A Candied Invitation: Part I

Whelp, I figure it is just about time to do the big Candy Apple invite reveal. Would you like that, Hive? Would you like to see our invites? Well, too bad if you wouldn't like to - you have a lot of pictures coming your way! And let me tell you: I can't wait to share!

First off, I just wanted to point out that, yes, we did indeed use an invisible ink pen to covertly number our RSVP cards. Unfortunately (ahem, I mean fortunately), we did not have to resort to breaking it out, as everyone either wrote their names on the RSVP card, or at least had a return address label on the envelope. I was a bit bummed that I couldn't put my sleuthing to use, since I spent so freaking long labeling all of those cards with the invisible ink, but oh well.

Okay, on to the goods! Like many (many, many, many, many, many, many) Bees before me, Mr. CA and I worked with the incredibly fabulous and talented Kristin Walker of Twin Ravens Press. I honestly don't recall where I first saw her work - I believe it was in a post by Mrs. Panther? I just remember checking out her site and immediately feeling a connection to her work. Her letterpressing was just beautiful, and she seemed to take such pride in what she does.

Just a little aside here, guys, but seriously, Kristin is amazing. Hire her immediately. She took my silhouettes and some vague ideas I had and somehow churned out a perfect, elegant, and classic stationary suite. And she did all that with a broken hand. Yes, I love her. Period.

Anyway. Like other brides and Bees, I insisted on using baker's twine with our invitations (we went with Whisker Graphics in Plum Purple and Oyster).

I was a bit worried about how much I would need, so I ordered three spools of 240 yards each. Yeah, I definitely only used about 3/4 of one spool for 100 invitations. Oops? Once again, Candy Apple over-orders. Oh well. I am, again, glad that I had too much than too little! Plus, it means I can maybe sneak some in to other decor elements.

I started out by measuring one length of string to fit around the invitations twice, with a knot, and then painstakingly lining up that "template" length as I unrolled the spool, cutting each strand with scissors. Mr. CA really sped things up when he set up some weird, Saw-like contraption to unwind the twine more smoothly and cut it more quickly. Yes, he did tape an exacto knife to our chair. Yes, I was paranoid we would stab ourselves. Yes, I made him stay away from the room until I was finished. Do not try this at home folks! Actually, maybe you should - it made the cutting go so much more quickly!

The cut twine. So pretty! After that was all cut and laid out all pretty-like and untangled on the back of my chair, it was time to punch some heart holes into our Moo Cards, to string the twine through. Because, you know, I like hearts. They kind of go with the whole 'love' thing that weddings are all about.

Can I just say that this part freakin' sucked? You see, the first heart punch I bought was broken - it was totally sticking when I squeezed it together to punch through the card. I had to manually pull the prongs apart each time! So ridiculous. I thought (stupid CA!!) that was just how the punch was, and that I was wimpy, so I somehow got through quite a few cards before my manual pulling-apart of the prongs literally broke the thing in two. So dumb.

I drove to Michael's and bought another one (looking super pissy and sweaty and like a mad woman, might I add). The second one worked perfectly!! It was so smooth punching through the cards; I can't believe I thought the first one was okay. Moral of the story: if your punch feels weird when you're using it, return it and get another one.

 At least I got an arm workout

 

But the hearts turned out super cute, so it was alllll worth it

 A punch from the "first" batch. Yeah, there were some dents from the crappy punch. Oh well.

And the back of the Moo cards. Again. Because I love them. 

Honestly, I wasn't too concerned about finding a coordinating stamp for our invitations. However, as I was checking out the USPS site for stamps, I happened upon these Holiday Evergreen Stamps that looked impeccable with the suite. I am pretty sure they were made specifically for our invitations. Aren't they perfect? Not only are the colors complementary, but Washington (where we're getting married) is the Evergreen State. Get it? Evergreen stamps, for the Evergreen State? Har har har.

 Oh, and did I mention that we had the amazing Michele, of Calligraphy by Michele, do some lovely work on our envelopes? Not only was her work seriously gorgeous, she was also really affordable. She was also really fast; she turned around our envelopes within a day of receiving them. What a vendor!

I am so pleased with the result - I think the lovely loops and swirls gave the invitations just the right touch. And I love the white font against the sage-y green of the envelopes. It pains me to have to blur any of her delicate work!

I honestly was so in love with the calligraphy that I didn't want to send the envelopes out. Michele did such an amazing job! I wanted to keep them all to myself. So, I just ended up taking a picture of, oh, every single envelope. Well, almost. Until Mr. CA demanded that I stop being a crazy person. Hey, I paid for that calligraphy! I wanted to be able to remember it...

But seriously - they are pretty. We received so many compliments on the calligraphy, and the invitations in general!

Those puppies were ready to go! Um, and I'll say it again - I love the beautiful, perfect stamps. Also, can I just say that these stamps re-taught me how to tell the difference between different types of evergreens?? Learn something new every day...

Detritus. Apparently our twine-cutting device wasn't as accurate as using my scissors. Oh well.

Okay, okay - I'll give you a sneak peek of the invites themselves...

Can you tell that I love these invites? It was hard sending them out into the world.

Oh who am I kidding - they were all ready to go! This was a good day...

Next up: the invitations themselves! I know you're excited.

Did you use the invisible ink pen, only to end up not actually using it? Anyone else have issues with their hole punch? Did you choose coordinating stamps for your invitations? Did they help you learn anything while you were stamping your envelopes Any other fellow baker's twine lovers? Calligraphy fiends? And, seriously, how cute is that little heart punch??

Invitation Design and Printing: Twin Ravens Press
Calligraphy: Calligraphy by Michele
Heart Punch: Fiskars Hand Punch - 1/4-in Heart, from Michael's
Baker's Twine: Divine Twine, from Whisker Graphics
Stamps: Holiday Evergreens (Forever) stamps, from USPS
Mini Cards: Moo Cards
Silhouettes: Blue Clara

You + Me = 2 Silhouettes in a Pear Tree

Ideas in-hand, I sat down for a conversation with Mr. CA regarding my idea for using silhouettes on our invitations. Nervous. Hopeful. Ready for a Wild West style showdown in case he didn't like the idea. Miraculously, I got the green light from him to proceed with the concept. Yes!! Admittedly, we were a bit worried that plastering silhouettes of ourselves all over our wedding stationary might seem slightly vain, but in the end we decided that we wanted our wedding to be as personal as possible, and the silhouettes would give them that little special personalization that I wanted. Plus, they just look cool.

After receiving a tip towards BlueClara on Etsy (I love the Hive!), I went and checked out her Etsy store. It was love at first sight! Her silhouettes are awesome - very clean and well-done. I love that she gives you different options: full body or just heads, digital or print. What a great steer!

I immediately placed an order with the shop about doing our silhouettes, and then attempted to take the side profile pictures that were required for them to do our silhouettes. Um, why was this so difficult?? Someone please explain.

Having looked at quite a few silhouettes on various invitations, I had a very clear vision of how I wanted the silhouettes to look. For some reason, though, we just couldn't get the camera angle right! Every shot turned out super weird, and either 1. made my chin look both nonexistant and with double-chins at the same time (how is that possible??), 2. made my hair look/ whispy/ flat/ weird, or 3. the angle just wasn't right for a silhouette.

We finally got one of each of us that we were semi-okay with. And by semi-okay, I mean it didn't make me look like I have 12 chins and an over-bite.

So we finally had our shots. They looked pretty shabby (at least mine did. Mr. CA is way too photogenic), and weren't quite what I was expecting or wanting. Dang it - why did I decide to do this again, and why had I already paid for the listing on Etsy? I hoped beyond hope that our silhouettes might turn out semi-decent. Maybe. I wasn't expecting much, though.

I sent the pictures off to Jamie (with the requests "please smooth my ponytail, and that tuft of hair on Mr. CA's head that's sticking up." I am incredibly eloquent and clear, let me tell you), and she told me that she had a few jobs ahead of me, and would get proofs to us in a few days. Guys, let me tell you - this was one part of the wedding process that could not have been easier or smoother or faster. We sent her the profile pictures on the same Saturday we placed the order, and she got the silhouettes to me on Sunday. Um, yes. Sunday as in the next day. Speedy speedy!

I would like to say that Jamie is absolutely amazing. I could not sing her praises enough (and no, she did not pay me to write this. I just love her and her work). She was super fast, and guess what? Super good at what she does. Honestly, she worked magic with the crappy profile shots I sent her. I was absolutely blown away by our silhouettes, and couldn't stop staring at them for a month. Oh, who am I kidding - I still stare at them.

Jamie sent the files as PDFs - two solo shots, and one with the two of us facing each other. I of course was a big, demanding jerk and asked her for the files as high-res JPegs, and she happily sent those along as well. Have I mentioned how much I love her?

{BlueClara, on Etsy}

Yes. They are amazing. I am in love with them. If that is vain, then call me vain. I don't care. They rock. Jamie made us look super-awesome and elegant in our silhouettes, and I was incredibly excited to work them into our invitations.

I think one of the best parts about using silhouettes is that they look really neat, but they are also you. They capture you and your SO (or whoever) at that moment in time, in a classy, timeless way. I think they work really well when integrated into wedding themes and decor, but you could also do something like this for a birthday, anniversary, pictures of your children, etc. Endless possibilities, really! Basically, silhouettes rock. The end.

Once I had the silhouettes, I had no excuse to put off the invites any longer!

Did you work silhouettes into your wedding invitations? Did you attempt to do them yourself, or did you have someone else take care of them? Did you work with the amazing BlueClara as well? (If not, you should. Seriously.)

Inspiring the Invitations, Part II

I mentioned in my last post that I went through a brief invitation hiatus after Mr. CA and I made the decision that Rifle Paper Co.'s invitations were out of the running. However, I did bounce back eventually - mainly out of necessity, as we were getting closer and closer to the wedding, and I had no idea what to do about invitations! So, I moved on, and found lots and lots of invitation inspiration.

Want to take a peek? My first light-bulb "aha!!" moment came through a site that I visit every day. Etsy. Curious?

{Etsy}

Yep, that's right. It's the default avatar for Etsy accounts. It makes me smile every time I log in - I haven't had the heart to change it to an actual picture of me. I actually filed this inspiration away in my mind long before our wedding invitations came up - I knew that I loved silhouettes, and the whole old-world feel that I got from them. However, I was not sure exactly how they could fit into our wedding until I ran across this beautiful image:

{Sarah Rhodes Photography, from the wedding of our very own Hive Hostess, the lovely Jackie-O}

Another "aha!!" Beautiful, fun silhouettes offered the personalized aspect that I so loved, but they were a bit more formal and elegant than the custom, folksy drawings that I had been coveting. So I dug some more into the internets and found oodles of inspiration.

{Posh-Paperie}

{Mr. Boddington's Studio}

{Both above images: Invitations by Quill and Fox, Photo by Rebekah Johnson Photography, via Style Me Pretty Gallery}

{Amy Atlas Events}

{Sway Space}

{Twin Ravens Press}

{Hum Creative}

{Anticipate Invitations}

{Laura Macchia}

I absolutely loved the silhouttes. They were beautiful, and old-fashioned looking - very Victorian-esque, which, I suppose, is a vibe that I am going for with our wedding. (I mean, they did lots of silhouettes, didn't they? Cameos and such? Maybe?) They just scream "classy elegant" to me. But, while they give that more vintage, classic, old-timey feel, they also allow for the option of incorporating more modern typefaces and design elements, to give it that little punch of fun. Win win, I say!

The only problems were - how the heck would I go about getting some sort of custom-silhouette work done? And would we be able to afford something along these lines? And, lastly - would Mr. CA approve?

Anyone else find themselves pulled toward the custom portrait or silhouette designs?

Inspiring the Invitations, Part I

As I may have mentioned in the past, I love paper products. Fonts, paper weight, colors, design - I love it all. It's probably a good thing that I ended up in publishing, where I get to immerse myself in beautiful lovely books every day. End papers! Cover designs! Love.

{Calligraphy by Love, Jenna; Invites by Swiss Cottage Designs}

So, I knew that the invitations would be a high point for our wedding. They set the tone, the colors, the feel of the day, with their scrumptious typefaces and delicious paper textures. I couldn't wait to jump in and get my hands dirty!

{Karin Soukup}

This little booklet is quite possibly the most exquisite invitation I have ever seen. Ever. So incredibly gorgeous - it really is a work of art. And I love the old-timey feel of the botanical images.

However, as much as I love paper products, I am not exactly a DIM type of gal. I don't even own Photoshop, for pete's sake! I work in Editorial, not Production, and although I like to pretend I have a good eye towards design, I have never actually taken any sort of design classes. So. I decided right off the bat that I wouldn't let something as big as our wedding invitations ride on my shoddy-at-best design skills.

I did, however, have loads of fun doing "research" for our invitations. Don't you love how you can spend hours trawling through wedding blogs, wasting oodles of time staring at pictures of bouquets and invitations and table numbers, and call it research? Appreciate this time in your life, guys and gals.

{The Indigo Bunting}

Anyway, as I was doing my "research," my inspiration started to coalesce into a fairly firm idea of what I wanted for our invites.

Let me just say right off the bat that I really, really wanted to have our invites done by the lovely and talented Anna Bond, at Rifle Paper Co. She is amazing, and her work is just gorgeous. It was exactly the type of style and feel that we were going for with our wedding. I even bought a custom portrait of Mr. CA and me through Rifle to include at our wedding. However, the invites were just too far out of our price range - even the more standard (non-customized) lines. We had a lot of back and forth about various options (they are SO great about trying to work within your budget, and with customizing things), but I ultimately decided that, although I wanted amazing invitations, I simply could not justify the cost for something that people will just toss. I mean, I know my mom and maybe one or two other guests will keep theirs, but still. Most will toss them in the recycling. Let's be honest here, people.

{Rifle Paper Co.}

And, sadly enough, Mr. CA was also not a huge fan of the big florals in their designs (which I am obsessed with. He's insane). So, that was a no-go.

I did, however, take away from their lovely designs a love for personalized portraits, cute animals, sleek designs, and beautiful typefaces. Their hand-lettering is just divine - if they put it on a font website for a million dollars, I might consider purchasing. Seriously. It's that pretty.  

{Rifle Paper Co.}

Mr. CA also thought that the Rifle invitations looked a bit less formal than he wanted for our invites. Although I loved their designs, I did agree with him - they have certainly nailed the whimsical, folksy designs. I do love them, but yes, I agreed that we needed something a bit more classic, and slightly more formal. Just slightly.

So, I moved on. Since I had my heart set on the Rifle invitations for so long, I sort of put invites out of my mind for a while. Let's call it a brief mourning period.

Did you fall in love with invitation designs, or anything else wedding-related for that matter, only to determine that it was out of your budget? Are you still at peace with that decision, as I am?

What sorts of inspiration drove your invitations? Did you DIY, or throw up your hands and just say no?

Top That

I am having some real issues figuring out how I want to top our cake. I just cannot decide what look I want to go with - figurines, or pennants? Or, something else entirely? There are entirely too many options!

To give you a sense of how what the topper will be placed on, we decided to go with the multiple cake rounds look, rather than cupcakes. They will have floral decoration on them, because I need flowers on everything, but I do want some sort of cake topper to go one one of the cakes.

{Photo by Greg Blomberg Photography/ Cakes by Sugar Bee Sweets/ Floral Design by Bows and Arrows/ Via Style Me Pretty}

I just am having trouble figuring out what, exactly, that topper should be. A little help?

Pennants/ Bunting
First, could someone please explain the difference between pennants and bunting? I think they're the same thing (or, at least, a bunting is made of little pennants??), but could be totally misusing those terms. Kthanks.

{Flag Banner Cake Topper by TheDaintyWoods, via Etsy}

I fell in love with the below little numbers after finding KiKiLaRue on Etsy. That was way back in the day when Etsy was still a semi-new site (it was to me), at least, and wedding planning was just a distant nightmare. Ahem, I mean dream.

They are just so different (well, they were when I first found them! Ha), fun, and definitely a step away from your typical cake topper figurines. Plus, I think they would look really great with the whole multiple-cakes-on-pretty-stands look. They also give me a bit more of a Victorian, turn-of-the-century vibe - they had lots of bunting and flags back then, right?

{Maddi Cake Bunting by KiKiLaRue, via Etsy}

{Pretty detail, again from KiKiLaRue, via Etsy}

I also think this would be a cool way to go, because I think I could (maybe? possibly?) do this myself. Or not. I don't think I could ever get it to look as pretty as hers. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not the most crafty of Bees.

{Brianna Cake Bunting by KiKiLaRue, via Etsy}

Pros: Victorian-esque (although I think this may just be in my little brain). Should be simple enough for me to DIM (do it myself). Key words = "should be."

Cons: Too child-like/ not fancy enough? And, doesn't exactly scream "cake topper" to me (although that might be a good thing).

Also, just to note that KiKiLaRue is currently on maternity leave, so who knows when she'll be back! In case you had your heart set on one of her buntings specifically.

Wooden Likenesses

This was actually my front-runner when I started the whole planning process she-bang, because I found the fabulousness of GooseGrease somehow when I first joined Etsy. I love the style of these figures, and wanted to buy a bunch of cute ornaments in our likeness, but Mr. CA thought that would be weird since we were only dating at the time. So, I just filed the site away as a favorite, vowing to come back and visit once I was engaged and in need of a cake topper.

{Custom Cake Topper by GooseGrease, via Etsy}

{Custom Cake Topper by GooseGrease, via Etsy}

I also like this idea because after the wedding, I would screw in some hoops that would instantly create beautiful Christmas ornaments. Presto! Wedding keepsake and Christmas decor in one! Awesome.

Plus, I just love the style of the GooseGrease toppers. I think they are super cute. Mr. CA doesn't like that the eyes are on the side of their heads, though. 

There are also tons of non-Goosegrease versions out there. I particularly like these:

 {Custom Wooden Star House Cake Toppers by urastarhouse, via Etsy}

{Custom Cake Topper by lollipopworkshop, via Etsy}

Pros: Totally adorable, and (in theory) unique, because they are very customizable - different hair color, lengths, dresses, suits, genders. The possibilities are endless! There are also semi-custom options, which are cheaper. Also, could turn into a Christmas tree ornament.

Cons: Pretty pricey, even with the semi-custom option. The completely custom option is super pricey. Some of the custom work can take around 4 months, which, ahem, I don't have at this point. (Oops. Candy Apple fail.) Also, I feel like everyone is doing this type of topper these days. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you want something completely unique, this might not be the route you want.

Other

There are lots of other cute little figures, animals, paper products, etc that would work well on top of a cake. Really, the possibilities are endless. Use your imagination! (Because obviously, I don't have one)

{From Cotton Bird Designs, via Etsy}

{Photo by Electic Images Photography, via Style Me Pretty}

 

{Custom Silhouette Cake Topper by silhouetteweddings, via Etsy}

{Paper Cake Topper by Concarta, via Etsy}

{Custom Cake Topper by Melabo, via Etsy}

(I am obsessed with these customized ceramic animal people. They are totally awesome. Is that weird? Perhaps. I may or may not have dreamed of being a mythological creature with the head of a lion and the body of an eagle when I was little. Maybe. I don't think Mr. CA will go for this, though, if he was weirded out by side-of-the-head-eyes. Animal heads might push him over the edge.)

What cake topper did you go with, if anything? Any ideas on what the Candy Apples should do? Pretty please with, um, a cake topper on top?