Weddingbee Blog

Dear Wedding Santa,

I’ve been a good engaged bride-to-be. I took careful time picking our venue, flowers, and dress and even stayed in budget. I haven’t yelled (a lot) at my fiance and I haven’t (yet) been called a bridezilla. So when you check you nice list twice, I should be there. Here’s my invitation wish list:

1. calligraphed envelopes

Bella Figura

Read more…

We decided that a pretty invitation deserves a nice presentation, so, since we came in under budget for the invites, we had them calligraphed.

When initial calligrapher recommendations were out of our budget, I took to the internet and found Nicole of The Left Handed Calligrapher. She’s very nice and super personable, and does an amazing job. As it turns out, Nicole has been featured in SMP and D Weddings, but when I booked her I hadn’t heard of her work yet.

Mr. Oyster-the-artist was excited about this. When we went and picked up the finished envelopes, he said, “They’re like little pieces of art!” Very cute.

So, check them out! The “font” we chose was Copperplate. I actually liked Spencerian better, but I really wanted the envelopes to be “mailable”. I took pictures of this particular set so that I could show them off without revealing where a family or friend lives. Do you know this person?

Read more…

I did the calligraphy myself and I just want to encourage other brides with very bad handwriting that it’s possible to do!

I actually have a form of dyslexia, and one of my unique disabilities is impaired handwriting. My hand cramps up after writing a few sentences, and my handwriting looks like that of a serial killer’s. Plus, it changes all the time. Weird, I know. It’s probably because of all the attempts over the years to try to achieve better-looking handwriting. It’s really, really bad and I’m ashamed of it. I hold my pencil incorrectly, like a left-handed person but in my right hand. Really, it’s a miracle that I got through college writing all those essay test questions, because I write much, much slower than the average person.

I’m going to spare you pictures of my hideous handwriting and show you my calligraphy. For some reason, if I put my mind to it, I can do calligraphy, sort of. I have middling artistic talent, so when I want to write pretty, I try to look at it as drawing rather than writing. But I’m still slow at it. And I still usually can’t achieve straight lines.

Here’s a tutorial for bad-handwriting-ladies to achieve DIY calligraphy:

Step 1:
Read more…

A while ago, I was reading the ever-sensible and down-to-earth A Practical Wedding blog and came across a post about choices. In essence, the entry argued that everything regarding the wedding was a choice, not a necessity. You don’t need to have (insert any number of wedding-related items here), but most of us want them and therefore have to choose what to incorporate. Great advice, if I ever heard it, and I’ve kept it in my head since.

I’ve been thinking about this advice with the recent arrival and departure of our invitations. I’ll admit, my invitations were not in any way a DIY project nor were they particularly cost-effective (I got a great deal on them but they were well over the usual cost per invite of a handmade one). I love them to death but the cost left little room for extras.

Which is why I chose to not have calligraphy addresses or even faux-lligraphy addresses. Nope, instead I grabbed a pretty, light blue Gel ink sparkly pen and wrote everything out by hand, adding a few flourishes here and there, but nothing super-intense. Although there was a big part of me that was convinced that the outside of the envelopes had to be as beautiful as the insides, the budget has been steadily increasing as the wedding approaches and we all know the feeling of panic that tends to accompany that phenomenon.
Read more…

I know that I’m not the only one that lusts, has lusted, or will lust over fabulous calligraphy. The swirls, curls, swells, hairlines, terminals, and flourishes are enough to do pretty much anyone in. After getting engaged, it was only a matter of time before I would fall for the siren song of calligraphy-adorned envelopes, cards, paper goods, what-have-you. Rather than continuing to yammer on about calligraphy, and blah blah blah, words words words, and obsess, obsess, obsess, I think I’ll just go through the major points in my calligraphy (love) affair.
Read more…

In my last calligraphy post, I introduced the lovely script that we chose for our invitations (That’s the royal “we”, not that group decision “we”. Mr. Hammy had no preference really). To review, we chose the Formal Script:

And here is the finished product!
Read more…

My handwriting sucks. While I just winged it and hand addressed our save-the-dates, much to my guests’ amusement (”No, Uncle John, my nephew didn’t help me address those envelopes, har har”), I wanted something more professional for our invitations.

See that? Not so good:

Okay, so I wrote that in Microsoft Paint, but my real handwriting is even worse.

There were several options floating around the hive - there is fauxligraphy, which I was pretty sure I’d still manage to mess up. There are the lovely wrap-around labels. There are some super-talented bees out there who DIY their calligraphy (not gonna happen). Then there is paying someone for their calligraphy talents. Bingo! We have a winner.
Read more…

I’m pleased to meet you, two-month mark. Do you know what you mean? Eight weeks. Literally. That’s right, we’re eight weeks out and to be honest, I’m feeling pretty good about our to-do list. It’s dwindling down to the tiniest of details like finishing up a few DIY projects, making sure the stragglers get taken care of (Mr. CB’s ring? Just a tiny detail), and booking our honeymoon.

One of these details might seem like minutia, but I can’t seem to decide and I need your help. Calligraphy. Oh, it’s many swirls and whirls.

You’ve seen our seating cards. These will either be hanging from a clothesline on gold organza ribbon or tied to a bunch of horseshoes on a table (once I get the courage to open my bucket of used horseshoes). I may end up using the clothesline for fun pictures of Mr. CB and me with our guests throughout the years, which is why I’d opt to go the horseshoe route.

Either way, our guests’ names have to be scrawled on these escort cards for them to even be useful. And since the Etsy seller we’re buying the cards from isn’t doing it, I’ve enlisted Pretty Pen Jen to, well, pen these for us.

She has many, many styles of lettering and my favorites are the really script-y ones. Which, of the four below do you prefer?
Read more…

I’ve posted about the ins and outs of our invitations… we’ve had them in our house since about February, but actually taking the final step—addressing these suckers—took some planning. We have these fabulous outer envelopes, but I just didn’t know what to do in order to stay in line with the integrity of the design. Oh yeah, and in line with that pesky budget.

Source: Plush Paper

Along with many others, I fell in love with this easy way to mimic calligraphy, as posted on Project Wedding. I’m sure many others have hopped on board with this great project, including Miss Piglet (her invitations are fabulous!).
Read more…

So while our invites are just being sent out this week and I can’t yet share those with you, I would love to share a little piece of their DIY goodness: the outer envelopes.

When I first started dreaming about our wedding invitations, visions of letterpress and professional calligraphy danced through my head. Then, reality set in. We didn’t have the budget to splurge on every detail, and invitations ended up getting bumped further down the priority list, behind my dress and our gorgeous loft.

I decided to take on the enormous task of making our invitations and got this crazy idea to learn calligraphy and address the outer envelopes myself. I love learning new things, and as you might have noticed by now, I never shy away from a challenge. The question was, how to start? In the big, wide world of calligraphy, people take things very seriously and it can be a little overwhelming for a newcomer. So, I started with a how-to book:

(Photo credit)

This was a great book for someone just learning to do calligraphy. I put a lot of research into picking a Calligraphy 101-type book because there were a lot to choose from. It shows you what you need to buy, teaches you the letters, and gives you lines to photocopy and practice on. I’m glad I splurged and spent a whopping $4 buying this used off of Amazon, instead of trying to learn off a website.

Read more…

Based on the title, you’re probably thinking this post is going to be about our linens, but it’s about calligraphy. As you learned in my fruity shower post, BM F and I met in college. She would sit and practice her handwriting when she needed something to do with her hands. I can’t tell you how many times we’d be sitting in the cafeteria and I’d look down to see “Napkin” scrolled across her napkin (natch) a bazillion times in the most beautiful handwriting you’ve ever seen.

My handwriting isn’t bad; it worked great for our Engagement Party invites and STDIs, but it is more casual. So, naturally, I asked BM F if she would do the calligraphy for our wedding invitations.

Here are the samples she gave me today…

Option A:

Read more…

As of this post, we are focused on paper over here in the Swan household. We’re in the process of sending out our invitations, and so I’ll blog about some of our invitation elements, starting with the outside of our invitations.

Lemme be real; I’m not into paper. I think it’s pretty, and I love seeing some of the beautiful custom letterpress creations out there. However, this was not an area of importance for us in the planning. Also being un-crafty and lacking time, I was surely not going to be making my own.

As I mentioned before, I was surprised by how much I was into calligraphy for our invitations. It was great to find Fran of Little Flower Calligraphy on Etsy, and she was great to work with. She answered all of my emails promptly and was super helpful in making sure that this process was as smooth as it could be, given the fact we lived several states apart.

When I came home from a work trip, I was ecstatic to find all of this beautiful calligraphy goodness. Here’s a sample (since I am not Photoshop savvy and don’t even have the darn thing, names have been blocked by little strips of paper… go me!)

(courtesy of me)

Read more…

I’d like to think my printing’s passable. When I’m not rushing, my notes are neat and completely legible. My script, on the other hand, is not so aesthetically pleasing. Sure, it gets the job done — a few loops and flourishes find their way out of my pen when I’m asked to “sign at the ’x’, please” — but it’s hardly the luscious, swirly cursive I’d imagine adorning our wedding invitations.

Since I knew I wouldn’t have the time — or (who am I kidding?) the motivation — to perfect my faux-lligraphy, I combed the wedding-related pages on Etsy searching for a talented, affordable calligrapher. I’d been feeling panicky, after several inquiry emails to well-known, highly-recommended calligraphers fizzled due to booked calendars.

And then I found Fran — who, funnily enough, Miss Swan recently revealed to be her calligrapher.

I was immediately drawn to the several styles she’d posted in her shop, Little Flower Calligraphy & Gifts. A quick email confirmed Fran’s availability to assist with our wedding invitations and escort cards, and gave me a taste for her diverse (and, um, delicious) styles.

Read more…

Let’s put this next topic in the “I didn’t think I would really care about this for my wedding” category: calligraphy.

For the “streamlined, cut out everything not necessary” bride like me, I should be getting our computer printer ready for some lovely mailing labels. Yet there I was, about a month ago, looking and practically salivating over calligraphy options for invitations.

“Is calligraphy necessary? Heck no! Will your invites be welcomed by open arms by your guests? But of course!” This was my internal dialogue as I realized that I really wanted this item for our wedding, and I began the search for affordable calligraphy options.

I went to one of my new favorite sites, Etsy, and searched through pages and pages of lovely calligraphers. I knew that I wanted the look to not be too frilly and formal, since that would not fit our daytime, bright-colored, modern wedding. I wanted something that was maybe a bit more whimsical or contemporary than something with a ton of script-y flourishes (nothing wrong with that, by the way).
Read more…

Hello Hive… Mr. D and I spent two-and-a-half hours attempting to print out addresses for 16 envelopes. TWO AND A HALF HOURS.

It was absurd. We played with page sizes, line spacing, font size, number size, alignment - the whole shebang. We also learned that Mr. D’s computer and printer prefers the metric system, while mine is all about the inches. Which really meanr that to get the page size correct, we sent several documents back and forth before finally figuring out the problem. Also, my American envelopes are just too wide for Mr. D’s printer, so we had to orient all the addresses to landscape and re-mess around with the addresses. It was pure bliss, I tell you.

Okay, maybe not after Mr. D printed not one, but two addresses upside-down. Did I mention we don’t have any extra envelopes? Because we don’t. They came in a pack of 50, and I just couldn’t justify spending the same amount of money to get “extra” envelopes. Though, I’m sure if I had justified it, we would have an entire extra pack of 50 laying around and we’d have had all the envelopes correct on the first try. Such is life.
Read more…