Vintage Books as Wedding Invitations

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I took some time away from the computer to work on the house and enjoy my first anniversary – I can’t believe it’s been a year since my wedding! Anyways, I have some amazing real weddings lined up for this week, but first I had to share photographer Jessica Claire’s Wedding Invitations. If you follow her blog, you know she is planning her October wedding and has been sharing some of the details. Her save the date’s and invitations are quite amazing – how I would love to receive an invitation like this!

Jessica describes her wedding as “a vintage, 1920’s London sort of vibe, but it will also have an upscale, elegant, sophisticated twist.”

For the STD’s, as they’ll be known henceforth, came from the concept that I didn’t want to send out something that was just paper and ink. I really wanted each one to be different in some way, and I wanted it to be a piece that people wouldn’t want to throw away (although of course I know that people did!!) The invitation is in four pieces, and each one is handmade out of letterpressed tags or stitched muslin. Each one has an antique key attached to the ribbon–every key is different. As the wedding has locks and keys all throughout, we wanted to bring that in as early as the save the date. On the back of each STD, there is a page torn from the book Portrait of a Marriage–each page is different and was meticulously cut to match the size of the front. The overall effect was to create something that looked old but still colorful! This is what they look like:

vintage key invitations

Now, to the invitation. Each of our guests received a book. Okay, you probably guessed that they are not ordinary books. No, they are HOLLOWED OUT BOOKS! In keeping with our theme, our wedding invitation hides away, tucked safely inside a hollowed out book. Each one is completely different–each book was lovingly bought from an old bookstore and chosen for it’s particular color cover, title, thickness, or inside pattern.

When you open the book, this is what you see:

vintage book wedding invitation

The pocket on the left hand side is a very thick, copper paper from Kate’s Paperie. On the right, a steel grey grosgrain ribbon holds the invitation in and is sealed with a copper wax seal with a photo of a lock. On the invitation itself which lays in the hollow, a single, antique button is affixed to each invitation. Every one is incredibly detailed and different and took many HOURS of scouring ebay:

vintage book wedding invitation

Inside the front coppery library card pocket were four things: a map with all location details, a list of events for the day before the wedding, a response card, and an envelope:

vintage book wedding invitation

Thanks so much Jessica for letting me share these with everyone. Also, I need to make sure to credit Kari Dyas who single-handedly spent WEEKS carving them, gluing them, sourcing the individual pieces, and creating the finished pieces. Check out Jessica’s blog for even more photos of the invitations. All photos by Jessica Claire.

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