It’s been awhile, my dear readers. I feel like these past three weeks have been a complete blur, I’ve been SO busy! I have a comment on the previous post that says to remember to breathe. I saw that and I was like “umm… yeah, that might be important!” It was definitely a reminder to slow down a bit! Things are getting to be a little crazy around here, and it really shows no sign of slowing until mid-October! Unfortunately, my blog has been neglected because of the craziness. I am really going to try to keep going though, and blog at least twice a week. That’s the hope. I’m afraid to make a promise though, primarily because I think that things are going to get crazier before they slow down!

I have spent the past two days at a workshop, but I will go into that more a little later, as it really deserves a post of its own. However, I didn’t want another week to go by without a WW!

Today is Wedding Wednesday, so let’s talk stationery. Can I just tell you how hard it was to type that word? WHY, you ask? Because to me, it’s spelled wrong. I actually had to look this up, because I see it spelled two different ways in so many different places! So here is what I found:

sta·tion·er·y/ˈstāSHəˌnerē/Noun
1. Writing paper, esp. with matching envelopes.
2. Writing and other office materials.

OR

sta·tion·ar·y/ˈstāSHəˌnerē/Adjective
1. Not moving or not intended to be moved: “a car collided with a stationary vehicle”.
2. (of a planet) Having no apparent motion in longitude.

I have been writing stationary. The folder on my hard drive is spelled with the “a” instead of the “e.” I’ve been wrong, along with lots of other references that I’ve found! So, to clear up any confusion, when discussing paper products at a wedding, the proper spelling is S T A T I O N E R Y. I will try to spell it right for the remainder of this post, but again, I make no promises! ;)

I wanted to talk about stationery for a little bit because I feel like there are so many shoulds and shouldn’ts, and musts and musn’ts. (Okay that’s probably butchered spelling too, today is NOT a strong spelling day for me!)

Let me start by saying that I’m an extremely upfront person. I kind of just say what’s on my mind. A friend of mine posted on Facebook about how rude it was when people asked her a certain question… and I told her that it would have never occurred to me that it was rude. I really try not to, and I try so hard to be kind to others, but sometimes I offend people. Tom is FOREVER worried about offending people, and will obsess over things if he thinks that he’s offended someone. I actually sent an email today to a photographer I admire, to apologize for a comment on the blog. To me, the comment wasn’t mean at all, or even a little offensive. But after reading it, I realized that someone could have potentially taken it a different way, so I thought it was best to warn him. I’m not really Ms. Etiquette when it comes to stuff like that, although I do try!

So when it came time to do invitations and everything that goes with them, I poured over wedding resources looking for help. I read and read, and came up with a lot of boring wording. Traditional wording yes, but boring. We’ve wanted our wedding to be very US. We wanted it to be super personal and I knew that when someone opened the invitation, I wanted them to read it and feel like they were talking to us. Like it was a personal conversation.

I’m not going to share the actual invitations today because I’m kind of keeping certain things under wraps until after the wedding. But I did want to share a portion of the invitations – the RSVP cards.

The “normal” wording for RSVP (response) cards goes something like this:

The favor of your reply is requested by the twenty-second of March.
___ accepts
___ regrets

Pretty standard right? But not really us. I would never call up my best friend and say “So Ryan, can you come to the wedding? Because the favor of your reply is requested by the twenty-second of March. Oh and by the way, that’s a SPELLED OUT twenty-second, not 22. Do you accept or regret?”

Please let me be clear: I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this wording. It’s standard for a reason, it is clear and concise and proper and traditional. But it just didn’t really fit us, it didn’t really say “Hey we really want you to join us, can you make it?”

So we opted for something a little different. Before I share this photo, please know that I designed all of the stationery myself, and I’m always a little nervous when designing for print. So please be kind. ;)

I’m sharing this with you today, and will share the rest of the stationery later, to encourage you to be yourself when it comes to your wedding. I worried that the wording might upset someone or offend someone, but ran it through several trusted people who liked it, so we went with it. Tom was even okay with it, so I KNEW it was okay! Make your wedding about you, as a couple. The best weddings that I’ve ever photographed have been the ones with personal touches. Yes, there are the expensive, extravagant weddings that have a million assistants and jewels everywhere. But a backyard, low budget wedding can be turned from blah to amazing with personal touches. When your guests can walk into your wedding and feel like it’s really YOU, they will feel comfortable and the day will be that much more amazing!

Our RSVP cards (response cards… is that the “right” term?) are a little different. The date isn’t spelled out. There is no favor of someone’s reply. And yes, my mother rolled her eyes when she saw them. But I love them. Tom loves them. And I’ve already received several notes from friends and family that love them too, because they’re reflective of us. Be careful with your wording, but in the end, don’t obsess over it. Do what is right for the two of you.