Bride Guide & Party Planner
Ms. Bick adds finishing touches to a custom album. Photo courtesy of Jenni Bick
Invitations add a personal touch
By Pat Waring - March 22, 2007
Pull a favorite dress out of the closet, toss together a plate of chips and salsa, and grab a bouquet from the market. Bargain wine, paper plates, and - presto! - you're ready for a party. But what about your wedding? That special party calls for a spectacular dress, catered delicacies, and custom flowers, all to fit the bride's personality and style. With every other aspect meticulously chosen, why settle for a conventional ready-made invitation when it's possible to have one as distinctive as the day itself?
Vineyard brides are fortunate to have two dedicated artisans available to assist in their search for the perfect invitation. Both Jenni Bick and Sandra Bernat have extensive experience, technical skills, familiarity with resources, and a passion for paper and all its possibilities. While Ms. Bick makes the invitation, but first guides the bride-to-be in choosing elements that will make it personal, Ms. Bernat brings the client into the studio and assists her in making her own. In both cases, the bride can be assured of a unique product, a one-of-a-kind invitation package for her one-of-a-kind celebration. Although their personal styles and the products they create are very different, both women see the art of designing and making invitations as a creative adventure, an attitude infectious and reassuring to the bride-to-be.
Jenni Bick offers everything from personalized invitations, albums, and stationery to monogrammed spools of ribbons. Photo by Ralph Stewart
Not that many years ago wedding invitations - although formal, elegant, and always exciting to send and receive - were predictable. Heavy, off-white paper, often engraved, a small "RSVP" card enclosed. Today's brides are choosing varied menus, eclectic music, and wedding venues from churches to lighthouses, so invitations too have become one more way to give the day a personal touch.
"The invitation, when it arrives in the mail, sets the tone for the rest of the event," says Jenni Bick, an experienced bookbinder who began doing custom invitations about two years ago.
Ms. Bick meets with, clients at her Main Street, Vineyard Haven store in an alcove stocked with sample albums, a rainbow of blank note cards, spools of ribbon from opulent satin to feather-light organza. Sheets of handmade paper hang on racks, bright as blossoms.
At Seastone Papers, the mould is lifted from the wet pulp in which an inclusion of botanicals has been added. Photo by J. W. Smith
"You won't believe how limitless the choices are - hundreds!" says Ms. Bick, gesturing to the paper.
Along with albums of paper and print samples, Ms. Bick displays a collection of invitations suggesting the range of possibilities. Some are sleek and sophisticated with two-tone borders. Color combinations are extensive, and some are playful with bright graphics. A personal touch may be a monogram, an outline of a shell, leaf, or fern behind the text. One elegant style features shimmery pearlized paper screen-printed with metallic ink. She will gladly create a traditional invitation, flowing black script on heavy, ivory-toned stock as well.
Instead of using an envelope, the invitation may be set into a "pocket" or wrapped with paper, tied with a ribbon, "to create a package and a sense of ceremony."
Sandy Bernat of Seastone Papers examines a batch of finished paper.
Ms. Bick guides clients through the maze of additional materials - reply cards, dinner invitations, informative brochures for out-of-towners. She also makes personalized place cards, table accessories, scrapbooks, and guest books.
"No two jobs are alike," says Ms. Bick. "Each is one-of-a-kind and tailored to the client."
Once selections are made, invitations are fabricated at Ms. Bick's workshop on State Road. "It's very much a team effort," she emphasizes, crediting nine other staff members. She also offers "do it yourself" instructions using materials available at her shop.
Ms. Bick advises allowing anywhere between two and eight weeks for production; invitations should be mailed out four to six weeks before the big day. Ms. Bick said she can work with clients to keep the price tag manageable by choosing materials that are affordable without sacrificing style.
Sandy Bernat's two-story wood and glass Seastone Papers studio in the Christiantown woods is chock full of colorful paper, paper objects, paper-making materials and equipment. This is the place for a bride-to-be with an artistic bent who wants to have her invitations be a true personal expression. Here is a chance to indulge those childhood artwork pleasures - playing with colors, cutting, folding, pasting, stamping, getting her hands messy - before she takes on a new role as glamorous, grown-up bride.
Creating your own at Seastone Papers is much more than turning out a batch of invitations, Ms. Bernat says. It is a special occasion, whether the bride comes to the studio alone, or brings others - her mother, a maid of honor, best girlfriends, or the groom. They work together, and often share lunch or a champagne toast at the picnic table outside.
Ms. Bernat carefully couches the wet pulp after it is placed on the blotter, readying it for
separation from the mold.
"It becomes a recordable event," Ms. says, recalling a father-of-the-bride who videotaped the day.
Clients can take part in every aspect of the design, making their own paper and choosing accents - petals, leaves, seaweed, ferns, seeds - then cutting the paper to order. Or skip the paper-making and select from an array of pre-made note cards in subtle and rich colors.
"There are all sort of ways to personalize your own wedding invitation," says Ms. Bernat, flipping through an album of past creations.
Printing can be done by hand, or a professional studio can print directly onto the handmade stock. One may have the message printed on opaque vellum or other paper, to be enclosed or attached with ribbon or simple raffia. Reply cards or invitations to the rehearsal dinner can be crafted from the same or complementary paper. Ms. Bernat will recommend shops or web sites for printing or paper products to coordinate with the handmade materials.
Brides to be may also look to Ms. Bernat for sweet wedding day accessories - delicate paper bags to hold bouquets gracing the reception tables, guest books covered in handmade paper. Her "Fortunate Cookie" features colored paper folded in fortune- cookie shape, holding a joyful affirmation for a happy-ever-after future, enclosed in a delicate paper box.
For more information about Sandy Bernat and Seastone call 508-693-5786; for more information about Jenni Bick call 508-696-7253 or visit www.jennibick.com.
Pat Waring is a staff writer for The Martha's Vineyard Times.
