I absolutely adored the wedding invitations my esteemed colleague showed us the other day by a pair of amazing DIY divas. Beyond fabulous stuff, that.

The sad truth, though, is that not everyone is able to pull off that level of design and execution by themselves. That’s when you need a professional to help you out.

The other day, Mr. Twistie met one such professional and pointed me at his wares.

The good folks at Volta Press do custom design and printing using the Letterpress method. They do some gorgeous wedding invitations, and they even have an Etsy Store where they sell them.
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It seems that every wedding coordinator, florist, baker, gown designer, DJ, and caterer knows precisely what every girl has dreamed of all her life for her wedding. They can certainly tell you about it enough. Goodness knows the ones interviewed for reality wedding shows never get tired of the phrase.

The thing is, they aren’t dealing with ‘every girl’ but with you.

‘Every girl’ is generic.

You are unique.

It doesn’t matter whether what you want is the most classic of dreams or something nobody else in the history of weddings has ever imagined possible. What matters is that you are the one dreaming them, and you are the one getting married. Your vendors are working for you. They need to pay attention to your individual needs and desires.

Will you always get precisely what you dreamed of down to the last detail? No. Pretty much nobody gets that. Budget and a dozen other variables can make it nearly impossible – or actually so – to make certain things happen.

What you can expect is that your vendors will listen to what you tell them, discuss your options frankly but with sympathy for your needs, and then do their best to make your specific dreams come true.

So how do you recognize the vendor that will make your planning smoother and more pleasant? Here are a few good signs to look for:

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Just a few days ago, my esteemed colleague wrote an excellent article about why brides sometimes do blow their tops. There are plenty of reasons to lose it during the wedding planning process. One of the most important things you need to know is when being a ‘nice girl’ simply isn’t going to cut it.

The first thing to do is free your mind of fear of the Bridezilla label. It gets used for everything from genuinely abusive behavior to simply reminding the florist that you already said you’d prefer not to use lilies. In other words, the term has lost its meaning while retaining its power over brides terrified of making a misstep. Forget Bridezilla. She’s only going to rear her head if you’re naturally a rather horrible person, and we all know such a person would never read this blog for long.

So when is it necessary to not be a nice girl?

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Have a girl baby, get gifts, find yourself in a wonderland of pink, pink, pink. That’s the world I’m living in right now, and I’ve never been *that* partial to pink, particularly when it comes to the baby variety. Ditto for baby blue and variations thereof. If those are among your favorite hues, I do apologize, but I personally prefer a palette with a tad more saturation like these from Bespoke Events London.

While this afternoon wedding does look a bit like my daughter’s wardrobe, the depth of color in the tablecloth, vases, and the chairs offset the lighter pinks and purples found in the floral centerpieces. Overall the effect is very warm and feminine without being juvenile.

This evening wedding, on the other hand, is icy cool and very sophisticated. The low blue lighting mirrors the darkness outside and ensures that the silver centerpieces really sparkle.

Both are lovely, don’t you think?

As an aside, Bespoke Events London is the keeper of something they call “The Secret Collection,” an exclusive range of changing secret venues discoverable only by geographical coordinates for the ultimate in discretion and privacy. I can’t imagine ever receiving a wedding invitation with GPS coordinates instead of a proper address, but it could be fun for a theme wedding where the majority of the invitees were technologically savvy.

Recently, a post at Don’t Be That Bride got me to thinking about how brides and grooms express their gratitude toward the people who make a wedding happen, by which I mean the vendors. Unless you are putting together a complete DIY wedding, it’s likely that you’ll be hiring people to work behind the scenes to make your ceremony and reception beautiful and memorable.

You can’t deny that good wedding vendors work hard to ensure that brides and grooms get what they want. Putting aside for a moment the fact that there are some substandard wedding vendors out there, I can’t help but agree with The Wedding Fairy, who asserts that “…brides (and grooms) should take the time to thank–I mean, really thank–any vendor contacts who are at the event… When you are that happy with a vendor, you need to show it! Be over-the-top. It’s OK.”

The Beard and I did just that, as all of our wedding vendors were great about working with us remotely since we were getting married 1000+ miles away from home. We gave tips, wrote thank you cards, and made a point to speak with those wedding vendors who were actually at our wedding venue. It made us feel good to let our vendors know how much we appreciated them, and we hoped that showing our appreciation made our vendors feel just as good.

Now I’d like to know how you plan to (or did) thank those wedding vendors who provide (or provided) exceptional service.

I was browsing my favorite wedding blogs yesterday when I came across a super wedding planning tip over on Wedding Planning in Exile. Bride in Exile wanted to mix and match letterpress printing and flat printing on her wedding invitations and RSVP cards but found that most wedding invitation printers aren’t keen on doing up matching designs in different printing styles. Not one to be deterred, Bride in Exile outlined her wants (and her budget) on Etsy’s Alchemy advertising board where buyers can post requests for custom handmade items and sellers can bid on the opportunity to make the goods. Needless to say, she got what she wanted at a price that worked for her.

Of course, the Alchemy board isn’t just for wedding stationery! You can post requests for anything under the sun, from wedding favors to custom wine glasses for your wedding reception to your wedding gown. It seems like requests get a lot of attention from Etsy sellers, making this one of those resources I wish I had known about (wish it had existed?) when planning my own wedding.

In the past week, I’ve seen a new trend talked up on two different wedding reality shows. On both Rich Bride, Poor Bride and Whose Wedding is it, Anyway? couples have been advised to get and have chosen to hire living tables.

What’s a living (or strolling) table? Well, it’s a person who dresses up in a costume and stands inside a hole in a table on casters decorated to match the costume. The table is then set with a selection of hors d’oeuvres, or desserts that guests can help themselves to as the table wanders through your reception or party.

Here’s what it looks like:

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