CURRENT 2008 ISSUE

The Wedding Paper Chase

Story by Joyce Wagner

Pulp Culture      Ties That Bind      From Die Cut to Deckled

Pulp Culture

Kissing off. Couching. Deckle. Vatman’s Shake.

These terms seem more apropos to a cutesy couple courting than to wedding preparations, but to the couple who want to immerse themselves up to their elbows in all stages of the nuptials, they represent the fun and easy process of papermaking. From invitations and R.S.V.P. cards to programs and place cards, today’s weddings have become more paper intensive than ever. And that doesn’t even include shower invitations, thank you cards, or the recently popular “Save the Date” card. Because all these love-related notes can set the tone for the wedding, making your own paper or using an Island paper or printing business can ensure that your Island wedding says Martha’s Vineyard.

Seastone Studios in West Tisbury offers a chance for the bridal party to begin right at the beginning by making the paper for the wedding invites or other myriad mailings and handouts that accompany a modern union.

Paper artist Sandy Bernat turns the two-day project into a festive event as bride, groom, family, and friends fabricate their own paper. With materials and production steps called molds, slurry, and charging the vat, puns and giggles are often produced as quickly as the lovingly crafted sheets. The party is invited to bring a basket lunch including, of course, champagne.

Sandy prepares the paper pulp in advance and is able to incorporate materials such as seaweed, fresh or dried flowers, ferns, leaves, and seeds into the mix. She is happy to direct the couple to the best places on the Island to gather natural fauna or will do the gathering herself. Old family lace and other fabrics can also be integrated into the pulp or laid onto the wet fiber.

“If they have linen or cotton, I can turn that back into paper because it was once a plant,” Sandy explains.

If the couple is entranced by the idea of hand-made papers but time or geographical constraints don’t allow for a hands-on approach, Sandy has shelves full of her own hand-produced stock. She can also create custom papers (on a limited basis). The finished papers can be taken to a professional printer or run through an ink-jet printer. Some couples prefer to print on a vellum insert that can be tucked inside a folded sheet or attached on top.

Ties That Bind

Jenni Bick Bookbinding on Main Street in Vineyard Haven is dedicated to fine paper and handmade books. Whether you bring in your own handcrafted paper or choose to use the store’s imported papers and books, the staff can produce a full suite of celebratory stationery.

“Primarily what we do is personalized wedding guest books and photo albums. Memory scrapbooks. Anything that’s a book related to a wedding,” Jenni says. “All of those books can be personalized in a number of ways.” Among them are monogramming, binding in silk, and enhancing with fine satin ribbons.

All of their custom wedding stationery products are done, Jenni explains, “with an eye toward doing it differently – much more handcrafted, a little more unusual, trying to find the most luxurious materials, and using a variety of printing techniques.”

Jenni also encourages couples to provide, or let the staff create, custom artwork to incorporate into the invitation. A logo, photograph, family crest, or graphic can represent the couple, the Island, or the joining of the families.

“We once took a photograph of a wave and rendered it into a lightly abstract graphic,” she recalls, “which gave [the invitation] a really Vineyardy feel. We also did one that was engraved with a lighthouse.” Other Island-specific touches for a Vineyard wedding communiqué include attaching seashells, dried grasses, twigs, beach pebbles, and sand; tying place cards to starfish; and providing reception signage that’s attached to driftwood tucked into buckets of sand. “There’s not anything we’re not willing to try here,” Jenni boasts.

From Die Cut to Deckled

Like most printing firms, The Tisbury Printer in Vineyard Haven provides book upon book of standard invitation samples, so the traditional couple can order whatever fits their needs. But according to proprietor Chris Decker, “That’s boring.”

Although they typically don’t design the invitation, the Tisbury Printer staff works on custom designs. They can also recommend the best materials for do-it-yourselfers and do the cutting, pasting, drilling, and deckling – whatever the couple doesn’t have the time or inclination to do.

“The first thing I tell someone before they do it all on their own is think about the envelopes,” says Chris.

Envelopes come in standard sizes with very little deviation, and the minimum number that can be produced in a custom size is 1,000. Since few weddings are that large, he says, “You should start with the envelope sizes that are available, then design your piece around what’s going to fit.”

Unless the invitation is strictly traditional, the texture and color of the envelope don’t need to match it. Indeed, for custom work, it’s almost impossible to find matching envelopes. “There are a lot of papers out there with bits of flowers or dried grass or that kind of thing, but there’s almost always no envelope that goes with it,” Chris says. Seastone does have an envelope mold for do-it-yourselfers, but creating those adds a lot of time and work to the project.

An invitation on beautiful paper, however, can look great in a plain vellum envelope. The translucency of the vellum allows a bit of the pattern to show through.

“It usually just kind of goes in the trash anyway,” Chris confides. “What people hang on to are the actual printed pieces. The envelope is just the way to get it there.”