen: the bellybands! A few days before Lindsey sent me my invitations, I got an email from her asking if I wanted to include a bellyband with a particular quote from Alice and Wonderland. Normally I’m not a “quotes” kind of person, so I was skeptical. But when I read the words, I thought they were so quirky and mysterious. I told her to go ahead and include it.

It doesn’t hurt that the Alice books are among my favorite in the world. Anything to do with Alice reminds me of Oxford, where I studied abroad as an undergrad. Lewis Carroll actually based a lot of the setting of the Alice books on Oxford, and there are tons of tributes to him in the city.

We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from guests about the invitations. I think they go with our vintage English garden theme quite nicely.

Coming up, I will share the outer details of the invitations, including addresses and postage. I’ll also go into more detail on the process of working with Lindsey Ryan Designs to create this suite.