Our invites were sent out almost a full month ago, but I only got to see them in real life for the first time a little over a week ago! While I was in California for my MOH's wedding, I had my mom mail me my own copy of our wedding invite. Ladies, it's a wonderful thing to hold your wedding invitation in your hands.
I had dreamed up the idea for our invitations almost 6 months ago! I knew I wanted the prevailing theme to be fields of lavender and poppies (you could say I have a thing for France), I wanted real pressed lavender, I wanted seed paper, and I wanted it to all be bound up nice & sweet in a little book.
Because I was a bit... particular in what I wanted, I knew the process was going to take a little bit of time, especially long-distance from Chile. Truthfully, making the invitations myself had been one of the things I desperately wanted to do. I wanted to press the flowers myself, I wanted to learn how to screen-print, and I wanted to try my hand at design. At some point I came to the realization that wouldn't be possible from South America - I couldn't get the supplies in time, I didn't have the equipment (or the resources) to learn new skills, and both US and Chilean customs are a little iffy on importing biological products.
With all this on my mind, I turned to a designer in Eugene, OR who's still fairly new in the invitation making & letterpress business. Since I would no longer be supporting local artists in Chile with my invite project, I wanted to support artists local to the Portland/Eugene area. Kristin Walker of Twin Ravens Press was very accommodating to both my budget, design wishes, and eco-conscious wishes. I wasn't very familiar with contracting the design and printing of invitations for a wedding (who is, before they get engaged??), and there are a lot of things I wish someone had told me about the process beforehand. I'll give you guys a list of the tips & tricks I learned along the way in a future post, including the steps in the design of the invite!
We had Kristin letterpress a single lavender sprig with our return address on the flap of our Waste-Not cream envelopes.

When you open the envelope you see that someone's sent you a whole BOOK of an invitation! :)


The book is bound in hand-made Nepalese Lotka paper - 100% tree-free and it feels almost like leather! Kristin found a local supplier of lavender for the pressed flower on the front of the book.


Our ideal of love is sitting together in a meadow,
the last rays of daylight fading beyond the horizon
as we look into each others eyes
-- and feel in one moment --
the soft breeze of the summer wind
-- and the next --
the first prick of the coming autumn,
causing us to nestle together for a little extra warmth.
We wanted this poem to help our guests to feel the emotion in the changing of the seasons with our nuptials - since our wedding will be 2 days before the equinox, the astronomical equality and changing of the seasons are going to play a significant role in our ceremony.













Mr. Bear Cub was also admittedly skeptical about having our invitations made - originally he wanted to just send emails to everyone. While this would definitely be the most economical and ecological option, I really wanted to have a solid invitation to our wedding, I wanted something I could hold in my hands. My mom framed my parent's wedding invitation; I remember looking at it as a kid, and thinking that she must have been so happy to send her invites to her family and friends for her wedding day.
I now understand that feeling, and I can't wait to show my children our framed invitation one day.
I usually wait till stuff pops over on Weddingbee to comment.. but I can't wait. This are incredible, and among the most beautiful invites I have ever seen. Wow! The details and letterpressing take my breathe away.
ReplyDeletewow those turned out realllly nice! love the pressed lavendar
ReplyDeleteYAY, you got your maps! I remember when you showed me those and you really wanted them. They are so cute, I can't wait to see the full post on them!
ReplyDeleteI love these lavender invites. I am having a lavender themed wedding and am in search for someone to make my lavender invites for me. Can you help?
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