Wedding Wednesday: Stationery One

I can't believe that I don't have a label for stationery on this blog; when I search the word, I find ten different posts from the past two years that include pictures of pretty cards.  So, even though it's not official, I do have a thing for the written word - and I absolutely believe that correspondence should be celebrated!  For a big event, this is even more the case than usual; for a wedding, it's crucial.

The paper goods you choose are the port of entry for your wedding.  You've been living and breathing color schemes and flowers and decorations for weeks (if not months) so you're saturated with your aesthetic, but your friends and family are probably not aware of the whole feel you hope to achieve.  That means that the Save the Dates you send out will be the first impression they'll have of your wedding style - and first impressions are everything!  Since Jon works in marketing, he appreciates this as much as I do.

I do love a lot of the quirkier stationery out there, but overwhelming forces (ahem: my parents, Jon's parents, and Jon himself) favor a more traditional style.  To be honest, deep down, I do, too; it was really helpful to have everyone else involved give me firm guidelines because otherwise I think I would have been way too distracted by all the gorgeous off-beat options to focus on what fits our wedding.  And, as you know, we're keeping the phrase "country elegant" in mind as we go through the planning process, so we felt that something classic but not too formal was the right way to go.

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Before we started looking for a specific stationery company or designer, Jon and I trolled through wedding blogs and paper goods sites to find styles that we both liked.  (And yes, Jon was right there with me, clicking on links and passing around images!  This isn't one of those times when I say "we" but really mean "I" in the wedding planning process...)  We quickly discovered that we both favored a colorful framed monogram, minimal extra flourishes, and relatively traditional fonts.

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We also knew that we wanted a style that would carry from the Save the Date all the way to the program at the ceremony and place cards at the reception and to the thank-you cards we'll be sending out afterwards, with motifs that would echo in each piece.  (Okay, this is one of those "I/we" times.  Maintaining the theme of our stationery throughout the wedding was something I felt strongly about; Jon, happily, agreed when I suggested it.) That meant that we'd have to find a designer or company who would be willing and able to work with us through the whole process and who could help us arrange signage that would coordinate with the paper goods - all without breaking the bank.

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We did consider, briefly, doing all of the stationery ourselves, from design to printing to assembly, but you all know that DIY is not one of my strengths.  Also, one of Jon's cousins, who works as a web/graphic designer professionally, very generously offered to help us, but in the end we decided that it would be easier to hire someone who wasn't otherwise attached to the project.  And so, after hours of estimating costs on some of my favorite stationery websites, I turned to Etsy...

To be continued next Wednesday! In the meantime, you should enter my giveaway. 

Whoever wins will get a handwritten note on my personal stationery along with all of the goodies!