Stationery Stress

From the word go I knew I wanted to make my own wedding invitations. As a hobby I make cards and I work as a graphic designer. I’m very critical of my own work and have high expectations. I feel like people will also be expecting something great considering my background and I want people to be “wowed!”

I started of by searching for styles I like and came across these.



I have experimented with a few designs, I like the swirls and the wallets I can slot extra information into. So far i’m 99% sure I have the wallet and inside swirl design I like, but I’m still looking for inspiration for the outside.

I’ve used a Pearlescent A6 pocketfold wallet in “Morphing Mauve” from PDA Card & Craft and ivory pearlescent card from Staples to print the design on to.

This is the layout of the invitation

The main part of the invitation will sit at the top and the extra information such as directions and RSVP will slot into the bottom.

After 6 different designs, 3 different styles of wallets I think I may have finally found an invite I like!

I intend to place tiny flat backed pearl in between the swirls and perhaps use them on the front design as well.

Painting the city purple!

I have to confess to thinking about colours and themes before I was even engaged, I’d changed my mind about a hundred times but just before we went to Las Vegas I came across a US blog called Snippet and Ink. The writer regularly publishes inspiration boards, which focuses on one or more colours. She sources wedding related photos and creates a mosaic of ideas. I saw one called “Purple and Vine” and instantly fell in love with the colours.



The day after Has proposed we sat down by the pool, admiring the sparkles my ring was giving off in the sun, texting my friends and discussing wedding plans. I remembered the inspiration board I had seen a few months earlier and asked Has how he felt about purples. We both agreed the colours would suit the time of year we had decided to get married and the main thing was it wasn’t a “girly” colour! Secretly I think Has was worried I would suggest pink as our wedding colour!

Has and I love New York, we first went when I surprised Has with a weekend away for his 21st Birthday ever since we’ve been besotted with the place. We’ve visited a number of times over the last few years, we seem to be addicted! It is because of our love (and obsession) with New York that we have decided to place suitable links to the Big Apple in and around our wedding day.

A number of ways we hope to do this are

• Have each table named after a New York landmark, with a black and white photograph of Has and I when we visited.
  
• I ♥ NY chocolate wrappers around small Green and Blacks Squares as the favours.
• The ladies will have their chocolates presented in a handbag shaped favour box, a la Sex and the City
  
• Our centrepieces will be large martini vases filled with flowers.
  
• And of course we plan to visit New York on our Honeymoon!

As the planning has evolved we’ve picked up a few other things to be included in our theme. Not giving too much away about my dress, but that is why pearls have be introduced. We’ve also added a light sage green to lift the purple and stop it looking so flat. This will only be very subtle but enough to compliment the other colours. I have done my very own inspiration board to try and display the mood and feel of our wedding day.

I think it will be fun to do another one of these using photographs of things that will actually feature in our wedding!

Bouquets, Brooches and Birthdays

As I do most days I was trawling the internet looking at wedding websites and pictures when I came across an idea I loved! I found this picture (not sure from where though!)


The bride has accessorised her bouquet with a gorgeous brooch and I knew it was something I wanted to copy!

I wanted something with a bit of sparkle so it would catch the light but it also needed to include pearls to carry on the wedding theme. I searched for ages and ages but nothing I found really wowed me. That was until I came across Yarwood-White’s Modern Heirloom collection. Featured was a delicate pearl and diamante brooch. I swooned over this brooch for months. The only thing stopping me from clicking “add to basket” was the price tag. I tried to put it out of my head, £150 was a lot of money to spend on a brooch, wasn’t it?
As if to tease me this brooch popped up more and more in wedding magazines but I had fully accepted that it was far too much to spend and I would find a cheaper version that was just as nice…

August 28th saw my 25th birthday, as is tradition my whole family came round to sing happy birthday and watch me blow out the candles. My mom handed me a beautiful gift bag and I checked the tag “To Laura, Happy Birthday, Lots of Love Mom, Dad & Paul” I opened the bag to find a white box at the bottom wrapped in the signature Yarwood-White brown and cream ribbon “Oh you didn’t!” The brooch is even more special, even more delicate and even more beautiful in real life!

Problem now is… I just have to have the entire Modern Heirloom collection to compliment it…!