Our Save the Dates!
Last week marked six months until our wedding day, and that means its time for Save the Dates. After a few nights of stuffing and stamping, we dropped them at the post office, and off they went! Now that most everyone invited to our wedding has received them, I thought i’d share a little glimpse on here!
Our invitation suite, including the Save the Date, are truly special to me because I designed them with my best friend and Maid of Honor, Hannah. She is a super talented illustrator based in the Chicago area, and I was so honored when she agreed to collaborate with me as a wedding gift.. It has been so fun to work on together, and I will forever treasure this design and the memories i’ll have. What an amazing gift to be able to treasure.
. Be sure to check out more of Hannah’s work on her website.
When beginning the design process, I collected a lot of inspiration and began to narrow down some elements that I was drawn to. The most important aspect of the suite to me was for it to set the tone for the rest of the wedding - elegant, classic, and moody.
Once we had the design down, it was time to print! I had sort of a change of heart at the last minute, and we ended up working with Alaina of Cheer Up Press to have all of the elements letterpressed. She was so great to work with, fit us in on a tight deadline, and did a truly beautiful job. Mark and I both agreed that it was 100% worth it, and that the dimension that letterpress creates really put the entire design over the edge. Alaina also designs custom invitation suites, so if you’re getting married, and aren’t lucky enough to have a super talented illustrator for a friend, then I would definitely look into working with Alaina!
From the beginning, I knew that I wanted to use a calligrapher and vintage stamps for our suite, but I am still blown away by how amazing they turned out! Special thanks to Keri of Calligraphy by Keri who did such a beautiful job. We’ve also hired her to do some custom calligraphy for the wedding day as well, and I can’t wait to see more of her beautiful work!
I sourced the stamps from a few different etsy shops, but the majority came from Vintage Postage Shop. Liz was so very kind, and the stamps came so beautifully packaged. I chose the stamps myself, but she also has an option to curate a selection for you! I got enough stamps to send our Invitations as well, and am even more excited for those!
Using vintage stamps was admittedly a bit complicated, but totally worth it in my opinion. I’m planning on a whole blog post just about how I went about figuring it out for all of you getting married (or really just sending any special mail - they could be used for a lot of occasions)!
Sending out Save the Dates was admittedly a bit more emotional than I thought it would be, though i’m sure others might find that a bit weird. When we went to drop them off, I felt a bit nervous all of a sudden. I put a lot of love and time into them, and felt nervous about them getting lost or damaged. More than that, though, it made it all start to feel more real! Once our friends and family started receiving them, I was getting texts left and right and it just filled up my heart. I know that the next six months are going to fly by and I truly cant wait!