Beautiful Flourishes by Primele Calligraphy

I came across the amazing calligraphy of Patricia Mumau. She has a wonderful little etsy store for her gorgeous artwork and also runs an interesting blog. I really love her work — the big flourishes, use of the whole envelope, the little details. So amazing!
A purple, chocolate and gold invitation suite by Lilah Paper

I’m so excited to be able to share our invitations with you!! As many of you know, the first item I purchased for our wedding was my shoes. They’ve been my muse for the entire event and have guided me toward the most amazing gown, linens, and paper. When I set out to have our invitations designed I knew of only one designer who would be able to take my shoes and make an invitation out of them!
Paper is one of my loves, and Kalyn from Lilah Paper and I have worked together on several events and her style really compliments my own. We came up with a custom invitation suite based on a variety of different inspirational pieces that I sent her through out the process. When she sent me our first round of proofs I was blown away. It wasn’t something I had envisioned but it was exactly what I wanted — which is a true testament to her talent! Much like a proud mama, I happen to think I have the most beautiful wedding invitations ever made.

We started out with a pretty belly band holding all our paper goodness together.

Inside, a tri-fold invitation suite. It starts off with lyrics from our soon to be first dance song by Van Morrison…

Our actual letterpress invitation to the ceremony with double backing layers. Photographs cannot do it justice! It is so gorgeous!!


Our pretty letterpress enclosure cards. We’ve gotten so many compliments on the cute vintage inspired food selections. We’ve also received A LOT of interesting first dance songs!!

Our envelopes were hand written by the extremely talented Lisa Ridgely of Pen and Ink Calligraphy. I LOVE working with Lisa — she is SO good to my brides and it was so much fun to be one of hers! We chose this gorgeous red ink color for a fun pop.
I had so much fun working with Lilah Paper and absolutely love the couture suite she came up with for us. The quality was so important to me, and our invitations are above and beyond what we could have imagined. We were SO thrilled to mail them all out (except for the $.78 stamps on each one) and have gotten so many RSVP’s back. Its a joy every afternoon to run out to the mailbox!
I’ll have some prettier pro pictures after the wedding with the rest of our amazing paper!
Calligraphy
Calligraphy. . . a word that may strike fear into the hearts of brides to be. But just about anyone can do Calligraphy, its not as bad as it sounds. The first thing you will need is a Calligraphy pen and ink. When I first started doing Calligraphy 9 years ago I purchased a Sheaffer Calligraphy kit similar to this one. You will also need 2 pieces of paper, one of which will be for the writing and the other will be your guide to make sure that your writing stays in a straight line.
Once you have a Calligraphy pen my first suggestion is to play with them. Hold your pen at a slight angle and draw squiggly lines so you can start to get a feel for the flow of the ink. There are different nibs that come with your kit. What is a nib you ask? Well, the nib is the tip of your calligraphy pen. The thicker the nib the thicker the line you will end up with.
Now that you have started to get the hang of your calligraphy pen you can begin to experiment with lettering. Most letters you will need to use at least two strokes to complete the letter. For example here is step one of the letter ‘a’. Your basically drawing what looks like a ‘c’.
Then you are going to add the back and the tail end of your ‘a’.
One more example is the letter ‘g’. Again you are drawing a ‘c’ using your second sheet of paper as your straight edge.
Now you will add the side and bottom of the ‘g’. With calligraphy the fancier the better!
When doing a full name you can see here that due to the straight edge you are not able to add on the bottom of the ‘J’. This just gives you the opportunity to focus on how you would like to add to your letters.
Lastly when doing mailing addresses you can do two different things. One, you can center the address on the envelope. Secondly, you could stagger the address on the envelope. These are two very different looks and my suggestion is to try both out and see what works for you. Enjoy!
In Love: Calligraphy
I love calligraphy. There is no denying that when you receive an invitation hand addressed by one of these artists, you feel so special! Having your wedding invitations hand calligraphed may seem like an antiquated tradition that you don’t need to do (printing envelopes on the computer is so easy, right?). Well, it is an old tradition, but one you shouldn’t skip if you can afford. A wedding invitation isn’t just any old invitation to a party: it is something extremely intimate and important and it should be treated as such!
Take a look at some of this calligraphy eye candy. Notice how the styles are so different? The options out there are truly endless. These are some of my absolute favorite calligraphy artists.
Lisa Ridgley; Pen & Ink Calligraphy
http://www.penandink-calligraphy.com


Kathryn Murray; Kathryn Murray Calligraphy



Laura Hooper; Laura Hooper Calligraphy



Jessica Slutsky; Jessica Slutsky Calligraphy
http://www.racetothealter.blogspot.com

A Bit of Vintage: Our Save the Dates
It is an exciting weekend for this event planner — our save the dates went into the mail! I wanted to share them with you as they were designed and crafted by yours truly. I went back and forth several times with the idea of creating them myself. I certainly have the means and tools to do so, but as any artist knows, it isn’t easy to take on your own projects. I searched endlessly for an easy way out and couldn’t find anything that I simply had to have, so, it was off to Illustrator to begin designing!
I wanted to tie in our wedding’s color scheme with the save the dates so I went with varying shades of purple, gold, and white. After many designs, Mike and I really loved this one the most. It has a very subtle vintage feel and gives a peak into the romantic vintage-style fete we are planning! So, without further adieu, here are our save the dates! Be sure to click the images for a larger version!
The beautiful hand calligraphy envelope seals in shimmery gold metallic card stock. These gorgeous creations were made by the very talented Lisa Ridgely of Pen & Ink Calligraphy out of Westminster, Maryland. I found Lisa through her etsy.com shop and knew that these envelope seals were the one touch of glam our envelopes needed. She was such a doll to work with and I can’t wait to recommend her services to my brides. Thanks Lisa!
Oh, I am so thrilled with how they came out! My most favorite part is the varying font style. I have huge love affair with fonts. Am I crazy?
I’ve already started receiving phone calls about how much our guests love them which makes me so thrilled. I hope you enjoyed them too!




















