The Invitations
I thought I wouldn't be this excited. That our wedding wouldn't be such a "big deal". After all, we are not love-sick-twenty-somethings with their whole lives ahead of them.
We're in our thirties, and have been living together for 6 years already. We've already experienced the highs and lows of our careers. Together we have three beautiful sons, a blended family of five. We've held hands through two dramatic births. Survived three years of sleepless nights. We have lived and loved and learned, together.
I thought that perhaps couples who find each other a little later in life, or those that do things a bit back-to-front, like us, wouldn't feel that same excitement about a wedding as a couple who have the world ahead of them. I was wrong.
I think, for all the reasons I've mentioned above, our wedding is already one of the biggest and most precious days of our life.
We have been though so much together, the highs and lows of life, and we are still here, more in love than ever before. Time has made us stronger, more entwined and I really cannot wait to marry the man who's brought me everything.
What started as a potential quiet "Registry Office job, followed by an intimate dinner in a local pub" has rapidly become the biggest party we have ever planned...YIKES!!There's just 8 weeks to go now, so I thought I would start sharing with you some little bits and pieces on the lead up to the big day. After all, you guys have been with us through two relocations, pregnancy, child birth...it seems only right that your part of our special day too.
All the invitations have made it to their owners now, and all the RSVP's have been returned, it's all becoming very very real.
So I thought this was a good time to show you our beautiful invitations, designed by our wonderfully talented friend Emily Rollings.
Emily and I met through Instagram 3 years ago, her little girl is the same age as Ollie so we bonded over many sleepless nights spent scrolling our iPhones. Emily is not only my very lovely warm and generous friend, she is also a ridiculously talented designer, most famous for her Birthday Books and The Essential Planner.
When we set the date, Emily straight away offered to design our stationery. I, of course, went Pinterest mad, sending her a whole load of ideas, to be honest, ideas that were not really me...Do you find that Pinterest does that to you too?
Half way through the design process...I suddenly realised I had let Pinterest get the better of me, and while I loved the designs Emily had created, they didn't feel like me, and she agreed.
Instead we gave her full reign, told her what we had in mind for the wedding asked her to design something she thought would be right for us, and this is what she came back with...
I Love Them.
Emily stripped it right back. Our favourite classic letterpress font with a simple eucalyptus leaf symbol, all printed in charcoal grey on the best quality paper. I'm a firm believer that less is more so as soon as the samples arrived...I knew they were our invitations.
I took Emily's designs to Orphans, a fantastic local printers to get them printed. It was Orphans who suggested a gently contrasting shade for the envelope and the addition of white semi-translucent parchment paper to hold the Invitation, Gift Card and RSVP together.
I love this idea, so sheer and delicate, almost like a paper veil binding the package together.
Orphans would happily have pulled the whole process together for us, but Colin and I decided this would be a lovely thing to do together.
So, over a bottle of wine one July evening, we sat at the table and put together 85 invitations. Spritzing each one with a mist of Jo Malone's English Oak and Redcurrant, before binding with the thinnest gold thread and sealing with a petal-white wax seal. We chose a simple Ampersand stamp to signify our togetherness and of course the joining of our marriage.
What do you think? I really hope you love them as much as we do, and maybe they are giving you a little clue as to how our October wedding will look and feel too? Not long now.....
Much Love,
This is not a sponsored post but I asked Emily if she would mind me sharing a discount code, should you want her to create something bespoke for your wedding or special occassion too.
If you mention me, you will get 10% off your order. You can chat to Emily
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