Loco for Gocco

I love letterpress, but wedding budgets don’t always allow for letterpress or engraved invitations, particularly in today’s difficult economic environment.  For brides still seeking custom invitations, the Gocco (or now the Yudu!) can be an excellent, and more economical, alternative.  Some brides choose to go the DIY route, but for brides who don’t feel comfortable DIYing, there are a few invitation studios that specialize in Gocco-printed invitations.

It’s been a busy week.  I got my dream job offer, flew to DC, found an apartment, and have packed 7 fridge-sized boxes since yesterday in preparation for my big move to DC this weekend.  Although this means my fiance and I will continue our long-distance relationship for another 6 months or so before we re-evaluate our next move, NYC (where he lives) is a lot closer to DC than Africa was (where I was living last year).

I love, love invitations that incorporate hand-lettering or illustration, particularly the work of Florida-based illustrator Anna Melcon Bond of Rifle Design.  Anna seems to effortlessly blend traditional illustration with folk art elements to create some of the most lovely Save the Dates and wedding invitations.

Throughout the planning process, I mentioned before that I wanted to stay sane and delegate where I could.  That included finding a florist who I trusted to do just about whatever she wanted, letting my parents be in charge of the catering and the alcohol, and letting my bridesmaids choose much of their own outfits.  However there was one thing I couldn’t let go of – I wanted to make the invitations and other stationery myself.  Naturally, that began with Save the Dates.

Last week was all about invitations, but this week I thought I’d focus on Save the Dates – an important part of any wedding planning process and one of my favorite wedding stationery elements.

As promised, here are a few more of our favorite DIY details from our wedding. As I mentioned yesterday, going the DIY route was a great way to personalize our wedding. Menus, programs, and custom coasters aren’t new ideas for a wedding, but because my husband and I were able to do them ourselves, each one of these details helped to make our wedding a true reflection of us as a couple.

One area where we decided we could save money was in all of the print materials. I had a pretty specific idea of how I wanted the final invitations to look and knew we could create a simple look on our own.

After the church and reception venue were booked and the date was set, it was time to think about our Save the Dates.  Matt and I were talking one night and decided that we wanted to create a map chronicling the paths we each took to find each other and where we are now.  We both went off to college, moved across the country after graduation, and met as two midwestern kids in NYC before getting engaged and moving to Memphis. And now we were planning a wedding in Louisville. Whew.  It wears me out to just write it.  I mentioned our idea on Pretty Bride and soon Laura Hooper came to the rescue.

In November EAD held a DIY contest, and E. encouraged me to enter my invitations, still in progress. Oh sure, I said, If I finish them soon! E., I totally did not finish them soon. Ladies- (And gentlemen? If you include DJ and one brother) I finished printing the maps on July 17, the night before we mailed them. Expert procrastinator. Hey E., can I enter now??

The past week or so has been a sort of unintentional woodgrain week over at Oh So Beautiful Paper – all starting with these DIY woodgrain save the dates.  Although woodgrain (also referred to as faux bois) has been popping up in weddings over the past few years, it really seems to be picking up steam as a trend – particularly in wedding stationery – this year.

I’m sure you’ve all been on the edges of your computer chairs waiting to see our final invitations! Well, I hate to disappoint, but they’re not quite ready for prime time. To be honest, Nick and I have had little time to work on them lately, what with showers and parties.

How do girls getting married in just over a month spend their weekend? Crafting, of course! I’ve been working on a lot of easy but time consuming projects this weekend. Table name signs, escort cards, M’s wedding gift, and a mock up of our ceremony programs so I can start trimming down the stock for the covers and laying out pages in InDesign. Am I the only one who gets really really excited to see something working out as planned? Consider me really excited right now. I’m in love with how this mock up program turned out!

Last we chatted I told you about my reluctance to take the Gocco out of its perfectly packed box. But it had to be done. So I spent many hours reading tips on Weddingbee and right here on EAD. I watched videos on YouTube, and I found a very detailed tutorial on Flickr.

Last Friday I traveled to my parents’ house with a Gocco, a Xyron, an embosser, 8 lbs. of paper, and a whole lot of anticipation!

While invitations are undoubtedly the most important element of a wedding stationery suite, it’s equally as important to not forget about other wedding paper ephemera – like seating cards!  Whether place cards or escort cards*, seating cards can help carry design elements from your invitation suite or wedding theme through to the reception and create a cohesive wedding style.  Here are a few of my favorite seating card options:

Cyd and Nole were both in a Gocco mood today so I thought I’d join in!  Angelique created these absolutely fabulous Gocco save the dates – she printed on wood laminate cards and encased them in gorgeous fabric pouches.

While I love browsing the wedding collections of stationers and invitation studios, one of my absolute favorite things to do is to feature real invitations – particularly custom and diy invitations.  I just love seeing the way that real couples and designers work together to produce an invitation design that represents the bride and groom as a couple and suits their unique wedding style.  Today, I want to share this lovely custom invitation suite from Paperwink – both because of its beautiful design and the lovely meaning behind the invitations:

I absolutely adore the recent trend of using silhouettes as design inspiration in weddings.  Whether incorporated as a small design detail or the inspiration for the overall wedding theme, silhouettes can be easily integrated into many wedding details, from the Save the Dates to the favors.  I’ve collected a few of my favorite silhouette designs here to help provide some design inspiration.

Hi Everyone!  I am so, so happy to be back blogging here at EAD – and I just want to start off with a huge “thank you!” to Ami and Rebekah for inviting me to join them as a weekly columnist for the EAD Wedding Blog.

As I may have mentioned before, M is an English teacher and I an avid lover of books and literature. This common ground proved to be one of the first things we truly bonded over as I made it my goal in life to prove to the English teacher that I, a mere mortal, was actually more well read than he. It took some time and some effort, but he finally relented that my years as a bookworm as a kid while he was honing his pitching skills on the baseball field did, in fact, make my book collection far vaster than his. Luckily for me, his ego was able to handle it and we’ve been trading books back and forth ever since.