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Mrs. Seal, San Francisco Age and Occupation: 25, Personal Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Sales and Support Specialist Engagement Date: December 12, 2009 Wedding Date: November 2011 Venue: Sts Peter and Paul Church/The Bently Reserve About Me: I am a goofy, wannabe crafty, well-intentioned Renaissance Woman (OK, perhaps "aimless wanderer" is a more aptly suited term for me, but hopefully you get the point)—basically I dabble in just about everything and pride myself in such. Without warning, I occasionally breakout into soulful improvised songs and interpretive dances and there's just no stopping me! As so many others before me, planning our wedding has unearthed a deep, intense passion for all things bridal and I secretly fear the day it will come to an end. Mr. Seal and I are quite the pair and life with him by my side is extremely rewarding—I am so thankful to have found him. Together we are planning a black-tie San Francisco affair for 250—light on the stuffiness and with lots of extra Seal-y flair.
About Mrs. Seal

With the save the dates beautifully printed and in hand, it was time to address them. I have to admit, I definitely wasn’t looking forward to this part. I wouldn’t quite say I have chicken scratch for penmanship, but it’s not exactly…well…envelope worthy?

Let me show you:

Calligraphy, Envelopes, and Stamps, Oh My!: It's All in the Details, Part I :  wedding invitations san francisco stationery Seal1 seal1

Personal photo

Notice how each line has a tendency to float up as it moves to the right? How about the wibbly-wobbly inconsistency in letter size? Yeah. Meh.

So after a few unsuccessful practice rounds, I figured it was time to accept defeat and find a calligrapher before I ran out of envelopes. Calligraphy definitely wasn’t something I budgeted for, but thanks to my good friend Etsy I was able to find the most amazing (and affordable) calligrapher. Check her out here: NJW Calligraphy. I managed to catch her when she was just starting up and was offering crazy-low rates.

For the next week or so, my poor roommates (Brother Seal and Mr. Seal) had to hear all about the “Frederick” font, and the “Virginia” font, and my personal favorite (and late arrival to my calligrapher’s repertoire) the “Citadel” font. Despite having already budgeted and paid for the lesser-priced Frederick font, my heart was secretly set on the newly introduced Citadel (confused yet?). Eventually, my heart lost the battle and I opted to not upgrade.

Or so I thought.

I sent off my envelopes to the calligrapher and, a few days later, was informed by owner Nellie that she had begun work on my project. She told me to check her blog in a few hours for some pictures of her progress—I, demonstrating excellent patience, checked every 15 minutes thereafter. And unbeknownst to me, I was in for a big surprise.

Nellie is so lovely that she decided to surprise me with the Citadel font I so desperately wanted (without charging me extra). Do not lose hope in humanity—apparently there ARE still amazing people left in the world!

Calligraphy, Envelopes, and Stamps, Oh My!: It's All in the Details, Part I :  wedding invitations san francisco stationery Seal2 seal2

Personal photo

Calligraphy, Envelopes, and Stamps, Oh My!: It's All in the Details, Part I :  wedding invitations san francisco stationery Seal3 seal3

Calligraphy, Envelopes, and Stamps, Oh My!: It's All in the Details, Part I :  wedding invitations san francisco stationery Maried01 Marie+D01

Calligraphy, Envelopes, and Stamps, Oh My!: It's All in the Details, Part I :  wedding invitations san francisco stationery Seal6 seal6

Calligraphy, Envelopes, and Stamps, Oh My!: It's All in the Details, Part I :  wedding invitations san francisco stationery Seal7 seal7

The above four photos are courtesy of NJW Calligraphy. (Kindly disregard the weird blank spots—I had to edit them for privacy.)

I am so thankful to have found her.

Next Up: The STD stamp and send-off

Did you address all of your STDs, or did you hire a calligrapher? Has a vendor ever pleasantly surprised you?

Tags: invitations, san-francisco, stationery |
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20 Responses to “Calligraphy, Envelopes, and Stamps, Oh My!: It’s All in the Details, Part I”

1.
Mrs. Meerkat
Bee
Mrs. Meerkat (message)  3,216 posts, Sugar bee

I love calligraphy! I am trying to figure out how to do it on the cheap. ;)

 
2.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Candy Apple (message)  1,465 posts, Bumble bee

Sigh. Calligraphy. SO gorgeous! :) Love these, Sealy!

 
3.
Guest Icon
Guest
Iuxta

That’s flippin’ gorgeous!

 
4.
peachplum09
Member
peachplum09 (message)  648 posts, Busy bee

That is some lovely script!

 
5.
Miss Elephant
Bee
Miss Elephant (message)  6,182 posts, Bee Keeper

The calligraphy is so beautiful, and that was so sweet of her!

 
6.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Snow Cone (message)  1,026 posts, Bumble bee

oh my… those are SO beautiful!

 
7.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Trail Mix (message)  6,328 posts, Bee Keeper

Oooooh, lovely lovely calligraphy!

 
8.
Miss Tartlet
Bee
Miss Tartlet (message)  3,207 posts, Sugar bee

Your Save-the-Dates are soooooo luxurious and lovely! That calligraphy is amazing!

 
9.
stephbonthego
Member
stephbonthego (message)  687 posts, Busy bee

Oh those are so very very classy!! How sweet of her to give you the upgrade =)

(I too suffer from much-less-than-perfect penmanship but that’s just a nice way of putting it. Mr. D teases me all the time by making up bizarre sentences out of his interrpretation of what I have written!)

 
10.
vintagemodernbride
Member
vintagemodernbride (message)  316 posts, Helper bee

i love it! gorgeous. if only i had budgeted for calligraphy…*sigh* haha

 
11.
RedRoses2
Member
RedRoses2 (message)  72 posts, Worker bee

Awws, I love “good samaritan” and “they were nice just because”-type stories. ^__^

 
12.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Starfish (message)  1,924 posts, Buzzing bee

The calligraphy is gorgeous! I love getting fancy mail :)

 
13.
Member Icon
Member
seven10steph (message)  6 posts, Newbee

I hired Nellie too! I can’t wait to see my invitation envelopes when they come in!! :)

 
14.
napabridekelsey
Member
napabridekelsey (message)  3,372 posts, Sugar bee

W.O.W.
Those look amazing!! Pretty jealous of your calligraphy…wish I could have afforded it!

 
15.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Pain au Chocolat (message)  1,698 posts, Bumble bee

That is an insanely sweet and generous thing your calligrapher did! Her penmanship is gorgeous. I can see why you fell in love with “Citadel”!

 
16.
Kcoleybear
Member
Kcoleybear (message)  683 posts, Busy bee

Fortunately my mom has gorgeous handwritng and so lovingly volunteered to address all our envelopes.

 
17.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Gazelle (message)  994 posts, Busy bee

Such beautiful calligraphy and what a great surprise!

 
18.
mebless
Member
mebless (message)  512 posts, Busy bee

those are absolutely beautiful!!! what a wonderful surprise for you!!

 
19.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Hyena (message)  1,881 posts, Buzzing bee

Oh, the calligraphy work is sooo beautiful!

 
20.
Freeze Pops
Member
Freeze Pops (message)  66 posts, Worker bee

OK, I love Citadel…. I love how nice your Caligrapher was to you… gorgeous… beautiful… all that….

…but OMG, Seal! You could have addressed those STDs yourself. I think your own calligraphy looks whimsical and fun!

 

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Mrs. Seal
Mrs. Seal

Mrs. Seal, San Francisco Age and Occupation: 25, Personal Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Sales and Support Specialist Engagement Date: December 12, 2009 Wedding Date: November 2011 Venue: Sts Peter and Paul Church/The Bently Reserve About Me: I am a goofy, wannabe crafty, well-intentioned Renaissance Woman (OK, perhaps "aimless wanderer" is a more aptly suited term for me, but hopefully you get the point)—basically I dabble in just about everything and pride myself in such. Without warning, I occasionally breakout into soulful improvised songs and interpretive dances and there's just no stopping me! As so many others before me, planning our wedding has unearthed a deep, intense passion for all things bridal and I secretly fear the day it will come to an end. Mr. Seal and I are quite the pair and life with him by my side is extremely rewarding—I am so thankful to have found him. Together we are planning a black-tie San Francisco affair for 250—light on the stuffiness and with lots of extra Seal-y flair.

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