The Stationery

Lisa The Bride: We decided that the overall look of the stationery was to be minimalistic and contemporary (to please both Chris and the graphic designer in me) with subtle feminine touches (to satisfy the bride in me). I started by designing a monogram, which we could use across everything. The monogram and basic wedding details was letterpressed onto a thick, but soft, cotton cardstock, along with sprigs of foliage (which I knew would be part of our floral decor). We opted to keep the save the dates pure white (with only grey text) so that we weren't committed to a particular colour palette and I knew that whites and greys would feature heavily in the wedding anyway. When it came to designing the invitations I started by creating a moodboard to determine colours, details and finishes. The final palette was a soft grey-blue, pale peachy blush and other muted tones, contrasting with rose gold and antique metallics. Sticking with our contemporary look I decided to steer away from the ribbons and twines that usually feature in my designs and instead make a feature of the paper. The main invitation was printed onto a luxury heavy cardstock - a whopping 1050gsm in this case (that’s very thick if you’re not a paper geek like me!) and then beautifully gilt edged with a rose gold foil. To add my own individual twist and a further ‘wow factor’, I spent the day folding paper to make a bespoke 3 pocketed wallet (with fold out illustrated map) to contain the invite and all the details.

The Decor & Flowers

When it came to décor I had a very strong vision of what I wanted (I can’t pretend Chris took too much interest in this side of things). The décor was to be elegant and timeless with a subtle contemporary edge. I didn’t want anything too grand but instead something more intimate, cosy and pretty. I love botanicals so decided everything would be focused around ivy and eucalyptus. The flowers were to match our chosen colour palette, so we used lots of white, peach and blush. My all time favourite flowers are peonies but sadly they’re not in season in September so our florist Emily (Stems of Somerset) suggested David Austin roses (another a fuller-looking flower), café au lait dahlias, hypericum berries, veronica and astilbe. For our table plan I wanted to create something completely unique. As foliage was playing a big part in the look of the day, I decided paper leaves would make the perfect focal point of the creation. These were hung from a large white painted trellis board and finished with calligraphy hand written names and miniature rose gold table numbers so guests could find their table. For the mamas with newborns sat with them, I added mini leaves to their name tags which was super cute. I used stylish copper shelf brackets from Anthropologie and copper piping (from B&Q!) to feature the top table names and hang extra trailing ivy. The ‘find your seat’ sign was hand calligraphed, then cut and sprayed copper by Mad Philomena who also created our stunning geometric table numbers which complemented the clean lines from the stationery designs. One thing I would advise on DIY’ing things for your wedding would be not to assume it’s a cheaper option. By the time you’ve bought all the bits and pieces, paints, sprays, finishing touches, you’ll find you’ve soon spent a lot more than you might have imagined. On the tables, I wanted lots of little aesthetic details to make them pretty and interesting and again decided to make as many things as I could. We sourced a number of blue-grey stones that I dipped into peach, blue, white and copper paints and then finished with calligraphy names. I even made mini stones for the newborns and teeny stones for the baby ‘bumps’ – which got a lot of love! Personalised menus followed the paper-folding theme - cute paper squares that tucked in on themselves to make tactile little pieces to pop under the name stones.

And if you'd like to see more of Lisa's stationery and design, you can see the full wedding feature here or visit the Paperknots website where you can order this collection for your own big day.

Designing Your Wedding Stationery {Paperknots}

Fern Godfrey