For many years, I have fostered an obsession with Crane & Co. stationery.  In high school, I selected monogrammed notecards and graduation thank-you notes from the company’s timeless, classic offerings, but by the time Chris and I began to work on our wedding invitation suite, Crane & Co. had somehow slipped to the back of my mind.  You see, during our planning, we had created a custom design that we were incorporating into our wedding as a repeating visual theme, and it had not occurred to me that I could blend old and new.

Let me start with the origin of our graphic theme idea.  One beautiful afternoon last fall, Chris and I took a new camera down to the Capitol to walk around, enjoy the lovely day, and snap some pictures.  The Capitol building is especially significant to the two of us; not only is it the most recognizable and meaningful symbol of the city we love and call our home, but we also have worked there during our time in D.C.  Chris took some amazing photographs, and when we saw one particular Senate-side image he had framed, we decided it would be the perfect backdrop for our save-the-dates.

We became very attached to that image of the Capitol, and from it — together with our wedding colors of light blue, tan, and navy; our imaginations; and the creative genius of our graphic designer — the concept for our formal invitations was born.  I was ecstatic when I received the proofs from the designer.  They were EXACTLY what we had in mind: a blend of classic and creative that sparks the recipients’ memory of our photo save-the-dates.

We selected a small, family-owned print shop in Arlington to produce our invitation suite.  The icing on the cake?  Our one-of-a-kind designs ended up on Crane & Co. thick, luxurious cotton paper stock, nestled within gold-lined Crane’s envelopes.  They might just be my favorite part of our wedding so far!