This here is the lil’ project that started the dreams for Sweet Peach Paper.

When Paul and I got engaged and started the wedding planning process, I knew that of all the visual details that go into the big day, invitations were the dearest to my heart.

Though our wedding would be in the Big D with all the glitz and glam of the city, we eagerly wanted a more casual feel for the day. (Alas, my dreams of a barn reception were dashed!) So we endeavored to bring the barn-feel to the ballroom - with burlap tablecloths, twigs and rustic flowers - everything being elegant, but all together relaxed. Of course, invitations were the first way to communicate this feel to the guests.

After rounds of designing suites only to trash them entirely, scouring through fonts, and papers, and printing research, I came across this font. And when I saw what our names looked like written out, that was it:

A beautiful, classic script, but just a notch off of formal. The thin and thickness of the letters was stunning, and it had a feel as though had been penned by hand, just for us. The script, mixed with an eclectic variety of hand-drawn images, was the combination I was looking for. Here is our wedding invitation, featuring an image Paul chose, because it had a ‘crossbow’ in it:

All three pieces - invitation, accommodations card, and response post card - were printed on 100% Cotton Crane’s Lettra (now the house paper for Sweet Peach Paper). The texture of this paper is so wonderful; the inks of invitations sink right in and look like they were made to live there.

This lovely little trapping was bound together with natural raphia and snuggled inside a kraft envelope. And after a last minute missing envelopes package snafu, we printed these teeny return labels with my parent’s home address encircling a magnolia. She is from Georgia, after all.

There she is! The blood, sweat (and tears) were well worth it when we dropped the invitations in the mailbox almost a year ago. There are not many jobs I love more than getting to do this very thing for brides-to-be. What a joy!

Check back soon for a post on our Wedding ‘Day Of’ paper goods!

{ all photos courtesy of Shaun Menary. }