Formal | Calligraphy | 1920’s | White Tie | Train Rides
Private Estate | Hamptons, New York
Saying that our bride, Katen, has a passion for the 1920’s would be an understatement. Working in the antiques and historical field with a specialty in the time period, we knew it had to be the focus of her invitations.
One of first conversations we had with her shared her annoyance at how we now portray the 1920’s with little to no historical accuracy and attend it like a costume party. Being all about historical accuracy ourselves, we were all about this. We worked with her and did a ton of research on invitations and etiquette of the period, looked up calling cards and their usage, and travel styling of the day. We brought all of this new information into her invitation design.
We had a few different elements that we knew we wanted to integrate:
Each invitation would be personalized for each guest, and we don’t mean the envelopes. Each invitation, reply card, reception card, travel card, and accommodations cards were all personalized for each guest.
She loved traveling by train from New York City up to their family home in the Hamptons, and booked all the travel for her guests. All travel was arranged by the bride and groom, including cars to transport guests from the station to their accommodations.
All the guest accommodations were also arranged and taken care of by the bride and groom.
The bride enlisted a staff member of their Hampton’s household to act as a concierge to arrange anything additional or answer any questions for their guests.
The idea was that the guests wouldn’t have to lift a finger. For anything.
Our invitations on stiff cream handmade paper were edged in black. Each invitation bore the name of each guest and was worded to address and invite the guests by name.
Our reply card were similarly personalized for each guest, but formatted differently than what we see in our contemporary wedding invitations. Each guest was provided with two cards, one for a response to attend, and one to decline. Each card was worded again to integrate the guest’s names into the pieces.
A petite envelope holding three small cards told each guest where they were booked to stay for the weekend, that a car would pick them up from the train station, and a card that stood in as a train ticket for the guests ride up from the city.
Several pages, bound with a tassel, detailed out all the events for the guest’s four-day stay including transportation details, dress codes, and other event details.
Each envelope continued our theme with formal copper calligraphy. A collection of vintage postage completed suite.
