Matchy Matchy

Does anyone else hear Heidi Klum’s voice in their head when they read those words?  Maybe it’s just me…

As I’ve turned my attention to invitations and stationery, I’ve been contemplating the whole idea of “matching sets”.

from letters2teampurple

I look longingly at the beautifully coordinated sets of invitations photographed and sent out by other brides.  I spend hours browsing letterpress and stationery sites for ideas and find myself drawn to invitations that match an overall look of a wedding.

from Wedding Paper Divas

I imagine my guests opening their heavily stamped envelopes and pulling out a "sneak peak" of our wedding day…  They will look at the gorgeous invitation, map, rsvp card and whatever else I manage to stuff in there and know that THIS wedding will be different, amazing, unique and the best ever!

(Seriously, I never really believed in “bride brain” until I started having imaginary visions like this on a regular basis.)

Then, I step back, take a deep breath or two and realize that I’m not the kind of person who will ever be able to pull that off…  I mean, I’m lucky if my clothes aren’t terribly un-matched in the morning (just ask the FI).

So, my goal, when it comes to creating the right set of items for that magical envelope, is just to get the overall feel somehow in the right neighborhood.  We’re trying to tie in some Mexican traditions like loteria and papel picado and have a very loose theme – but without an overall color scheme, the paper products have been a bit overwhelming.

As a last resort, I handed the FI a pile of samples from Cards and Pockets over the weekend and told him to pick the ones he liked.  He picked four colors.  I ordered two, have plans on using a third for the envelopes and haven’t quite decided on using the fourth (brown?  eh.)

This may seem somewhat random, but I did hand select those samples from the impressive selections offered awhile ago.  And, maybe those selections were based on a long ago abandoned color scheme from the early days of the engagement (when I still thought I could be normal enough to have a set of colors I could list off when people asked).  But, the colors were based on something...  hmmm.  

Anyway, the order shipped today and I’m hoping to get some serious proto-types started as soon as the package arrives.  

And, once I get over the delusion that I'm the kind of bride who could create a unified vision (a la the above inspiration board) AND manage to pull it off (without pulling out most of my own hair) I think I'll be ready to make more progress on our version of an "invitation suite".

Did you pick out a matching suite?  Or, were your ideas a bit more eclectic?  Did you want to DIY or were you hoping to spend less time on this part of the plans?