Ever since I was a little girl, I had visions of my wedding stationery suite in my head. I was dithering between letterpress or engraved, but one thing was certain, my wedding stationery suite was going to be very clean and classic. That was then and this is now. Believe it or not, I ended up with a wedding stationery suite I never envisioned, but I fell in love with nonetheless.   Bespoke wedding stationery.  I’d never heard of bespoke wedding stationery until I received a bespoke wedding invitation to my friend V’s wedding.  At the time, I didn’t know that the invitation was a “bespoke” invitation, I just knew that it was stunning. I’d never seen a wedding invitation like it before.  But, I quickly learned about the world of bespoke wedding invitations and in particular those created by Ananya.  I threw all caution to the wind (and budget too!) and quickly became ensconced in the world of bespoke wedding stationery – as you can see below.

Vaishali Shah, the creative force behind the bespoke wedding invitation line Ananya, took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to talk with Wedding STYLE by Kalyn Johnson about her bespoke wedding stationery line.

Wedding STYLE by Kalyn Johnson: What is bespoke wedding stationery?

Vaishali Shah: Bespoke wedding stationery is designed specifically for you and embodies those elements of your wedding that are most important to you. It makes a personal statement about you as a couple and is as individual as you are.  You are free to let your imagination soar while our creative team takes on the challenge of bringing your vision to fruition. We incorporate all the facets such as colors, patterns, textures, card stock and embellishments that will have the ‘wow’ factor you’re looking for. If you are having a cross cultural wedding, we can highlight elements from both cultures, something that would be limited with off-the-shelf stationery. If you would prefer us to come up with suggestions, we would be happy to put our talent to work and create a design you will love. Once the invitations have been designed, we would then repeat the 
same theme in all the wedding stationery including thank you cards, place cards, menus, table numbers and order of service, to maintain consistency. Should you require it, we would also be pleased to offer guidance on other related aspects such as wording, etiquette and timing.

WSKJ: How do you ensure that no two sets of Ananya invitations look alike?

VS: Although our exotic signature style which clients love will be reflected in our work, we assure our clients at the outset that each invitation is individual and specific to them. During the all important initial consultation, couples are shown our portfolio of designs as reference only. Each client will naturally have preferences in terms of style, color, patterns and card stock as well as requirements that may be specific to their culture (in the case of a multi cultural wedding). Our aim during the consultation is to extract those elements and preferences that make a statement about you. We then assign a designer from our team that we feel will best represent your requirements. In addition, there is a multitude of fonts and size options to tap into, as well as choice of motifs such as flowers, patterns and borders.

WSKJ: What kind of bride is looking to have bespoke wedding invitations designed?

VS: Our typical bride is someone who wants her wedding to stand out and is looking for the ‘wow’ factor. She understands the importance of the invitation as the crucial initial step in setting the tone for the entire wedding and a sense of anticipation in the mind of the invitee. She therefore places a high value on the stationery as a first glimpse that captures the theme, quality and elegance invitees can look forward to at the wedding.  She is willing to allocate an adequate amount of the total wedding budget to the stationery to ensure the invitations reflect as high a quality as all the other aspects of the wedding. This will ensure that the invitations can be tailor made and incorporate components that are essential to the couple. In the case of multicultural marriages, it is difficult for off the shelf invitations to offer the bride any choice in terms of fusing elements of different cultures.

WSKJ: What does your design process consist of?  How closely do you work with the bride and groom? How long does your design process take from start to finish?

VS: There are five main steps to the design process:

1. Establish criteria of the project:
This stage involves understanding your design requirements and determining timelines and fees involved.

2. Exploration of the design possibilities:
At this step, we will explore the design possibilities for your wedding stationery, and present the first round.

3. Refine the design:
Once you confirm which design direction you would like to go with from stage 2, we will continue to edit the invitation and stationery with the design and text edits.

4. Production of the invitation stationery:
As stage 3 is completed, our designs become tangible! Print co-ordination with printers begins after sending you a production estimate and getting it approved by you. Proofs can be made for your approval before the final quantity is printed.

5. Delivery of the wedding stationery:
The entire package is delivered to you, and you are ready to enjoy your wedding invitations and stationery! We work very closely with our clients both through face to face meetings and emails. Clients know that we are available to them and we respond quickly to their questions or comments. We like to meet a client ideally 3-4 months before the wedding invitations need to be sent out, to allow enough time for the design process, proof, print quotes etc. However, we try to accommodate clients who have shorter timelines.

WSKJ: Your company is based in London and your printers are in India. Do you work with brides across the pond?

VS: Yes, we have many international clients. Modern technology allows us to communicate and design for clients regardless of where they are in the world. With Skype, we are able to communicate with our clients. The webcam adds a personal touch as well as getting a feel for each other where in person consultations are not possible. There is, of course, communication via email and the telephone, as needed. As you know Kalyn, we never met you but still created your bespoke stationery through emails and phone calls! We have printers both in India and in the UK. For those clients who either need much smaller quantities of invitations or who have much shorter timelines, we use our UK printers.  In fact, we are in the process of expanding our invitation design service to the US and UAE, in particular.

WSKJ: Can you give us a ballpark estimate of how much a bespoke bridal wedding stationery suite might cost?

VS: Our bespoke wedding invitation design costs £550 or approximately US$825 (at current exchange rates). Printing is an additional fee which is dependent upon variables including the quantity, paper choice, printing technique required. To give an idea, you would be looking at a range of £4 to £8 per invitation set, or US$6 to US$12. We will always advise you on printing costs and processes and ways to reduce costs. For example, we often suggest to clients to order more envelope stickers so that they can also be used to personalise favours. For additional complementary stationery items such as place cards, escort cards, thank you cards, order of service, menus, table numbers etc, we would estimate another £1000 or US$1500.

WSKJ: In your opinion as a graphic designer, do you think a Save the Date or a wedding invitation set the tone for a wedding?

VS: Most definitely! This is the first peek your invitee will get into your wedding. It conjours up in their minds an idea of what is to come. What do you want the Save the Date or wedding invitation to convey about you and what can invitees look forward to?  Some of our clients have loved the cards so much they have framed them! They make great keepsakes and are wonderful to look back on and re-live those precious memories and share them with your children in the future.

WSKJ: What is Ananya known for? Or, what do you want people to think about when they see your work?

VS: The name Ananya means ‘without equal’. It inspires us to live up to the name and vision. To that end, we are constantly striving to keep improving and innovating.  Our clients have told us that they love our style, that Ananya exudes exotic elegance, sophistication and high quality. They say we offer something that is very different and truly reflects who they are. Many of our clients are multicultural and they feel the invitations respect the values and traditions of both cultures. They appreciate our attention to detail and our professional and personalized service. In addition, our clients benefit from our wealth of experience and knowledge related to other aspects of the wedding such as wording, allocating budget and directory of suppliers in the industry.

WSKJ: Do you have any other suggestions or ideas that would add that extra appeal to make a couple’s invitations stand out?

VS: One recent trend that is gaining momentum is a personal monogram or marque created for your wedding stationery. It defines you and your image as a couple. Our brides have loved this idea and the fact that the monogram can be used beyond the wedding and in your new life together. Use it on gift tags, correspondence cards, change of address cards or baby announcements etc.

Wedding STYLE by Kalyn Johnson: What prompted you to go into the wedding invitation space?  How does this differ from your other work?

Jennifer Hill: We get asked if we do custom invitation design quite a bit. We started doing some Save the Dates that mimic our city prints, and then we started getting into full-on custom invitation work. This summer we are launching a small “off-the rack” wedding invitation line called “The Places We are Going” for those who want the “Places I Have Never Been” style – but who don’t want to pay the custom fee.

WSKJ: What’s the difference between custom wedding stationery and off-the rack or non-custom wedding stationery?

JH: Custom wedding is totally custom – we design a pattern and a invitation design based on the desires of the customer.  ”The Places We Are Going”, our so called “off-the rack line”, includes 2 collections to start. The Grafton collection is inspired by our Places I Have Never Been print designs with a romantic twist. The Topsfield collection is inspired by our country fair posters. Each collection will have a menu, an invite, an RSVP card and a Save the Date card. Maps and details cards will be coming this Summer!

WSKJ:What is the inspiration behind your wedding invitation series?

JH: The new series is inspired by vintage postcards and concert posters.

WSKJ: You’re recently married, did you design your own wedding invitations and stationery suite?

JH: I did! It was a lot of pressure because they were expected to be great! We were married in Costa Rica on the beach in a wee surf town, so I wanted it to be tropical but casual but still pretty. I took the flower from my  Fakahatchee Pattern and used that but in pinks and purples. Then my husband and I designed a print together inspired by the ocean in Playa Negra. I silk screened a print to go with each invitation. The print has a gradient of blue ocean with sparkly black for the sand (Playa Negra means black sand, which it does have).

WSKJ: What kind of bride will be attracted to your wedding invitations?  Who are you designing for?

JH: I think brides who are looking for something unique and something that is different from what is out there now. And of course, couples who love different places and unique stories!

WSKJ:  Can you give us a ballpark estimate of how much a JHill Design wedding stationery suite might cost?

JH: Our custom design pricing is dependant on the particulars of a project.  And believe it or not, we are still working on pricing for the non-custom line.

WSKJ: Can a wedding invitation or Save the Date help to set the tone for a wedding?

JH: Oh, definitely.  As a designer, I think the whole invitation suite – Save the Date, the actual invitation, places cards and table settings – should follow a theme. But, the theme doesn’t have to be stringent. Ours was all about travel and Costa Rica. For example, instead of a guest book we bought Costa Rican postcards and had people write us messages on the back. For our place cards, we made our own post cards complete with vintage Costa Rican stamps and wrote a personal message to each guest (easy to do since we only had 50 people).

WSKJ: How long does it take to have your invitations personalized for a particular bride? What sort of options does she have to choose from?

JH: Our custom line can take a month or two to create depending on how complex the suite and patterns are. The non-custom line will have 2 designs, each with 3 patterns and 4 colorways. There is an invite, Save the Date, menu and RSVP. Hopefully, we’ll be adding detail cards and thank you notes soon.

To learn more about Jennifer Hill, JHill Design and/or JHill Design’s wedding invitation line check out Jennifer’s website, www.jhilldesign.com.

p.s. BTW – My logos were designed by JHill Design; the silhouette is my favorite.

This is the first post in a series on wedding invitations.  I must confess, I LOVE paper!  I am the person who saved every wedding invitation I ever received as well as the collateral from the actual wedding.  When my husband and I began to plan our wedding, I made a special trip to our New Jersey storage unit, not to be confused with our New York storage unit (yes, we have storage units in New Jersey and New York – that’s life in the Big Apple!), to find my box of saved wedding invitations.

We got home and I neatly laid out each invitation along with the printed collateral from each wedding I’d attended so that he could begin to see all of our various options.  Most women spend lots of time day dreaming about their engagement rings and wedding dresses; my day dreams, as weird as it may seem, were about my wedding stationery suite.  From the time I was a little girl, I loved opening the heavy envelopes that arrived in our mailbox with our names in beautiful calligraphy on them announcing the marriage of this family friend or that relative.

Without a doubt, from the time I was very young, I knew that my wedding invitations would either be engraved or letterpressed.  But, about 8 months before we started planning our wedding we received an invitation to our friend V’s wedding.  Her invitations were absolutely stunning! Like nothing I’d ever seen before.  My world was turned upside down as I grappled with what I’d always thought I wanted and with what I knew I was going to have to have.

There are soooo many wedding invitations to choose from.  The task can be daunting if unlike me, you’ve never really focused on paper before.  I truly believe that your wedding stationery, from your Save the Dates forward can set the tone for your wedding.  To help simplify the wedding invitation process a bit, I sat down with two wedding invitation designers who agreed to share some of their insight on wedding invitation design.  In the upcoming weeks, we’ll be talking to Jennifer Hill of JHill Design and Vaishali Shah the creative force behind the bespoke wedding invitation line Ananya.

[image courtsey of Moira Events]

If you’re lucky enough to be going to a wedding in the Caribbean or on the Cape, you know you’ll be spending a lot of time at the beach.  You want to be able to go from breakfast at the resort, or in town, to the beach in one fell swoop. Be sure to pack your sunscreen!  You’re sure to be stylish in a great cover-up, a chic bathing suit,  the perfect pair of sandals and a fabulous sun hat. Top off your look with a straw beach tote filled with a cool towel, a good beach read and your ipod.

Here’s the skinny on the items pictured above:  Ombre Floppy Sun Hat, $38, Miraclesuit Barcelona Swimsuit, $138, Mexican Embroidered Maxi Dress, $31.50, Vera Bradley Beach Towel, $34, Jack Rogers Navajo Sandals, $94.99, Moroccan Straw Summer Beach, $38, Apple iPod touch (3rd Generation), $179.99 and Jane Green’s “The Beach House,” $10.20.

[A-8]

I started watching Treme, HBO’s newest series a few weeks ago. Treme is about the rebuilding of a neighborhood in New Orleans, for which the show is named, 6 months after Hurricane Katrina.  Like almost all of HBO’s shows, and especially those by David Simon (creator of The Wire), it’s superb.  You feel the heat, smell the damp and even the music reverberates with you.  The first episode opens with a Second Line band.  Now, I’m not from New Orleans and know very little about the city’s history other than what I’ve read in books or on the internet.  But, when I heard that Second Line music a smile formed on my face and I began to bob my head and tap my feet in time with the music.  I’d only heard that tune one time before, but it was such a memorable event that I’m hearing it now in my head even as I type.

That one time before was at the wedding of a childhood friend.  My friend was the groom and his family hails from Nachetz, Louisana.  He married a woman from New Orleans.  Their wedding was in Houston, but those in the know knew that they’d have a Second Line band play at the reception, right?  I had no clue.

Beautiful ceremony.  Great cocktail hour.  Lovely reception.  A white handkerchief wrapped in a tube of paper explaining something about the meaning of the Second Line was at each place setting.  I unwrapped my tube and skimmed the text, but there was too much excitement going on for me to pay attention.  So, I didn’t quite get that something was going to happen with these hankies later on.  But, I’ve since learned that virtually every wedding in the New Orleans area has some form of a Second Line. The DJ or band will play “Feel Like Funkin’ It Up”, the song universally recognized by New Orleanians as the Second Line song, and everyone dances in a line around the venue waving napkins in the air.  The bride, and sometimes the groom, carries a fancy umbrella that gets twirled around as the couple leads the dance around the venue behind the band; the bride and groom are referred to as the Main Line (this vernacular harkens back to the inception of Mardi Gras parades). Family and friends follow behind them cheering, dancing and waiving their handkerchiefs in the air (hence the handkerchiefs at our place settings) as the Second Line – sometimes called Second Lining.  Although, my friend’s wedding took place in Houston, they imported a real Second Line brass band; it felt like we were second-lining right in the middle of The French Quarter.

Doing the Second Line is hands-down one of my most memorable moments as a wedding attendee!