Weddingbee Blog

The lovely Mrs. Perfume shares her favorite posts! Here they are, rolled into one!

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Tonight we finally finished putting together our invitations. We (okay mostly I) really love them! But they were a pain. A real pain. And they weren’t even DIY. Well, they were partly DIY in that I wanted to use boxes instead of outer envelopes. Little did I know I was in for such a maddening experience…

Our finished invitation boxes. (If the Sheraton ever needs gift boxes…)

Midway through our planning, I became obsessed with confectionary colored elements (as is well documented here, here, and here), especially Laduree packaging.

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It’s the details of the laurel wreath…

the finely detailed rococo border…

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…and other sweet bits of fine and delicate eye candy that are so delectable.

All this has become a real inspiration source for the outside of our invitations. I guess I wanted them to look just as pretty at first blush as the do on the inside. Speaking of which, it was such a treat to work with Lindsey Ryan, who really brought my ridiculous Parisian flea market-1930s French Indochine-chinoiserie-English tea party concept to life. More on those later. For now, here’s a sneak peek.

Belly band mimicry

Waggish and whimsical, antiqued elements

Back to the boxes, well, while Lindsey worked on our invitations, I set out to find a simple green gift box to put them in. Something flat, minty in color that would fit an A7 envelope. Simple, right? WRONG. I thought it a no-brainer when I ordered a sample of a light green box from nashvillewraps.com. They have an amazing selection and the perfect green. But the box measured exactly 5 x 7. Our envelopes measure 5.25 x 7.25. It was wishful thinking on my part as I tried to cram the sample invitation Lindsey sent into the box.

So I continued my search (Googling “jewelry gift box”, “two piece cardboard gift box”, and “jewelry set up box”), but the color or the size was always wrong. There are plenty of resources out there: usbox.com, 800giftbox.com, jewelrysupply.com, papermart.com, nu-era.com, bagsandbowsonline, and about a dozen more! And I scoured every box store known to (wo)man/crazy bride. (So if you decide to do something as nuts as stuffing your invitations in boxes, then you can hopefully save yourself some time with one of these.) Ultimately, I found a good enough, but not perfect box at boxandwrap.

A box of boxes!

They were delivered the same day as the invitations!

They’re 5.5 x 7 and a celery green, rather than the light green I had hoped for. Did I really just say that? “Not perfect because it’s celery and not light green.” So lame! Yes, I got stupid over these boxes. Like Miss Cheese said, your inner Perfectionista starts rearing her ugly (well-coiffed?) head in these situations… but they work well enough (even though they’re a tad tight).

Also, I had previously searched all over the internet universe for a very elusive large, oval laurel wreath stamp. I found a place in the UK that had them. The customer service rep there was EXTREMELY helpful and friendly and gave me a little gift of fairy stickers for having to pay international shipping. Not necessary, but very sweet! (If only I had kids or a crafty/scrapbooking bone in my body.)

I used a block letter ’S’ (it was too difficult and repetitive to stamp our three initials) and used gold pigment ink along with the wreath to create the lid decoration. Then I had to find “the perfect pink ribbon”. At this point I’m thinking I’ve officially lost it. Seriously, RIBBON?! One night this week we went to PaperSource and got this thin hot pink thing. But the next day we went to return it and opted for a thicker, paler ribbon (as shown above) that brought together the faded, antiqued feel I was going for. For the first time ever, Mr. P suggested I might be a little bridezilla for being so specific about… freak.in.ribb.on! Mind you, I’m no bridezilla—I don’t even know what day it is.

The not-so-perfect ribbon. Really?

Anyway, so much trouble came of these boxes. After all the boxing and stamping and ribbon tying, we then had to wrap them for mailing. And we also made labels (unfortunately after all we spent on packaging, calligraphy was out) for them.

I tried to get fantzy with the labels and used Vivaldi font to mimic calligraphy and added a little graphic–we’ll see what the post office has to say about it tomorrow.

Another drawback was that mailing parcels to our international addresses would be fairly costly. So we thought we’d get outer envelopes for them. But–there’s always a but–PaperSource doesn’t carry A7.5 envelopes in stock; they must be ordered. Bad planning on my part. We wanted to get them out like, last week, so we couldn’t really wait much longer. Anyhow, Spain, the UK, Germany and the PRC will have some ugly utilitarian envelopes hit their mail stream in the next couple of weeks.

So much wrapping my hands hurt. Notice the ugliness on the left there?

But in the end, after all the annoying packaging—and despite the havoc the process reeked on our home and patience—we’re really happy with they way they came out!

“That’s not happiness to see me”—am I really handling pink bows?

Mr. P gets in on the fun by meticulously cutting the parcel paper.

Boxes everywhere, boxes!

We got up early, on a mission, to get to the post office to mail our invitation parcels. This required us to actually get in our car (which we rarely do) to drive out to suburban Virginia. We went to the main processing facility in Merrifield, where the service is always great and everyone is… well… merry!

On a very serious mission

We were happily greeted by this guy…

And this guy…

The clerk was very helpful and nice. Thankfully he said our labels and packaging (that we sweated over) were good enough to go through the system. He started weighing our parcels to print out postage, but suggested (after noticing the large amount that we had) it might be more efficient if we just bought stamps and applied them ourselves.

He even said, “I have some pretty ones for you,” after he realized that they were for our wedding. Sweet, huh? (They were images of a frozen lake, which, though beautiful, had nothing to do with us or our wedding.) I was just happy that it was only $1.86 for First Class postage. Supposedly they’ll get to their destination in about two days. So we stepped into the lobby and went to work.

Then we went back to our buddy, and he and Mr. P hand-canceled and stamped “First Class” to each package.

Then the manager came over to join the fun, and decided to give us advice on the most picturesque parks in the area. Apparently he often suggests for couples to visit these for the best photo ops. He then proceeded to tell us jokes that I didn’t quite understand and mentioned that after he retires from the Postal Service, a career in wedding photography awaits him. Such a character! A sort of folksy(er) and friendly (young) Wilfred Brimley!

“Wilfred” explaining something to us

This is what each package looked like after the canceling and stamping. Very messy. I’m glad we didn’t pay for calligraphy just so it would be ruined by this….

For the invites heading abroad, we put them, as I previously mentioned, in equally ugly yellow envelopes.

But rather than paying $20 to send a parcel, we only had to pay $2 per envelope! So I guess I don’t mind that our overseas guests will not see the invitation boxes.

So happy to be done! We left in a very good mood… and I guess it was contagious, because as we got into our car, Wilfred showed up! He had followed us out… He offered/insisted that he take a picture of us (as he is a budding wedding photographer and all–and told us another story about how he took pictures at his cousin’s wedding)!

Happy to be done with the invites!

And as he waved goodbye, Wilfred reminded us to come back to the post office after the wedding to show him our pictures. I didn’t catch his real name…

Like I said, very merry at the Merrifield post office!

Now that the invitations are in the mail, I can safely show them to you! (And in fact, as I write this I received an email about them from one of our guests. Yay! USPS two-day mail is no joke!!)

I’ve been all over the place searching for a way to turn my ideas (i.e. “shite”) into something personal, relatable and unique (e.g. “gold”). I didn’t have anything really specific in mind, just a mish-mash of themes and impressions of a color scheme all pinned to the corkboard in my head:

“Shite” Source

Originally, I wanted texture and papercutting. I got A LOT of great recommendations from readers, including Kim at Inspired Goodness who referred me to Robert Ryan. I skimmed through the dozens of great ideas you guys gave (this is why I love Weddingbee!). And then I read this comment on my post:

I went on Etsy and used the “Alchemy” feature… I put in a description of what I wanted (which was pretty vague, since I was open to anything… it was basically just our colors, season and that the ceremony may be outside). I got back over 35 “bids” from designers, all with different ideas, visions, and images. I found a woman who is making invitations that I’m in LOVE with. I definitely recommend putting in an Alchemy request and seeing who comes to you!

Firefly062

This piqued my curiosity so much that I tried it out that same day, and put this request out:

Wedding Invitations–Papercut, baroque, Laduree, shabby empire chic

I’d like unique invitations with some sort of texture. Papercutting or engraving (or another idea, I’m open). Looking for a nod towards Laduree packaging, springtime, French empire, shabby chic, English gardens with colors in muted aqua, pale green, cream, with accents of gold, red, and/or pink.

Within 24 hours, I received some 30 amazing proposals! There were several really good ones, including one from a local artist (who is also a Weddingbee reader!) and does a process called letterpress light. It’s very similar to traditional letterpress, but is a lot more cost effective and more color combinations are available. She was inspired by my description and came up with this design (I received it after I had already selected someone–but I think her work is worth highlighting!):

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It was hard to decide, but one person really, really stood out among them all: Lindsey Ryan. In her proposal she talked about her obsession with French Baroque style and her work included Marie Antoinette designs and other such inspired works of art… and when I checked out her Etsy shop…

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I WAS SOLD!

I could already see that we had the same taste and she could bring my disjointed Vintage-Parisian-flea-market-French Indochina-English-Tea-party-concept to life! Though I initially wanted tactile texture, I was compelled by the visual “texture” and graphical layering of Lindsey’s work.

As you know, Mr. P and I made the Laduree-like outer boxes for the invitations. I also was inspired by their rococo border graphics in their wrapping and asked Lindsey to create something similar for our belly band.

Laduree’s box and border. Source

Wax stamp - a thistle (typically a Scots symbol, it also generally represents protection)

We chose Stardream (all the paper is Stardream) Quartz for the “exploding” envelopes.

I wanted to have the antiqued, Parisian flea market feel with a lot of rococo flourishes, but a bit whimsical and cheeky at the same time. Lindsey made up several samples and put them in a gallery for me to view online. I chose one with a lush floral bouquet (to reflect our garden wedding) and we then started tweaking it. I chose everything from the crest to the architectural details (but she came up with the rest and added the antiquing effect and the quill–she’s a genius).

Throughout this (very quick) process, I wanted to make sure that the invitation was as representative and personal as possible (beyond just pretty). I wanted to give a subtle nod to my heritage to include old French-Indochinese (aka Colonial Vietnamese)** elements (e.g. tropical birds, vintage birdcage, and the double happiness). So after a few emails and iterations, we came up with this for the invitation.

The invitation. It’s actually more greenish/aqua than this picture shows.

In the soft damask background (which is, BTW, taken from vintage wallpaper), I asked Lindsey to include a double happiness symbol I found. She did such a great job of discreetly blending it–see it next to the flowers (so it appears to be a bit of Chinoiserie)!

A closer look at the double happiness symbol

For the insert and the RSVP card, I wanted something complementary, but not matching. There are so many wonderful images out there, and I definitely wanted a peacock and chandelier.

And BTW, thank goodness for wedding websites. The insert was kept fairly spare and was used only to point guests to our website for details and downloadable maps. It also gave them a heads-up for the rehearsal dinner invitations forthcoming.

The insert

And for the RSVP, Lindsey came up with something whimsical (characters from Alice and Wonderland–a tea party)! The only thing I asked her to do was, again, add the double happiness to tie it all together (it’s in the middle of the insert in the background, and between the rabbit and frog in the RSVP). For the menu choices, I wanted old fashioned drawings for the entrees of lamb, trout, and vegetables! She found the cutest graphics!! We worked together to choose the fonts and the wording, and she was incredibly patient, accommodating, and had plenty of great suggestions! I highly, highly, highly recommend her!

The RSVP card

Year of the Ox stamp for RSVP envelopes (we’ll always remember the year!)

So in the end, it literally was Alchemy that made these invitations happen!! (Thank you Lindsey and Firefly062!)

*My late father–part of a diminishing generation of French-speaking Vietnamese—was in fact born in French Indochina (before it became modern-day Vietnam)