Invitation: allurement, enticement, or attraction...

That's one of the dictionary definitions for invitation.  And boy, was I allured, enticed, and attracted to many kinds of invitations!  I have a strong affinity for paper products.  How on earth was I going to pick a favorite invitation?  Letterpress or thermography?  Envelope liners or belly bands?  I started bookmarking websites left and right, squinting at the pictures online every night, keeping lists of contenders. 

Three things I knew for sure -

1. I wanted a suite that would provide a matching approach to everything - save-the-dates, invitations, and thank you cards.   
2. I wanted letterpress, not digital or thermography.  I was determined to find letterpress that was both high quality and affordable, which I surmised might be a bit of a challenge. 
3. The style of the invitations really needed to reflect us and our rustic-but-chic theme for the day.  Some whimsy would be nice, too.  There didn't seem to be many styles that had all those traits.

 I drooled over invitations like these from Bella Figura:

Connemara from Bella Figura

Lace from Bella Figura

Natalia from Bella Figura

Connemara was lovely, but probably a bit formal for our event.  Natalia was a neat concept, but Mr. C said (and I quote) "that looks like a third grader's birthday invitation" when he saw the big loopy calligraphy.  So...those were out.  Lace was beautiful, but ultimately, as with all of these, they didn't meet the budget requirements.  I did lovingly pet the samples when I received them, though.

I also fell in love with some invitations from Delphine Press:

San Francisco Tile from Delphine Press

Charleston Stitch from Delphine Press

More clean and modern than the ones from Bella Figura, and with a little more whimsy in the printing.  But again, the pricing had me swallowing hard.  Moving on.

I looked at a number of other printers, large and small, and just couldn't find anything that met all the requirements.  One day I decided to take a look on Etsy to see what they had to offer.  I soon stumbled on We Heart Paper, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw these:

Trimble from We Heart Paper

The clean but fun design felt like the right combination, with just the whimsical font for our names adding interest.  When I received the samples, I was thrilled with the quality, and I reached out to Janie for more information on the overall suite she would be able to offer.

When I showed the sample to Mr. C, he was skeptical about the hearts...a little too girly for him, I guess?  Then I had a brilliant idea - what if we asked Janie if she could change the hearts to knots?!  Appropo for not only our sailing hobby, but also for "tying the knot" - which is what it would say on our save-the-date cards.

Lo and behold, Janie was happy to make the change, and a month later, I had these happy little save-the-date cards in my hands:

Check out those adorable knots!

So, let's see how I did on the checklist I started out with:

1. I wanted a suite that would provide a matching approach to everything - save-the-dates, invitations, and thank you cards.   Done!  More to come on the invitations and thank you cards later.
2. I wanted letterpress, not digital or thermography.  I was determined to find letterpress that was both high quality and affordable, which I surmised might be a bit of a challenge.   A challenge it was, but I managed to find great letterpress at a great price. 
3. The style of the invitations really needed to reflect us and our rustic-but-chic theme for the day.  Some whimsy would be nice, too.  There didn't seem to be many styles that had all those traits.  This customized version of Trimble had all of those traits, in my opinion. 

How did you select your stationery?  Were you in love with letterpress, too?  Did you get what you wanted in the end, or did you find a compromise?