Today’s wedding post makes me smile from ear to ear because I’m sharing some of the extra special personal touches we added to our wedding through our wedding paper and welcome bags. Designing all our wedding paper was perhaps my favorite part of the whole wedding planning process! We spent hours getting all the original designs, fonts, colors, stamps, ribbons, and verbiage right.
Our welcome bags were a blast to design as well. Of course, they included more wedding paper in the form of our welcome letter and our personalized playing cards. I think wedding welcome bags are a wonderful addition to any wedding because they are often the first thing guests see when they arrive so they make guests feel excited and welcomed! They are way more personable than a hotel gift bag! This is especially true of wedding gift bags with a destination wedding and out of town guests. You want your guests to feel right at home after all! Wedding welcome bags can also serve as wedding gifts or favors if you decide to include unique items like custom playing cards or custom beach towels. The sky is the limit!
Keep reading because I’m sharing who we worked with for the designs, all the Charleston details, and why I loved our wedding paper and welcome bags so much. Hopefully this post will give you a few wedding ideas of your own if you happen to be planning a wedding! There are so many wedding paper talents out there now! Feel free to email me if you would like some suggestions!
Our Wedding Paper and Welcome Bags
I can literally not say enough amazing things about the design studio we worked with to design and create all our wedding paper, Studio R Designs. I had all these ideas in my head and the ladies of Studio R listened to every single thing I (and my mom!) said and created all our designs for our save the dates, wedding invitations, rehearsal dinner invitations, bridal brunch invitations, wedding programs, welcome letters, welcome bags, wedding signage, playing cards, matchboxes, menu cards, gift tags, a handful of different cocktail napkins, stationery, and more. They were open to my imagination and everything translated to paper so beautifully thanks to Studio R!
The first glimpse our wedding guests got of our wedding were the save the dates we sent out about 7 months before the wedding.
We wanted our save the dates to be really special, set the tone for our whole wedding weekend, and get our guests excited for the festivities to come. Our wedding colors were white, a natural sage leafy green, and a dusty French blue so the colors really came through in the paper. We also wanted the paper to really embrace the Charleston setting of the wedding so we included lots of Southern greenery and magnolias.
The magnolias were also a nod to our rehearsal dinner venue.
My mom did the most incredible job of sourcing all the stamps we used. I can take no credit. Each stamp was Southern or Charleston specific and so many of our guests marveled at how special they were! My grandmother collected stamps so I really enjoyed this special touch that my mom completely nailed. Every design that graced our paper was illustrated specifically for our wedding. I honestly still cherish the paper today and everyday! It serves as such a special memento now from our wedding weekend.
I always love receiving welcome bags when I’m a wedding guest. Honestly I love to see what the bride and groom select to show off their wedding destination. Welcome bags are perfect for giving guests a peak at your wedding destination and why you love it! We had so many options for what to include in our welcome bags. Charleston is so rich in flavors, culture, and local talent so we knew each bag filled would be special.
We decided on benne wafers, chocolate bourbon cookies, praline crunch pecans, champagne, water bottles, personalized playing cards, a remedy kit (for everyone who had a little too much fun!), and our welcome notes.
The welcome notes consisted of a welcome and thank you from Edwin and me, a schedule of the weekend events, and our top recommendations for what to do in Charleston broken down by sightseeing, eating, drinking, and playing. We also had our welcome bags customized with screen printing on the front as a nice extra touch! We opted for a natural fiber bag but I think any canvas tote or other tote bag works wonderfully for wedding welcome bags too (honestly, good ole fashion paper bags work greta too). All our welcome bag dreams came true thanks to the Charleston based company, A Signature Welcome. The ladies there are beyond talented, sweet, and thoughtful! Once again, I can’t say enough amazing things about their team! They were a joy to work with and I’d recommend them to anyone (they do weddings all over, not just in Charleston).
P.S. The earrings that you see were a birthday gift the year of our wedding. They are vintage diamond and sapphire earrings from Charleston’s oldest and finest jewelry store, Croghan’s Jewel Box. I wore them on our wedding day as my something blue and have worn them on subsequent special occasions!
