Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK.
THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence… on her parent’s 36th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!) (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags — it’s #dropitlikeitshart !
Choosing our wedding stationery
In September 2016 I had been to the bridal show with one of my bridesmaids, looking for invitation inspiration. I think it is a good way to speak to vendors and get sample packs, and also to look at what the brands are specialist in, there are so many different categories and styles available on offer, and I found it really good to see the stationery in real life.
I had already used Papier for our engagement party invitations. Which were great quality and also allow you to do a mix of printed and online. They offer such a huge variety of styles, and you can personalise them to suit you. They are also really affordable! They suited the need for our engagement party but we decided against them for the wedding, as we wanted to go for something bespoke for our wedding stationery.
Knowing that I wanted the calligraphy feel, I actually designed our save the dates myself. I downloaded a lot of calligraphy and handwriting fonts on dafont.com. And created them in a Word document and got them printed with Vistaprint. I was lucky that I tested them out before ordering nearly 200 copies, as they originally came out blurred (!). Which then followed with me on a live chat with Vistaprint for over two hours to try and remedy this, luckily they refunded my original order, and actually sent my complete order out for free! It sometimes pays to complain!
Looking for inspiration
For our wedding stationery, I then started looking at real weddings on Style Me Pretty and Bridal Musings that were in Italy, for inspiration. There are so many great wedding blogs, including Smashing The Glass which are really useful for suggestions and just some much needed inspiration when you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the choices. Also Instagram was great for me, I looked up calligraphers in London who purely specialise in this.
So with all my findings I chose my top 9 images that I thought would really go with our wedding, from Pinterest, and put them onto a mood board. Just so it showed a real theme. I can’t recommend this enough as it narrows down from a huge selection that Pinterest provides.
Oh Wonder…
I had been following Oh Wonder Calligraphy for a long time on Instagram. Not only is she a sausage dog owner (love!), she also creates the most romantic feeling stationery. Her Instagram images dominate my boards. So I went on her website, filled in her bespoke calligraphy form. She is the ultimate girl boss and is a one man calligraphy band! She instantly sent over her standard pricing for the wedding and the on the day. I sent over my mood board, and had a mini fan girl moment speaking to her on the phone. We had an initial phone consultation discussing all things stationery and wedding, it felt so right to go with her to do our wedding stationery.
Lauren also introduced me to Trello, which is an online list and organisation system. It is a dream for any list makers out there! I can’t recommend her more, and look forward to working with her next year to create our stationery.
Useful tips
For anyone who is currently looking for their wedding stationery. Just some helpful tips:
Make sure before you contact stationers you know the specifics of what you want. There is so much on the day stationery that you can have!
Add on at least 10% extra invites onto your total guests, just in case!
Click here to read all Charlotte’s planning posts to date.
Charlotte & James’ Wedding Vendors booked so far:
Venue – The Brewery
Photographer – Adam and Hannah
Videographer – AT Motion
Caterer – Tony Page
Florist — Funky Flowers
Band and production – Creation Showband
Toastmaster – Steven Warwick
Hair – Gemma Harris
Bride’s dress – Pronovias
Stationery – Oh Wonder Calligraphy
