Weddingbee Blog

…handwriting.

As I mentioned, we received our save-the-date envelopes early so that I could get working on the calligraphy for the envelopes. My main artistic skill has always been my penmanship—since I was a kid (sorry—no long lost samples of my journals to insert here). And to answer one of the most asked questions—no, I did not attend a Catholic school.

I thought it would be fun to do the calligraphy for our paper products but, somewhat more importantly, I thought our friends and family would expect it. Seriously—for those who know me well, if I had paid for calligraphy it would have been…I’d argue…disappointing. Even Mr. Turkey took it for granted.

So, to start, I looked online to get style inspiration. Like our paper products, I was going to go more modern with the save-the-date calligraphy and more classic for our invitations. I saw a lot of fabulous work on the web—so many talented people!!

Besides the bright color, I liked the extension of the letters. / Image via The Social Life of Paper

The loops are very fun! / Image via inkblotcalligraphy on Etsy

I liked this unique font. / Image via DesignsByRobynLove on Etsy

After finding online inspiration, I set up a comfortable spot to work.

I spent many hours at this TV tray. Just a woman and her pen.

I then decided I needed to sketch out an alphabet for reference. The inspiration was great, but I needed to make the script my own.

Capital-letter reference guide. ”P” was my favorite—luckily I got to use it a lot (decent Pennsylvania contingency).

Lower-case reference guide. Clearly was struggling with the “d” and “r.”

With 200 guests invited to the wedding, we ended up with around 130 save the dates to write. This number was a bit higher than our invitation count due to a few “extras” we sent to cousins in college. In the greater scheme of the total count, it wasn’t that many, but I have to tell you, I was cursing that decision as I closed in on the final envelopes.

However, in the end, I was happy with the final product!

An envelope for a made-up guest. So, don’t try to go hunt them down.

I will say, for anyone doing their own calligraphy, I have a few pieces of advice:

1. Give yourself time.

Since I had the envelopes early, I wasn’t under any crazy pressure to finish addressing. This meant that I could work on them in small doses, when I felt like it. I could do up to 20 or so at a time without growing tired or my hand cramping. And it stayed fun!

2. Find a good pen.

This varies for each person, but I found that I preferred a thinner-tipped pen for this style of calligraphy. It was easy to do the small loops with this particular pen. I am testing out a true calligraphy tip for the invitations. We’ll see how that goes.

3. Make yourself comfortable.

You don’t realize how important this is until you go to get up. I didn’t have my back pillow in place for one of my writing sessions. Never again. OUCH.

4. Give yourself time.

Can’t stress this enough. I think if I had to do 50 at a time, I wouldn’t have been showing Mr. Turkey cards that had fun letter combinations or been proud of each one.

Close-up (and a shadow of my face)

Are you doing your own calligraphy? Any pen tips as I go to invitations?

I know this title doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as Zoolander, but I tried.