Swirls, Squiggles and Curls

I have an ever growing obsession with paper, pretty paper too. It started years ago during a trip to a bookstore. Whenever I go to places like Papyrus, I can barely contain myself. I want to grab everything and stuff it in my hand bag. Yes, I admit, I have a serious obsession with pretty paper. And getting married, sure isn't helping my problem. I had a comfortable box of pretty cards, paper and other nic nacs, now, I had to purchase another box to hold my new stuff.

Along with this obsession, it's quite simple to also be increasingly attracted to the art of writing, not the creative aspect but placing the words on your pretty paper. Even the embellishments of paper becomes attractive, the printing processes. My favourite - if I could ever afford it would be letter press.

For the invitations I wanted to try to learn an additional skill to compliment my obsession – calligraphy. I found a calligraphy set for only $35. I looked at it as an investment. There is life after the wedding and I do plan to continue with all the “finer” things you learn when planning a wedding.


Here's the kit I bought.

Unfortunately though, after a few minutes my hand began to hurt so much from just holding the pen firmly, I had to take a break. I made a second attempt but later just decided to take my time and write “nicely”. I was absolutely against printing labels for the names of the invitees so I buckled down and got to writing. It really didn’t take that long and on occasions; I was able to insert some of the fancy swirls, squiggles and curls I learned during my miniature calligraphy course.

The new Martha...

While visiting my mother in Georgia, I had the chance to work on the great invitations. I loved envelopments and wanted to have the elegance and modernity of the style of invitations. I got a number of quotes ranging from $850 to $1200. Me being me, I found it hard to pay that much for invitations. And yes I know how important the invitations are, but I wanted to spend that kind of money elsewhere.

I’m enjoying that I am learning to do a lot more things than and gaining a lot more knowledge in planning my wedding. Plus; I consider myself a Martha Stewart in training so I perked up at the thought of the challenge. So guess what I did. I went online, googled like CRAZY, and finally found a few really good envelopments websites, selling blank envelopments. Good sites are www.mygatsby.com, and www.renaissancewritings.com, as well as a host of others. I settled on the style of invitation I wanted and went about finding ways to reduce my costs.

After finding great paper, a sharp paper cutter, glue and a few embellishments my family and I buckled down and began working away at the invitations. On my trusty Mac, I designed the invitations and inserts and used a simple home printer and painstakingly printed the invitations page by page. Thankfully, they came out great! Importantly, it’s exactly what I wanted. Thought I had some wastage, my invitations actually came out to $3 per invitation versus, get this, $9 per invite. If that’s not a good deal, I’m lost!

Here’s how it all turned out.