DIY Stationery

Along with my wedding invitations, I also designed and created coordinating pieces of stationery for other parts of the wedding. Here's an overall look at what our stationery suite looked like, including the invitation:

Clockwise from top left: Invitation, Unofficial Guide to Harvard Square (cover and inside), Thank You card, Thank You postcard, Program, Wedding Announcement, Menu, and Escort Cards (in center)

There was about 2 hours in between our ceremony and reception, so we thought this would be a great chance for our guests to explore the Harvard Square area, where Dean and I have made so many memories during our dating years. So, after the ceremony, we sent our guests off with our own personalized “Unofficial Guide to Harvard Square” that contained a map labeled with all of our favorite spots in Harvard Square, along with short descriptions of why the cozy coffee shops, dessert locations, and even the Charles River and Weeks Footbridge were all so special to us. We hoped that the guide would help us share a part of our lives with our guests.

Letterpressed tag on cover

Inside of guide

A group of close friends and I put together the programs ourselves. For the covers, I letterpressed our names onto a small sheet of cream-colored paper, which was then layered on top of a textured aubergine-colored cardstock. The insides of the programs were printed with my printer onto cream-colored paper. The programs were then assembled and sewn together with lavender thread. The loose threads at the top of the program were cut off, but the bottom threads were left hanging loose.

Program

For our friends whom we were unable to invite to the wedding, I created wedding announcements that we sent out after the wedding. Because many of our parents' friends are unable to read English, we incorporated both Chinese and English onto our wedding announcement. These announcements were letterpressed during our second session at the press when we letterpressed our menus and thank you cards.

Wedding Announcement

A letterpressed menu was set at each guest's place setting.

Menu

I was also able to letterpress some personalized stationery for each one of my bridesmaids as part of their gifts. I found matching envelopes and packaged them together by tying them with pieces of fabric especially picked for each girl!

Personalized stationery

Overall, I was extremely happy with how our wedding stationery turned out. I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to letterpress so many pieces of our stationery - I certainly would not have been able to afford it if we had not stumbled upon the Adams House press! It was such an enjoyable and enlightening experience for us to learn all about the art of the printing press and to take part in something that has such a long and rich history. I am so thankful to all of the volunteers there for their kindness and generosity, and most of all, for their contagious enthusiasm and love for the press.