Sunday, 05 February 2012
I just love this feature from the latest Conde Nast Brides magazine. Mood boards are a lovely way to put down and gather inspiration for your wedding and to plan your theme, colour scheme or look, or simply to understand what your likes and dislikes are.
 Conde Nast Brides Magazine November / December 2011 Cover  Conde Nast Brides Magazine November / December 2011 p168  Conde Nast Brides Magazine November / December 2011 p169 This one in Brides magazine is inspired by Ballet (what a lovely idea!) and includes our new laser cut A Little Lace design (above, top left and below), among other delicate and romantic pieces.
 Chartula Laser Cut A Little Lace Invitation Creating a mood board is easy - just think of the scrap books you made as a child. Include snippets from magazines - of products, scenes or patterns and details that you like, paint swatches (great for colour references), fabric and ribbon swatches. Add photos and anything else that inspires you! Use your mood board to help you make decisions and show it to anyone who is creating something bespoke for your wedding - your florist, stationer, dress designer, wedding planner, cake designer and so on. Ask them for swatches so your mood board can grow, and add to it as your wedding plans evolve. Afterwards why not frame it as a keepsake!
Remember, remember the… when is that wedding again? It’s nearly bonfire night so here are a few tips on how to make sure your wedding invitations go off with a bang!
 Chartula Laser Cut Bespoke Little City Tales Invitation It’s all About You (two)!
Stuck for inspiration? When I’m creating new designs I love taking hints from fashion and interiors and it’s a great way to start building a contemporary theme for your wedding. But most importantly inject a bit of you into your stationery. I always design invites that I like! I enjoy putting a little of my own imagination into our whimsical designs - that’s what makes our Chartula brand unique. But even more importantly I love the challenge of creating a bespoke design, of capturing a piece of the bride and grooms lives, a snippet of their story and translating that into a design. You can do the same! Forget the “rules” and choose something that reflects the two of you, your likes, dislikes and way of life. Are you earthy and free spirited - then why not opt for a vintage letterpress invitation? Or maybe you are creative - perhaps you could make your own invitations (try our DIY range Create!). Maybe your Mum dabbles in calligraphy, ask her to calligraphy your envelopes. Whatever you choose, if it’s personal and sooo you then your guests will not only smile when they receive your invitation, but they will remember it for years to come.
 Chartula Laser Cut Bespoke A Little City Tales Calendar Details Darling…
A truly well considered design is all about the little details, the things that pull the whole thing together. Think of your wedding as one grand “the two of you” design, with the invitation setting the tone and all the other details echoing or enhancing this. Don’t panic you don’t have to go all matchy, matchy, just have a “look” and work that into other areas. With your stationery it’s the coordinating items that will back up your invitation. Stick to the same printing or production method, the same colours or pattern on matching items, like reply and information cards. And don’t be afraid to try something different, like this laser cut pop-up calendar (above). The groom requested it as a cool gadget to give his guests - much more fun than your average sugared almonds!
 Chartula Laser Cut Bespoke A Little City Tales Order of Service Keep the Faith
Don’t forget the service itself. After all this is what your big day is actually all about. Whether it’s a traditional church wedding or civil ceremony consider some sort of order of service - even if it’s only to let guests know what music you are walking down the aisle to. On the big day guests will be busy focusing on the two of you and you’d be surprised how many will want to keep an order of service so they can reminisce about the day afterwards too.
 Chartula Laser Cut Bespoke Little City Tales Menu Placecard Delicious Decoration
Finally keep your theme running right the way through to your on the day decoration. Menus, place cards, table plans and numbers are all areas that you can have great fun with. If you are having a grand wedding consider a table plan printed on a vintage mirror. If your wedding is outdoors opt for escort cards hung in a tree. Is there a bit of competition over the speeches (who’s will be best)? Print up fun score cards for your guests to hold up Strictly Come Dancing style! Or simply print beautiful menus to compliment your table decoration and flowers.
Finally don’t forget to say thank you! A written thank you is so important, make it reflect your day, guests will appreciate being reminded how great it was.
Happy Halloween! OK so not many people will be having a Halloween themed wedding, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take inspiration from this Autumn festival. I love it! Think parties, costumes (a masked ball for instance), fairytales (glass slippers, candelabra, castles) and opulence. Here’s my pick of some of our favourite invites for creating that spooky, romantic look.
 Chartula Laser Cut A Little Lace Invitation Gold on Ebony A calligraphic font is remenisent of old scrolls and love letters. Choose a black lace design for a boudoir twist! Team with vintage lace accessories and gold trinkets.
 Chartula Laser Cut Fleurette Invitation Ebony and Clotted Cream Black and Cream is soooo chic and with an elegant lasercut pattern is both intricate and sophisticated. Perfect for a Halloween ball!
 Chartula Laser Cut Thistle & Rose Orné Invitation Gold on Natural Your colour scheme doesn’t have to be black to evoke a spooky or magical theme (ghosts are white - ish aren’t they?!). The burning on the front of this invitation gives it a look of old parchment. Accessorise your wedding with old candle sticks (the more melted wax the better!), ornate gold picture frames, romantic lace dresses and a quill for your guest book!
 Chartula Laser Cut A Little Romance Invitation Vintage Pink on Ebony A romantic twist. Serve up a pink “love potion” cocktail at your reception and have whimsical fancy dress accessories for guests to help themselves to. Think crowns, pointy princess hats, cloaks and swords (plastic of course!). Plus wigs, beards and moustaches and a few animal accessories (mouse ears and tail?!) Imagine a sort of wintery Mad Hatters cocktail party!
What invitation would your wedding Fairy Godmother create for you? Last week I was delighted to find our whimsical ‘A Little Romance‘ invitation gracing the pages of the latest You and Your Wedding magazine, as part of a magical feature on fairytale weddings. Think prince charming, romantic balls and glass slippers. Check it out, I’ve been drooling over the stunning Ted Baker lace ball dress. It would never fit over my baby bump, but would surely make your bridesmaids dreams come true!
 You and Your Wedding Magazine Nov / Dec 2011  You and Your Wedding Nov / Dec 2011 p51 Here’s a closer look at our ‘A Little Romance‘ invitation. One of our new laser cut designs from 2011. I designed it with toy soldiers and children’s fairytales in mind and love it in this pretty Candy Pink colour with gold silk screen text.
 Chartula Laser Cut A little Romance Invitation Also in You and Your Wedding, I’m loving the new look “real weddings” re-named ‘Your Love Stories’ - full of oh so romantic details from six couples big days. And I’m thrilled to see some of our wedding industry buddies sharing the stories of how their weddings sparked their business - could you be next?!
As the nights draw in, now’s definitely the time to snuggle up with a good old mag and plan your happy-ever-after day, so grab your copy now!
How time flies! It’s over two weeks since we set up our stand at the Designer Wedding Show and it feels like yesterday! Thank you to everyone who visited us - we had a great time chatting to you! If you’d like more information about any of the designs you saw at the show do email us. And if you left your details with us you can look forward to some hot tips and the lowdown on our new website launch! Whoop!
 Chartula at the Designer Wedding Show October 2011 Opulent, ornate and old fashioned romance could be seen throughout the show - we especially enjoyed delicious cupcakes from the Peggy Porschen Pop-up Parlour (yum!), drooling over the beautiful catwalk show and we were simply blown away by the amazingly creative By Appointment Only Design guys, their stand as always was stunning and their floral displays throughout the show were just magical!
But if there was one design that stood out for you all on the Chartula stand it was our Lace Orné laser cut invitation in Vintage Peach. Reminiscent of a pretty lace napkin, it’s delicate simplicity captured almost everyones attention. A new 2011 design and one of our personal favourites, it’s oh sooo pretty in this colour scheme.
 Chartula Laser Cut Lace Orné Invitation in Vintage Peach  Chartula Laser Cut Lace Orné Invitation in Vintage Peach We also love our fellow wedding stationers and had great fun chatting with Ivy Ellen, Cutture, Smythson, Hello Lucky and meeting the lovely I am Nat. If it can’t be Chartula then we’d highly recommend any of these guys for your wedding invitations.
We’ve gone all healthy at Chartula this month! Fresh from the Designer Wedding Show are these two dreamy new colourful versions of our ‘A Little Lace‘ laser cut invitation.
Silk screen printed in gold ink on delicious new ‘Eau de Nil’ and ‘Mint Cream’ cards. These two tasty colours have just been launched by our top paper supplier and we’ve been dying to have some fun with them! What’s more earlier this year we acquired (and tweeted about lots!) a flirty new calligraphy inspired typeface called ‘Belluccia’. Designed specifically for wedding stationery, the swirls and twirls of this romantic typeface tease their way across the page - teamed with the creamy green colourways, we think these pretty details add a playful twist to our latest laser cut design.
 Chartula Laser Cut A Little Lace Invitation Gold on Eau de Nil  Chartula Laser Cut A Little Lace Invitation Gold on Mint Cream I’m a huge fan of colourful stationery and think green and gold makes for a flirty, feminine look. But never fear! If green’s not your thing (or just not in your colour scheme) you can have this pretty design in any colour you like! Just let us know what you want! Keep that feminine touch with these ebony, white and candy colours.
Chartula Laser Cut A Little Lace Invitation Gold on Ebony  Chartula Laser Cut A Little Lace Invitation Gold on Pristine White  Chartula Laser Cut A Little Lace Invitation Gold on Candy Pink Oh I do love that Belluccia font. It’s sooo romantic! And if you’re feeling adventurous why not have all of these colours together for that French boudoir look.
P.S. Check out Belluccia font designer Demi Sementelli’s blog for beautiful calligraphy inspired ideas for your wedding!
 Chartula Beau Jardin Laser Cut Invitation The final instalment in our Chartula list of ‘Tips’ for a great design. This week it’s ‘Go with Your Gut’.
Go with Your Gut
This is my best bit of advice, my favourite tip and one that I never quite understand but that always sends me in the right direction. I often have a feeling that a design is, or isn’t working, a gut instinct. It’s really quite frustrating as most of the time I can’t put into words why I have this feeling, so it’s hard to argue my point! But what I usually find is that it prompts me to re-asses a design, to look at it from another perspective, get another opinion or leave it for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. I usually find that my brain eventually catches up with my gut and tells me what is or isn’t working and then the design moves forward. It’s a bit of a weird tip and I’m not sure if everyone has a gut instinct for all things. But if you do then my advice is, go with it, because it will usually be right.
Thats it! I wanted there to be a perfect ten tips, but there are only 8! What a shame! Oh well, I hope they give you a little insight into what we do here and help you to think about your stationery design in a different way.
Charlotte x
 Chartula Laser Cut Fleurette Invitation The next instalment in our Chartula list of ‘Tips’ for a great design. This week it’s ‘Be Brave’.
Be Brave!
I’ve said before how much I love colour, I really do. I don’t own many black clothes and I create colourful life drawings in my spare time. When a client is brave with colour and design it makes me so happy! Of course you will want your stationery to compliment your wedding and we know there are various parties to please, so it’s OK to go with a cream invitation. But if you can be brave it’s often much more rewarding. I have met a number of Brides and Mothers of Brides, who at first wanted a classic engraved invitation, but on seeing the impact of our laser cut stationery in the flesh have done a complete U-turn and never looked back. After all, everything was new and different once, even traditional hand engraved invitations!
So be brave and be bold and you just might surprise yourself!
See our previous ‘It’s All in the Detail’ Tips: Less is More, Take Time to Refine, Stick to the Brief, Invest in Typography, Create Rules!, Be Consistent
 Chartula Laser Cut Petite Fairytale Invitation The next instalment in our Chartula list of ‘Tips’ for a great design. This week it’s ‘Be Consistent’.
Be Consistent
This applies to our previous ‘Create Rules!’ post as well, but I especially pick up on it with regards to punctuation and it’s something you can really check when you write your wording. There’s often no right or wrong way, but it’s sticking to what you choose that makes the difference. So on your reply cards if you use a colon after ‘Name(s):’ be sure to use one after ‘Dietary Requirements:’. On your information cards if you choose to capitalise the first letter of each word in one heading, then do so on all the headings. I think good typography is all about the great bits jumping out and the remainder sitting neatly. Sort of providing the foundation blocks, so that your eye focuses on the wow factors parts of the design without distraction. Essentially, it’s not always what you choose (commas, full stops, colons, brackets, lower case text, all caps, underlining, etc) but it’s sticking to these choices throughout that keeps everything neat and tidy, smart and well polished.
Looking for your something blue?… I love blue as a wedding colour theme. From dainty duck egg to sunny cornflower, there’s a shade for every season! It’s a lovely pretty alternative to the more obvious pink and can be given a vintage twist with eau de nil shades, creams and coppers or a regal touch with rich royals, cornflowers and gold. Not to mention the fail safe ivory and bluebell, which slots perfectly into any spring summer theme, or even winter (see our snowflake design below!). So here’s a few of my fave blue invitations. I’ve kept it pale and light (although don’t be shy, bright blue and pink make a fab combo, and don’t forget the elegant navy - but they’re both for another post!)
 Chartula Create! Laser Cut Fleur Heart  Chartula Laser Cut Petite Fairytale Invitation  Chartula Laser Cut Haute Fleurie Invitation  Chartula Laser Cut Snowflake Invitation  Chartula Engraved Rose Folly Invitation So, what to put with these delicate shades? If you’re going for duck egg then cream, gold and silver look lovely and give a sophisticated edge. Metallic accessories (from shoes and jewellery, to crockery, candelabra and vases) are ideal for winter weddings or glamourous venues. Or add in some candy pink and lemon yellow with vintage crockery and wild flowers for a country fete twist. For the brighter blue shades, gold is fab! - I love this cornflower blue and gold invitation above - very regal! Or go wild with clashing bright pinks, oranges and yellows - wow!
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