D & D ink is a team of two friends, Danni and Danielle, who share a passion for
bringing together creativity and generosity through calligraphy and custom gifts.

THINKING ABOUT A CALLIGRAPHY WEDDING….

Elegant Touch Invitations/ Calligraphy by Rachel Snyder

There are many different ways to have a calligraphy wedding….and AFFORD it! If you are on a tight budget you can still add calligraphy to certain aspects of your wedding.

Decide what parts of your Wedding you want to add calligraphy because you may choose to add calligraphy to the Reception, your Wedding Invitation Addressing, Place Cards that will give guests a one of a kind piece of artwork as a keepsake, or any other area that you want to add “an elegant touch.”

If you are not able to afford “calligraphy,” actual pen in ink for your wedding, you can always choose to have your “calligraphy” done with gel pens with most of the same fonts. Adding this style of writing, MONOLINE style, your addressing, place cards, etc. will be beautiful.

You can still have the elegant writing in different colors and styles and still stay within your budget.

For more information on pricing and samples visit Elegant Touch Invitations and Calligraphy by Rachel Snyder

For a sample of this style of writing you can fill out the form on the website and receive your free sample

If your dreaming of CALLIGRAPHY WEDDING you can have it

Elegant Touch Invitations/Calligraphy by Rachel Snyder
Is offering discounts to the Bride-to-Be!
The Holiday’s are here, for some money is tight, so to help future Brides out, Calligrapher, Rachel Snyder is offering discounts if you book by Jan. 31,2009.
You can receive 10% off of your addressing of 100 or more invitations (outer and inner envelope)
7% off of your having your place cards done

To get your discount make mention of DECDISC12

This discount is available to new clients only and is not good with any other discounts or coupons.

I had the pleasure of meeting the owner of a local calligraphy studio the other day and I wanted to make mention of her business! She does fabulous work and if any of my clients (or even if you’re not one of my clients) are in need of calligraphy for your wedding or special event we can work in conjunction to make sure the calligraphy and invitation design go hand in hand. She can match styles, colors, mix custom inks, you name it!  For those of you who would like to have part of your wedding stationery done truly by hand, Sharon’s service is of the highest quality. She also creates beautiful botanical illustrations which could be an elegant addition to your wedding stationery.

Above is an example of some place cards Sharon has done. What makes these unique place cards so fun is that guests find out which table they are sitting out by picking their shell out of the sand to reveal the table number!

Above is an example of Sharon’s envelope calligraphy. She can match any font style you wish.

For more information contact Kate at Kate@KatlemDesign.com or 401-608-2362 or visit Sharon’s website at SharonMorgera.com.

Thanks for reading!

Custom picture made for a client.

Ink and Annie Calligraphy

Attention, brides-to-be and wedding planners (especially those of you with really bad penmanship): There is a stellar pro calligrapher in our midst! In researching an upcoming article on wedding stationery, I was fortunate enough to be put in touch with the amazing Anne Riley. Anne is a professional calligrapher who lives on the Eastern Shore. What makes Anne so interesting, in my opinion, is the extraordinary passion she has for her art.

For the past two years, Anne has been studying under Master penman (or should I say penwoman?) Pat Blair, who just so happens to be in charge of the White House calligraphy department. (I bet you didn’t even know they have their own!) In fact, when Anne met Pat, Pat was Dick Cheney’s personal calligrapher. (My newest goal is to have one of those someday.) She also wrote the Queen of England’s invitation to a white-tie dinner at the White House. Both women are members of the Washington Calligraphers Guild, a nonprofit organization with over 500 members.

When I last heard from Anne Riley, the go-getter was preparing to leave for a week-long retreat in Ohio, where she will be studying with another impressive penman in the calligraphy world, Michael Sull. Michael worked as a calligrapher for Hallmark for 8 years. Anne promises to share samples of her latest work when she returns.

Anne specializes in wedding envelopes and place cards, and has started her own business in Salisbury, called Ink and Annie. If any of you Maryland brides have calligraphy needs (meaning your chicken scratch just isn’t going to make the cut), I think Annie’s definitely worth checking out.

Return to What’s Up? Weddings home page: www.whatsupmag.com/weddings.aspx

Return to What’s Up? Annapolis home page: www.whatsupmag.com

Wedding Invitations: Labels vs Handwriting

So you have the invitations made and ready to mail out the door 6-8 weeks before your big day.  How should you address the invitees?  You could a) hire a calligrapher to elegantly address your guests, b) print labels on your home printer, or c) write out the names and addresses yourself, in your own pristine or atrocious handwriting!

If you have the time and budget hiring a calligrapher could be the perfect touch to your beautifully crafted invitations, making the guests feel that it truly will be a unique and special event.  Oftentimes stationary stores or arts schools will know of someone local, or Craigslist will have calligraphers for hire.  However, by the time you are two months from your wedding you may not have them time or money to hire a calligrapher which leads me to the next option of labels.

Labels have come a long way since the drab, office-white, rectangular style.  It’s possible to get many different sizes, shapes and opacities.  In addition there are software programs that allow you to add graphics or different fonts.  (Avery does a great job of this).  On a tight schedule they’re definitely the way to go.  But, if your invitation is handmade or carefully crafted, a label may not be congruent with the rest of the invitation.  We get junk-mail in our mailboxes everyday, and receiving a wedding invitation with a mail-merge label sometimes just doesn’t feel personal enough.  It’s a shame to sometimes see an otherwise beautiful invitation ruined by a label, even a clear one. 

A third option then of handwriting the invitations yourself?  It depends on your handwriting and time allowance.  My solution was to learn calligraphy.  I’m definitely not the artsy one in my family, and was both elated and disappointed in fourth grade to receive the only “needs improvement” on my report card in penmanship.  Who needs penmanship anyway? I thought.  If only I had paid attention, I wouldn’t have been bent over a bunch of library books trying to crudely imitate the different alphabets of calligraphy.  Surprisingly, it didn’t take too many evening sessions before I could properly address an envelope.

How to Learn Calligraphy Quickly:

1. Order a couple of calligraphy books from the library. 

2. Go to your local arts store to buy a calligraphy pen.  I used a Sheaffer pen in black and with a fine tip.   In the Seattle area Aaron Brothers Art & Framing has a great supply. 

Once in the groove they didn’t take that long to complete and I didn’t end up using as many extra envelopes as I thought I would.  In the end I do think I managed to trick the few people (who noticed such things as the envelope on a wedding invitation) into thinking that it looked rather nice. 

Here are two books that I found helpful from the library.

The Calligrapher’s Bible by David Harris

1-2-3 Calligraphy!: Letters and Projects for Beginners and Beyond by Eleanor Winters

Envelope Addressing

Table Cards

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