Labor of Love… Makes us Feel Fancy

Never subject a man to tedious shopping tasks. For example, invitation shopping.

On our first trip, I thought Gavin was going to throw a book at the wall (those are HEAVY books) because of my requests to see “just one more.” The prices were also a total shock to him, which didn’t help the vibe in the cute stationary store.

I, on the other hand, had great influences in college on the creative front thanks to Jess and Gina. Not to say Gavin doesn’t appreciate good design, but my creative Barn mates showed me how much vision, planning, talent and tedious work goes into a really good piece of design. I now have a little crush on paper stores, Pantone swatches, new ways to lay out a traditional item and I still get excited about new developments in design programs even though I have no business using them.

The books of invitations don’t get old for me. They did get frustrating though, when I found that nothing grabbed me as our style. Nothing said “us.” For the asking price, that’s a problem.

I started researching non-traditional options. DIY invites and such. Nice options, but nothing that I loved, or nothing I loved well enough to spend the time assembling.

We called in reinforcement based on an earlier offer…

As a gift to us, Jess is going to design our invites! I’m beyond excited since I’m crazy about her design style, she knows me well enough to know what I will and won’t go for and I’ve never had anything designed personally. Fancy!

More on my love of paper stores in a coming post.