~ Planning our wedding was one of the toughest times we’ve ever been through (Matt would agree), and when our first venue cancelled on us without reason just 3 months out, I had to halt production on invites completely. There was a span of 2 weeks where we weren’t sure if we would have to cancel our wedding and I didn’t even tell my bridesmaids what was going on! We officially signed a contract with the incredible Half Moon Resort just one and a half months before our wedding and at that point in time, we still had SO much re-planning to do! My parents kept asking “do you think you really need invitations?” To their point, all of our guests had already received handmade cane rattan save-the-dates (more on those below!). My answer was a clear “YES! OF COURSE I NEED INVITATIONS!”…I had been dreaming about my wedding invites since I was a little girl. When my mom had her candy/jewelry boutique, I would often walk down to the Note Pourri(an absolutely adorable stationary shop down the street). The woman who owned it was so kind to me and would let me sit at her back tables and flip through the giant binders of wedding invitation samples. Second to my dress, this was the part of wedding planning I was most excited for! I’d waited my whole life for this and I was determined to make it happen! This is the story of one bride’s determination to make her dream cane rattan invitation suite a reality!
Crest, Map, and Custom Watercolor Print
~ Biggest thanks to Leslie from Giddy Paperie for creating the artwork for our wedding! The crest was the crest of my dreams and she was so wonderful to partner with. The map went in all of our guest bags (*a huge thanks to my bridesmaid, Caitlin, for printing these last minute and bringing them to Jamaica!). The map is something I had always wanted and Leslie worked so hard with her busy schedule to get it finished in time for our wedding! Truly, by the time we had finalized the villas and locations, there were only a couple of weeks to go.
Lastly, Leslie’s take on the print that Smith & Quinn created for our wedding was absolutely stunning! I have a post all about the bridesmaids dresses and this custom print here.
Save-the-Dates
~ I really wanted these to be special since we only invited the most 50 special people in our lives! I was inspired save-the-dates that I saw on a celebrity event planner’s instagram. First let me say that it was a process. It happened over several months! However, they came out exactly how I had hoped and I’m SO happy that they did!
We first ordered these wooden boards and then for the top framed square, we used my Cricut machine to cut them. That was not as easy as I had hoped! It took a special blade, a lot of attempts, and each board had to be taped down to the cutting mat. However, it definitely is doable and probably would be better with a thinner wood! I then spray painted both the base boards and the square boards. I was able to find good quality cane rattan on Amazon, which we then stapled to the base board. After that, we used wood glue and my styling clamps (lol) to sandwich it all together. Here are a few images below that I took of the process!
Before our wedding, I invested in a really great Epson printer and it came in clutch for everything we printed at home! I designed and printed our save-the-dates (the paper side!) and then I hand deckled them. I finished them off with a rope that strung through a cutout of our wedding crest (also printed on our Epson and cut with our Cricut)!
Cane Rattan Invitations
~ These were a labor of love! I tried so hard to find someone to make custom laser printed gate cards in a cane rattan shape, however no one could do them in time for the wedding. I made the decision to make them myself (with Matt’s help!) on my Cricut. As I type this, I honestly don’t know how we would have been able to make this all happen without my Cricut maker! I first found an SVG file on Etsy of the cane rattan pattern that was available for download. I used that file to design the gate card with my Cricut. I followed this Youtube tutorial for the gate card design and it was INCREDIBLY helpful! They took about 30 minutes each to cut on the Cricut with all of the intricacies of the cane….but how can you have a cane rattan invitation suite without a cane rattan patterned gate card?! Of course, it was worth it in the end!
I LOVE letterpress. Actually throughout the process of trying to find someone, I’ve decided that someday I definitely want to own my own vintage letterpress machine. I called and e-mailed a million places, but no one could rush them in time for our wedding (2022 was a busy wedding year!). Finally, I found Don on Etsy. I called immediately and his sweet wife answered! As it turns out, he was also in PA and was able to do it with the letterpress in his basement. His story is so cool…he worked in Pharmaceuticals all his life and then bought his letterpress as his retirement hobby. I designed the gate cards and invitations in Photoshop and Don was able to letterpress them just in time!
We finished everything off with a rattan ribbon and a navy wax seal stamped with our custom wedding crest. It’s pretty affordable to order a custom stamp with your logo or crest on Etsy! I did a little research and found that using these wax sticks with a glue gun works much better than the drip wax circa 1920! I bought a dollar store glue gun for this project so as not to ruin my nice one. We also found that these silicon mats worked great for making that perfect circle!
Lastly, each card went into an envelope lined with Leslie’s watercolor print (above) that I ordered from Cards and Pockets which is SUCH a wonderful website for all things invitations! If you have more time, definitely look into working with them!
Some parts of our wedding and wedding planning aren’t the easiest to look back on, however I look back on the labor of love that was our cane rattan invitation suite with a HUGE smile on my face! I didn’t have a planner, I didn’t have a designer…I just had an incredibly supportive and helpful fiancé (*now husband!) and we made this beautiful invitation suite together. The two of us. And that is something to be proud of!
Gratefully with love,
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo Rhiana
P.S.
All photography and styling by me!
Leave a Reply