The Wedding Roost: June 2014

Pinterest is a blessing when it comes to planning a wedding. But it can also be overwhelming. I was pinning away right up until about November, and then I put the brakes on. Because I realized that the pictures I was pinning weren't my ideas. They were beautiful and great ideas, but they were creating a brain overload and I starting venturing away from what makes a wedding special.

I wanted this wedding to be ours. Not what's in style and what's being pinned on a daily basis. I wanted every invitation and decoration to look like us. As far back as I can remember, I've never been one to wish for a traditional wedding celebration. I've always known that I wanted to get married in a natural setting with a small group of my closest family and friends.

In 2007 I visited the Reeves-Reed Arboretum near Newark, NJ while training for my first job (crazy how the arboretum had Justin's middle name in it... I call that fate). All I could think of was how perfect the arboretum would be for a wedding. I kept the brochure and tucked it safely in a bookcase for my reference down the road, y'know...since I wasn't even dating anyone (or dating anyone I actually liked). We aren't getting married in New Jersey, but we are keeping the same idea.

When it came time to deciding on a wedding color palette all I heard was crickets. Have you seen my house? I love neutral pallets... and I've never been to a wedding where color didn't exist.

Most decisions with the wedding have come fairly easy. Picking a human being to spend my life with (I just had to find him...once I finally found him, the choice to marry him was easy), choosing a dress, bridesmaid dresses, venue, flowers, menu, etc. All of that was cake. The invitations... now that was a different story.

The invitation sets the tone for what your guests expect.

Oh how hard it was to find an invitation that is casually elegant (not rustic, or glamorous, modern or shiny, or trendy and sparkly).

In fact, I never found one perfect for us.

My sister-in-law works at a Paperie in Nashville, and she's the lucky lady who had to put up with my pain-in-the-butt-ness (ya know, having an image in my head that only I can see, but I can't find it anywhere and I can't explain it well enough for her to create it). We went back and forth with emails and ideas for weeks.

Until I created a mock-up in Photoshop and sent it over. She made my creation come to life more beautifully than I could have imagined.

A custom invitation designed by myself and my sister-in-law (who I admire so much). It wasn't easy. But it turned out perfect.

I found a wreath I loved, and the quality wasn't printable. So my sister-in-law traced the image by hand and made it work. I love that personal touch. I love that she created this for us.

I never chose a color scheme. These invitations chose the palette for me.

The envelope liners are from Paper Source in Birmingham. I browsed until I found sheets of paper that felt like I could frame and hang on my walls.

I want to frame these.

I cut and glued those liners in place. Usually during the very late hours of the night.

Then I bundled each invitation set with a single piece of twine. The twine had to be pulled apart from each other because the normal bundle was too thick to send through the mail. Pulling apart the twine gave it a crimped look - which gave a little texture to the invitation.

Each envelope was hand addressed by me. Again, during really late hours of the night.

And the stamps were deliberate. I just couldn't allow hearts and wedding cakes.