Be Our Guest!

I work for a paper company. We have suites upon suites of gorgeous letterpress wedding invitation packages available in our custom shop. Our Pistachio invitation album is full of designs to suit any style, contemporary or modern. The best part: they're customized and printed in Canada with soy-based inks on eco-friendly recycled cotton paper. I would have loved to have given the business to the company - it is, after all, my bread and butter. My job depends on the profitability of our two little shops.

However, never being one to turn down a creative project (even if it's not in my best interest), I decided that we would design, print, trim and assemble them ourselves. It was not a question of whether we could achieve this no-small-feat, it was whether we'd survive the whole ordeal. And, we did!


We bought recycled, process-chlorine-free paper and envelopes from Pistachio and some new ink cartridges for our little printer. After a full Sunday of sitting in front of Photoshop working on our design, we spent the next three evenings cutting, sewing and assembling. Thursday, we addressed envelopes, licked seals and stamped them in time to mail them Friday. I hear that they are beginning to arrive, and we even have our first RSVP already! Thanks Charlie!

Had we decided to have someone else do the work, the whole shebang could have cost upwards of $600 plus postage. We did it all for $160 (plus postage). I love that they are so personal, too. So "us". It was totally worth the papercuts, blisters, and bloodshot eyes.

Welcome to our print shop:

[finishing the design]

[printing...]

[hubby-to-be is such a good sport]

[I may just love this little gadget!]

[sewing paper!]

[fini!]

Crunch!

We're really in the homestretch now. I told myself that as of August 26th (exactly a month before our wedding) that I would blog every day. Ridiculous, really. This will be hands-down the busiest month for us, and if I haven't managed to be consistent with writing yet, I sure won't be any better during September. I do have quite a lot to share since my last entry, so maybe I'll try to write few blogs today while being a tad hung over from my Bachelorette party last night. That, my friends, will require a whole blog all to itself.


NEWS:

We have a caterer! So we haven't officially signed or paid a deposit, but we were happy with the quote and we've said "I do" to Western Cut, a catering company that I originally bypassed, thinking that their offerings were a tad casual for what should be a more formal affair. Really, though, it may be a blessing that the original caterer didn't pan out - we have a better cost, and a company that understands our vision. They may be a tad rough around the edges, but Jill assures me that kitchen-types typically are. I won't get my panties in a wad over this one. We do have food, after all!


We have wine! Alex and I held ourselves a little wine tasting of sorts and picked our wine for the event. See next blog for details.


Our invitations are out! We did them ourselves from scratch, and spent hours upon hours getting them from conception to physically mailed in 4 days. Whew! Again, more on this in an upcoming blog.


We have the best friends EVER! Everyone came through with amazing suggestions for caterers, and some went even so far as to offer up their family members to get the job done. Special thanks to Kim, Liz, Leah, Jodi and Lesley. My friends have been particularly supportive, and are still practically begging to help us out. While I still don't have much to delegate, I know that they will be oh-so-valuable in the coming weeks. They also threw me the absolute greatest "last hurrah" as an unmarried woman last night. More to come on this subject! Alex's brother Charlie threw him a bachelor party of sorts this weekend, and the boys headed up to camp near Wasaga Beach. While we are both quite rough today, we both had an amazing time. We know that we are so lucky to have such incredible friends.

Dear Ms. Post

While visiting a flea market with my parents this summer, I happened upon a copy of a 1955 edition of Emily Post's Etiquette ("The Blue Book of Social Usage"). Originally published in 1922, mine was already the 9th edition. It interested me for two reasons:

1. Pistachio (my employer/baby/bread-and-butter) currently retails the 17th edition (published in 2008). I wondered if Emily (via Peggy Post - her great-granddaughter-law, if you please) had lightened up just a tad in 50 years.
2. Morbid curiosity: I don't care much for etiquette. I prefer the speak-your-mind/be-yourself approach (although I do value manners and politeness, thank you). I do, however, find the subject of formal etiquette to be quite amusing, especially the 1950s interpretation.

Reading the book gives me great delight.

[ Ms.Post / an early edition / 17th Edition by Peggy Post ]

Sentences like "Correct Invitations to a wedding are always engraved on the first page of a double sheet of ivory white or note paper either plain or with a raised margin called a plate-mark." and "The bride-elect and her mother then go to the stationer and decide details..." and "The phrase 'and Family' has never been approved for invitations by persons of taste..." have me very close to rolling on the ground in tears.

I intend to break her every rule.

Sure, I can send a professionally crafted email to a colleague, use the right fork at a 5-course meal, and put on a polished look for a formal occasion. Really, though, I am not much for formality. Please do not expect the words "request the honour of your presence" to appear anywhere on our invitations. I suppose there may be some guests, in my grandmothers generation, most likely, who may disapprove, but "traditional" is just not our style. I am wearing a white dress, though. Isn't that enough?

Luckily, my parents are one top hat away from a 3 ring circus, and have always appreciated my own brand of quirkiness (which I invariably get from them). They are not concerned in the least about offending Ms. Post.

I have only scratched the surface of the daunting task of designing, printing and assembling my own invitations, but I have at least started experimenting with fonts and colours:

As for design, I'm not quite there, although I have thought that a stitch-bound booklet would be quite cute. In the meantime, here are some lovely and somewhat unconventional invitations that inspire me (images courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings, Once Wed, Etsy, and The Green Wedding Shoes):