Southern Weddings

By now y’all know that Katharine doesn’t get as excited by the same things as most brides.  Wedding dress?  Eh.  Photographer?  Eh.  (Though we do LOVE Bryan!) But paper? Yep, Katharine was all about the paper.

From Katharine: Like so many aspects of my wedding, I had a very clear idea of the kind of invitation I wanted to send to family and friends before our big day.  Blame it on growing up in a household where children’s birth announcements were sent on heavy, engraved paper from Crane’s in either black or gold script, and where traditional wording was a must, but for me, there never was any real question about the invites.

My father, who knows me and my style better than almost anyone, summed it up best during our first discussion about wedding suites.  It went a little something like this:

Katharine: “So, Dad, it’s about time to order invitations.”

Dad Waterman: “Well good, that’s simple.  You really only have two decisions to make: white or ecru paper, and black or gold ink.”

There never was any discussion about fun embellishments, embossed monograms or bow accents.  Just paper and ink color, and we were set.  (For the record: I’m fairly certain Dad and I are carbon copies of each other, which is awesome for a girl planning a wedding with her father.)

So, ecru it was.  And I was this close to going with gold script (which, in truth, got Dad’s vote for its rich and regal look), when I opted for ultra-traditional black in a last minute identity crisis.  I still love gold lettering, but couldn’t be happier with our black and white invites.

From Emily: Paper is near and dear to my heart.  Though I took Katharine’s criteria seriously, I wasn’t going to go down without a fight (so to speak) on this one.  Though I suggested many lovely ways of updating her traditional themes, she never bit, alas.  Maybe one of you will be able to benefit from my round up?

Image credits, top to bottom: Lilikoi Design + Letterpress, betsywhite stationery boutique, b.t. elements, and Bella Figura

My best hope was Laura Hooper’s suite, with its striking black envelope, but that was a no-go, too.  Okay, then, Katharine, how about some lovely hand-painted gold edging, courtesy of Bella Figura?  No?

From Katharine: Emily suggestions were ridiculously gorgeous – and pretty darn spot-on for a nuts and bolts girl having an evening wedding – but I’m the Anti-Bride, remember?  Naturally, I didn’t stray too far from my original vision of the perfect wedding invitation.  (Emily loves me regardless, though, so all’s well!)

With style settled, the next question was where to find my very simple, but very specific invitations.  Crane’s seemed like the obvious choice, but – truth be told – I’m all about the bottom line.  When I discovered that Birchcraft Studios offered virtually indistinguishable invites (at a fraction of the cost, mind you) and that Your Invitation Place offered further online discounts, I was sold!  (Dad was a pretty happy camper, too.)

If this all seems too easy, you’re right.  While the design was almost a given, the precise wording was anything but.  (Just ask my dad and Emily, who, between the two of them, patiently fielded dozens of emails filled with nuanced questions: How should we word our response cards?  Triple panel or basic flat card?  To include reception info on the invitation or not?  The list goes on.  We ultimately – even if not painlessly – got it all figured out.  I won’t bore you with the rest of the tedious details (I saved those for Dad + Em), but if you have questions or are just curious, I’m happy to share!

The final result?

“Boring,” says my sixteen-year-old sister, Bissy.

“Perfect,” insists the bride.  (It’s my vote that matters most, right?  Right.)

From Emily: One thing Katharine and I were agreed upon was calligraphy: her ultra-formal, ultra traditional invitations were calling for it.  Being the classic kind of girl she is, loopy girly fun styles were out, and graceful script was in.  But the price?  Yipes.  I’ve seen outer envelopes for up to $8 an envelope (and I’m sure someone somewhere is charging much more than that), and though I can hardly argue that beautiful script is worth at least that much, it wasn’t going to fly with our bride.

Enter Carmela.  While doing my daily perusal of Weddingbee, I stumbled onto a post by one Miss Hamster, who used Carmela for her own envelopes.  Her lettering was lovely, and at $0.80 per envelope set (yes, really!!), the price couldn’t be beat.  One quick email to Katharine, and then to Carmela, and the deal was done.  If you’d like to jump on the Carmela bandwagon, too, you can email her at melsinkwell at comcast dot net (she doesn’t have a website).

From Katharine: Here’s another Anti-Bride confession: Paper goods make me nervous.  Now, I’m all about going all-out for the invites.  But menus and place cards?  Those are harder for me to justify.  I cringe at the thought of beautiful, handmade menus getting a quick once-over and then being tossed out. (Chalk another one up to my father, who diligently and dutifully recycles like nobody’s business.)  Emily understood my hesitation about wasting paper and resources, but suggested escort cards were a practical must.  Fine: 1 point for Emily. But if we were going to have escort cards, they had to be simple and match the overall feel and design of my invites.

Since she was so gung-ho about them, I turned to The Paper Queen for advice on the place cards, not knowing whether or not she’d be able to find what I was looking for.  (In fairness, I hadn’t given her much direction.)  Did she succeed?

From Emily: Seriously, people, sometimes I don’t know where this stuff comes from.  But as soon as Katharine asked me for placecard suggestions, I instantly thought of Ashley and Chris’s September 2008 wedding, shot by April Smith and featured on Style Me Pretty.

She’s incorporating subtle gold accents and has a soft spot for wax seals, and this inspiration photo combines both.  We’ve ordered stock from Paper Presentation and are waiting for an opportune evening to break out the paper cutter and the matches. Craft night, anyone?

Weigh-In: What do you think about Katharine + Emily’s respective picks?  How would you have answered Dad Waterman’s invitation query: white or ecru, black or gold?

P.S. While their invitations are 100% basic black-and-white (pun intended!), Katharine + Kyle’s save-the-date from Wedding Paper Divas was all fun.  We bet you can guess who picked out these too-cute cards…

Up next? The post you’ve all been waiting for — FLOWERS!  Has Katharine loosened up her white rose strictures?  You’ll just have to wait until next week to see…

Previously:

Intros + Inspiration Boards

The Bridesmaid Dress

The Photographer

The Wedding Website

SW Goes to Kleinfeld

Wedding Paper Divas is an SW advertiser and no free services are being received. Katharine’s planning posts are written to share her experiences and personal recommendations, not as advertisement for vendors.  We don’t even tell the vendor that the post is being written.  We just love em : )