by Liz Baker Photography | Wedding planning
Fine Art Wedding Stationery = Pinterest Heaven (or Nightmare?)
Fine art wedding stationery is certainly not in short supply. BUT finding the right suite AND choosing from the thousands of lovely designs out there does present a challenge. Pinterest seems to be literally heaving with beautiful samples – you’re not imagining it! How will you possibly choose?
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I love to shoot beautiful stationery at weddings (oh alright, and I’m a design junkie) so I want to help you! Here are my top 5 tips for working out what you want, and narrowing down the choice of fine art wedding stationery to a really good shortlist.
1. Set your budget.
First, decide how important it is to you to have a coherent set of paperie, or a unique one-of-a-kind design for your wedding invitations. Work out how much you want to spend. Then you will know whether you can look at completely bespoke designs or whether you need to hunt down a (more affordable) stylish semi-custom suite. Bespoke designs are utterly beautiful pieces of art that are a joy to behold and make a beautiful keepsake from your wedding day. On the other hand semi-custom designs are great if you are on a tighter budget, or need them in a hurry. There are certainly plenty of handsome suites out there.
2. Put your stamp on it.
The next step will be to keep in mind the style, theme, florals or colours that you are planning for your wedding. You might be drawing inspiration from the venue, or the season of the year. Or elements of your romance that you want to thread right through your wedding. This is the stage where a wedding planner will come into their own and do all the hard work for you. So if you’ve booked one you can relax. Or perhaps you are a creative bride and groom who want to be hands-on in your wedding planning. In which case this is when you want to find a stationery supplier who will take your ideas and make them reality.
3. Keep it simple & understated.
Fine art wedding stationery is known for being at once modern and elegant. Often its a minimalist design although that can take many forms. It could be a traditional letterpress font and a thick cotton rag paper. Or it could be an elaborate handwritten design using pen and ink, headed up with an elegant monogram, detail or line drawing of your venue. These could look quite different but they share simplicity and elegance by allowing plenty of space on the page. Further, these types of design rely on understated elements like the texture of the paper or the watercolour wash applied to it.
4. Think outside the box.
Try to think from the start about every aspect of stationery that you might want. Save-the-dates, invitations and RSVPs themselves are the obvious essentials. However, here are a few other elements for you to consider. Will you want place-names or escort cards for your tables? Will you want a table layout plan or table names? What about menus, orders of service, ceremony seat reservations, an order of the day, welcome/directions signs, or signage for cards/gifts/signature cocktails? Beyond these items, have you considered handwritten vows or a penned love letter to give one another on your wedding morning? So many possibilities, but the key is to think it all through and decide at the start what you’d like.
5. Keep up with the paperwork.
Keep in mind timescales, since even semi-custom designs need to be ordered in sufficient time. A good rule of thumb is a minimum of 6 weeks before your print deadline for customisable designs, and 12 weeks in advance of printing for bespoke and handlettered designs. Once you’ve found your favourites, be sure to contact the designer and ask what their exact deadline requirements are before you place your order.
So, let’s recap.
Pinterest is a huge resource for fine art wedding stationery, but arm yourself first by remembering these top five: budget, style, simplicity, details, timing.
Help! I’m still stuck in the wedding stationery mud!
If you’ve followed these steps and are still baffled by the array on offer, or if you got stuck halfway through, then cut to the chase. Here are my best 5 tried-and-tested fine art wedding stationery designers that I have personal experience of. (You’re welcome!)
Laura Elizabeth Patrick (Bespoke)
Bureau Design (Bespoke & semi-custom)
Gemma Milly (Semi-custom)
By Moon and Tide (Bespoke & customisable)
De Winton Paper Co. (Bespoke & customisable)
Of course, stationery is just one stop on your wedding planning journey. Get my guide to planning your own fine art wedding sent to you completely free, along with your no-obligation, personalised quote.
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by Liz Baker Photography | Branding, Inspiration
The DIY fine art wedding bouquet
Are you a modern bride in need of a fine art wedding bouquet? If so, it is certainly a wonderful idea to consider the DIY route for this special aspect of your day.
By getting along to a one-day workshop, perhaps with your mum or bridesmaids, you’ll learn how to create your own fine art wedding bouquet.
These courses offer fantastic value for money for the fine art bride. It’s one of the recommendations in my guide How to Plan Your Fine Art Wedding which I send out to all my clients when they enquire.
The real cut flower garden
It’s always such a pleasure to hang out with Charlie and her team at The Real Cut Flower Garden. Charlie’s home and garden is a true gem in the heart of rural West Dorset.
A journalist and passionate gardener for 25 years plus, Charlie traded the pen for the trowel and began The Real Cut Flower Garden in 2004. They were the first company in the UK to send out bouquets of entirely home grown flowers nationwide. Four years ago expert Charlie launched her Flower School, and every year she and her team add to the courses on offer.
Real flowers for real brides
I was lucky enough to get along to the bouquet workshop in June – perhaps the UK’s most beautiful month, flower-wise. Here are some photos from the workshop, including the bouquets which I created with Charlie’s beautiful flowers. (How stunning do they look tied up with hand-died silk ribbons from Kate Cullen?)
Of course, if you are totally not the green-fingered type, don’t panic! Charlie can supply all your wedding flowers, home-grown and cut fresh from her garden.
P.S. Don’t forget to request your personalised quote today in order to get more tips and keys to planning a fine art wedding.
by Liz Baker Photography | Weddings
Classic Fine Art wedding
Today I am sharing a beautiful fine art wedding, captured on film in a country village. I really love it when couples keep it elegant and pared back. Featuring pops of red and a cream tea reception, this is a classic and elegant fine art wedding. I shared this lovely couple’s engagement shoot a while back.
Autumn/Winter Colour Palette
Finally we have the first snow in years here in the West Country! It’s a real winter wonderland out there, so before it melts away I want to share this late Autumn wedding. With lush greens and rich berry reds it features a beautiful wintry colour palette to the florals and cake, in addition to the fading hues of the Autumn leaves. There are lots of pretty details here – and the most darling flower girl and pageboy!
Country Chic
The country chapel ceremony for close friends and family was followed by a relaxed Cream Tea in the sweet old village schoolroom. The minimalist interior of the Somerset chapel – with light-washed walls and dark oak pews – gave a great backdrop for some crisp imagery. I shot the ceremony mainly on black and white film.
Afterwards in the old schoolroom mouthwatering profiteroles, meringues and scones were laid out on trestle tables, and washed down with local cider! All provided carefully and with exceptional service by local caterer Jean.
Luxurious film tones
A change of venue and outfits saw the second part of this wedding in London, which I will share later. But for now, enjoy the gorgeous Kodak film tones of this lovely Autumnal Somerset wedding!
Photography: Liz Baker Fine Art Photography
Film: Kodak Portra 400, Portra 800 & Fuji Neopan 400
Lab: Richard Photo Lab
Floral design: Little Thatch Florist
Dress: Tom Flowers by Berketex
Shoes: Ruby Shoo
Veil: Demelza Charity for Care of Children, Canterbury
Jewellery and hair accessories: Monsoon Accessorize
Hair: Emphasis, South Petherton
Flower girl’s dress & shoes: Monsoon
Cake design & catering: Injeanious Cakes, South Petherton
Vintage engagement ring from Budapest
Ring box: Secret Keeper Box
Cider: Perry’s Cider Mills, Dowlish Wake
Stationery: Wren Press, London
Silk ribbons: Lancaster & Cornish
Fragrance: Jo Malone
by Liz Baker Photography | Wedding planning
What is Fine Art Photography?
This is the question many couples are wondering as they look at the array of options for their wedding photography. And there are several answers!
The original fine art
My own take on it is to produce photographs that are as beautiful as paintings. Paintings are the original fine art. Paintings are often impressions, they use licence, they interpret movement, they invoke feelings. Photographs can do all this too, and that’s precisely what I’m aiming for. And so I coined the phrase painterly imagery to describe my photographs.
Fine Art weddings
“Fine art” is a genre sweeping through the world of weddings. It encompasses every aspect of the planning and design of a wedding. It generally features an elegant, pared-back style with a strong emphasis on seasonal, loose, floral design. Colours, dresses, accessories and makeup vary but tend to lean towards soft, natural and organic looks.
The Film revival
Most accurately however, the fine art wedding movement stems from a revival of film photography. This is really important to note. The look and feel of overexposed film tones is the defining factor of fine art wedding photography. Pioneered by Jose Villa and spearheaded by blogs like Wedding Sparrow, film photography is at the heart of fine art wedding style.
I am proud to shoot film and delighted to be a preferred Wedding Sparrow vendor. And I would be honoured to discuss how true fine art film photography can be the perfect choice for your wedding. Please do get in touch with any questions you may have!
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