If there’s one thing I really love, it’s designing wedding invitations. I’ve been creating them for family and friends for almost 20 years. In fact, one of the first things I did when we began planning this wedding was create a full invitation ensemble.

As happy as I was with the outcome, I really had my heart set on the luxury of letterpress. I wanted something refined yet whimsical, evoking the opulence and excess of the Roaring 20’s. And that’s exactly what I got with my extraordinary stationer, RiverTown Press & Paperie. Not only was the owner and designer, Barbara Stanaitis, an absolute joy to work with, she really spoiled me with all the little extras.

She doubled pressed each piece, in navy and robin’s egg blue, on pearl white Crane Lettra 220# woven cotton. Not only did she letterpress the inside of the pocketfold (something I’ve never seen done by any other designer), she also lovingly shimmered the front and back of every single piece, by hand, so that they truly sparkle.

Fastened by a wax-sealed bellyband, the pocketfold was presented in a satin-lined invitation box adorned with our wedding crest. The ensembles arrived to guests in matching ice blue bubble mailers with personalized labels.

While the wordings were mostly mine, the letterpress designs were all Barbara’s, and she offered several variations for each piece. We worked together for over month, pouring over every detail to get everything just right. She even had me send her samples of our Save the Date set, invitation box, and satin liner so she could match the inks perfectly.

The best part was that Barbara was so lovely to work with. There are so many elements of our wedding that I cherish, but these are, by far, some of my most favorite.

Did you know that the narrator of the “Great Gatsby”, Nick Carraway, is seemingly the only guest to ever receive a personal invitation to one of Gatsby’s lavish parties? In fact, it was handwritten by Jay Gatsby himself and then hand-delivered to Mr. Carraway’s door. It read, “The honor would be entirely mine if you could attend my little party”. We borrowed that perfect little line for the intro to ours, thus setting the tone for our soiree and everything that was to come. In proper Gatsby fashion, we hand-delivered as many as we could throughout the Shoals and greater Huntsville areas.