What a Chocolate Bar Can Tell You About Your Wedding Invitations
I recently opened a Raspberry Dark Chocolate bar of Chocolove. Aside from being fair trade, organic and just generally delicious, these bars also all come with a love poem tucked into the wrapper - a sentimental treat for you to discover upon opening. And as I sat there, savoring my chocolate bar and chewing on this poem, it had me thinking about its parallels with wedding stationery.
There is of course the surprise and delight factor - something I have practiced for years in customer service. The element of the unexpected woven into the packaging, something that catches your eye, slows you down, invites you to savor. It transforms something ordinary and every day, like opening a chocolate bar or a wedding invitation, into a magical experience for the senses. And who doesn’t want that?
But beyond the surprise and delight element, including a poem inside a chocolate bar (or inside your wedding invitation) taps into something deeper in us. It reaches beyond the taste and sensibility of a bar of chocolate - tasting good and coming from a just origin - and it touches our heartstrings. That human part inside of us that is hungry to connect, make meaning, and tell stories. I also believe that this is the part of us that makes memories, and is why I always reach for this brand every time I am hungry for rich chocolatey indulgence. Any bar of chocolate can taste good and have good ingredients, but does it include a special something that is going to stop me in the middle of my day and make me feel something? Only Chocolove can do that.
Similarly, any wedding invitation can be both beautiful and informative. But can it reach that third thing? Can it touch your guests’ heart strings? Can it communicate a personal detail, a shared memory, or a heartfelt sentiment? Can it make people feel something? That is the kind of wedding stationery I strive to create with my clients.
So, consider this your invitation, to reimagine what your wedding invitations - and your wedding itself! - can be. Reaching beyond beauty and information, let’s touch the heartstrings of your guests through personal illustrations and poetic wording. Let’s invite them to slow down, savor your love story, and feel something.
5 Reasons You Should Invest in Wedding Invitations (in the Age of Digital E-vites and Minted.com)
My therapist recently asked me, with nothing but good intentions, why I would be starting a business designing wedding invitations when so many people are opting to send digital invites. While it caught me off guard at first, upon further consideration, it is a valid question in this digital world, and I’m sure you’re considering this yourself. Why spend a decent chunk of your precious wedding budget on personalized paper invitations when you could just send them online, or design one yourself from a template? Well, here’s my two cents, as a wedding stationery designer, snail mail enthusiast and thank you note writer extraordinaire.
Wedding invitations, aside from being a timeless tradition in the history of people getting married, serve as a physical reminder to your guests. To RSVP. To get that flight booked. To check the wedding website. To book the hotel. And with so many emails these days filling up our inbox, a digitally sent invitation could simply get lost in the mix, or filed into the folder in our brains that says “I’ll deal with this later.” But a paper invitation sent straight to your door? That you can hold in your hands? And put on your fridge? That reminder simply has a whole different weight to it, that a digital invite simply can’t compete with.
Designing your invites with an artist/stationer helps you think about the design and vibe you want to create for your wedding day. Since invitations often get mailed out way before you start thinking about your floral design, what rental items you are going to order, or what color palette you want your bridesmaids to wear, a lot of the design work you do with your wedding stationer can feed into the rest of these elements. The moodboard, inspiration photos and color palette you create together can be sent to your other vendors, getting incorporated into the day’s design so that everything aligns.
Wedding invites give your guests a feel for the vibe of your wedding - and your love. They get your guests excited, help them envision what to wear and what to bring, and basically make them feel like an exclusive member of your “love club.” Hint - they are!
It’s an opportunity to add a personal, heartfelt touch - weaving in elements from your unique love story and personal history so that people can really feel who you are as a couple. This, in my opinion, is what weddings are all about!
Wedding invitations are an emblem of a time-honored tradition - the love letter. While traditional wedding stationery in your mind might evoke an image of boring calligraphy and black borders, I like to think of it as a love letter sent out to all of your favorite people, echoing of a time when we could only communicate via the mail, sending our love across oceans sealed in envelopes. There is something ancient about it, something analogue and tactile, that speaks to the romantic in us all. It’s a way, upon opening the envelope, to literally open the hearts of your guests, inviting them in to the look and feel of your unique love.
Journal Prompts for Couples Getting Married in 2025
Photo by Georgie Morley Photography
Welcome! It is officially your wedding year, and your big day feels like it is almost here. The impending excitement is often paired with a lot of unnecessary stress and pressure, so here are a few prompts to help you and your partner stay centered as you enter this new season of your lives. I like to think of your wedding as not just one day, but as a journey including the entire planning process leading up to it, and of course the whole marriage after! Taking moments to be intentional about how you are navigating this journey together can make all the difference.
While we often use this new year time to reflect on our personal goals, use this as an opportunity to reflect as a couple on how you want to show up together in this big year in your relationship. Remember - you get to write your own story!
I invite you to sit down together, light a candle or share your favorite sweet treat, and journal on the following prompts, making sure to share your responses together! The goal is to help you go into your wedding year as a team, showing up as the couple that you want to be.
What are you most enjoying about the planning process so far? How can you make this a priority moving forward?
What support do you need? What would make the process feel smoother for you?
What is something you are learning in this process about yourself or your relationship? What are you grateful for?
How do you want to feel on your wedding day?
What are some things you can do to feel that way throughout the planning process as much as possible?
Share any insights with your partner and loved ones so that you can go into your wedding year with the best mindset possible! And, share below for inspiration - I would love to hear how you are approaching your wedding journey this year!
How to Make Your Wedding Feel Personal
When my husband and I were planning our wedding, while we wanted everything to look and feel beautiful, we most importantly wanted it to feel like us. We've all been to those weddings - where you could nearly swap the bride and groom out for a different couple, and no one would notice. But, as artists ourselves and people who have both walked the path less traveled in life, it was super important that our wedding reflected our personalities and love story. I like to think we were pretty successful in doing so, and here are a few approaches I'd suggest if you are of a similar mindset.
1. Focus on storytelling over aesthetics.
A lot of the decisions you make around your wedding will seem to center around how everything looks - from the florals to the tablescapes to the bridesmaids' dresses. And while the aesthetics are obviously important (I do a design wedding stationery after all), if you want your wedding to feel personal, you have to focus more on how things feel and less on how things look, and a great way to do that is through storytelling.
Use every opportunity you can to tell the story of who you each are - as individuals and as a couple. This will immediately make your wedding yours and yours alone. This can look like getting personalized stationery with imagery you are known for, turning the first text your partner ever sent you into custom cocktail napkins, or simply having your officiant tell the story of how you met.
2. Choose vendors you connect with.
This may seem obvious, but when you go to pick your vendors, there can be so much pressure to lock someone in who comes highly recommended, and to do it yesterday. Just make sure to check in with yourself - Do I vibe with this person? Do they seem to understand me and my partner?
While it's important to focus on the product they deliver (their photos, their florals, etc) it's also important to focus on how they are delivering it, who they are and how you connect with them. Because, at the end of the day, your vendors are going to be holding the torch for how you want your wedding to go, and witnessing you in some very intimate moments. You want to feel comfortable with them and you want to know that they get you!
(We did an AMAZING job at this with our wedding and if you are getting married on Nantucket and need incredible vendor recs I'm you girl)
3. Carry a creative thread throughout your planning process.
You don't have to be an artist to add your signature touch to your wedding day. Whether you want to hand paint the place cards or make all the ceramics or coordinate a surprise flash mob during the reception, find one thing you want to DIY on your wedding day, and use it as a creative outlet throughout your planning process. It will help your guests feel the YOU in your wedding, and it will also be a great respite to return to when you inevitably get tired of looking at spreadsheets.
What are you doing to add a personal touch on your wedding day? Leave a comment below!
My Journey from Spoken Word Poet to Wedding Stationery Designer
I recently shared on my Instagram a bit more on my personal journey, from spoken word poet to wedding stationery designer. As a poet, I often wrote about my struggles in relationship - my words at once deep and moving, as well as dark and intense. Now, after a roundabout journey and many stops and starts, I somehow find myself designing wedding stationery, helping people tell their love stories through colorful artwork. I truly never dreamed I’d be doing this, but looking back, it makes total sense. And the symbolism of the whole thing is not lost on me - how I am now transforming my own darkness to light.
So, why is this of interest to you? Well, I always love knowing the stories of people I follow and work with - and I hope you do too! But, mostly, if you’re planning your wedding, while you may not have gone through the same struggles that I did, it’s likely that this is a big step for you - whether you have family drama you worry will come up, fears of abandonment/divorce, or if you just find the whole process incredibly stressful - and something about sending a Save the Date or invite and saying to the universe, to all your loved ones, and to yourself, that you’re really doing this, is scary. It’s exciting and wonderful, but it’s also scary. And I am someone who understands that intimately.
Most of what you’ll see and hear as you plan your wedding is about the good stuff, the celebrations, the happy ever afters - but weddings can also bring up a lot. And so, if you’re looking for someone with a sensitivity to that, I’m your girl. I am so excited to celebrate your unique love story with the happiest, most playful and fun stationery ever - but know that there is room to honor the struggles that may have come before, too.
Here’s to loving every step of the journey.