Antique Tablecloths

I collect antique linen.  When my daughter got married, I wanted something extra special in the linen department.  The best way to do that...use my collection!

My favorite Needle Lace  Cloth!

The bride and groom sweetheart table had a French Cluny Lace tablecloth.

French Cluny Lace

Pt. De Venise inserts in this tablecloth with filet lace borders

My favorite Appenzell cloth

 Appenzell is wonderful.  It is probably my favorite type of lace.  I'll have to blog about it sometime.

Tablecloth loaded with punchwork and embroidery. 

Tablecloth with punchwork.

The guest book is sitting on a wonderful Madeira tablecloth.  There is a ton of detailed work that is typically found on Italian reticella.  This Maderia cloth is extremely rare and very expensive.   If you find one, don't let it get away!

It actually wound up on the placecard table.

The guest book table had another wonderful Madeira organdy tablecloth on it.  I wanted to mix it up a bit.  This is the shot at the reception.  I don't have a shot of it in the garden at the wedding.

The italian tole easel and the french pen holder were antiques.  The guest book was also an antique that I designed. It was an 1860's binding, with pages made from business cards from the 1700's.

Details of Maderia organdy tablecloth on guest book table.

Originally I had planned on using the cloth below, but it was too small.  I picked up some Borghese cherub statues to use on the table--they looked lovely with the black urns.  

We had a table of wedding photos with a centerpiece of this lovely dress made out of an old spring, decorated with tiny vintage pieces of old lace!

I used 16 tablecloths with needle lace and filet lace inserts.  The library had the gift table and I put a piece of french net lace on the bar.

Below is the center medallion.  It is quite lovely and romantic.

The dessert room had even more linens!

The non-traditional wedding cake.  It has an antique German Erzgebirge couple on top.

There were many things I wasn't able to do because I broke my hand and had surgery 4 days before the wedding.  In fact, looking back it is a miracle I pulled it off at all.   

My sister ironed all of the tablecloths before the wedding.   That was HUGE.  We put down plastic, wool blankets, cotton quilts, sheets, on my 10' x 55" table, and away she went!  It went so much more quickly than attempting to iron on an ironing board. 

In all, the use of the antique linen was a success. I washed all the damask napkins, which  were a breeze.... Laundry hints:   don't do a heavy spin, it leaves creases in the napkins.... and run through a mangle on completion, you can iron about 120 in an hour!  I can't take credit, my brother did it all for me.  Thanks Lenny.

Punchwork Embroidered Tablecloth

You can find me from time to time selling antique linens on Ebay: antique-monograms-- I need to share some of my fabulous finds, I don't have room for more!

Wedding Flowers!

I have been absent.   There are many reasons, mostly wedding.   The other reaons involve emergency surgery on my husband with a very serious cancer scare less than 3 weeks before the wedding.  Not to be left out, I fell in the airport and broke my hand, and wound up with surgery 4 days before the wedding.

The wedding was beautiful.  Unfortunately I couldn't handle a camera and it will be a long time before we wind up with the professional shots.  However, here are a few shots that got captured.

Magnificent wreaths on the gates of the garden leading to the wedding.

Stunning urns overflowing with color at the temple

Beautiful linens and urns filled with old roses, peonies, sweet peas and fuchias

 It was incredibly beautiful.  Everyone had a fantastic time.  The bride and groom were gorgeous.  Most beautiful wedding ever!

Using Antique Ephemera for Wedding Invitations

I have been silent on the web for a reason.  A wedding.   My daughter's wedding.  She's a very hard worker as a medical resident and has no time to plan, no time off.  In a previous blog I showed a fabulous "save the date" card.

I have been working on all the details, but as my husband says, spending too much time making every last detail perfect.

First, the wedding invitation has an old German woodcut from 1815. The caption on it is: "Vignette auf einem Dresdener Liebesbriefbogen mit Goldschnitt. Um 1815". Translated: "Vignette on a Dresden love letter paper with gold trim edges, around 1815."

The classic one knee proposal, with a couple wearing regency-era attire. This design is actually the "newest" design in the wedding paper ensemble.  (Names blocked out for a little privacy for my daughter.)

It was printed on a 100 year old letterpress using handmade paper made in Portland, Oregon. The invitations were all printed by hand.

The next thing we wanted was an unusual blotter paper to surround the invitation. For this scene, we found some vintage  watermarked paper and printed it with a french tablescape drawing from 1751.

It came out of an encyclopedia by Diderot. I guess the french really knew how to set up a table for an elaborate feast. Notice how the urns are not plants, they are filled with fruit. We are inviting people to attend a wedding and dinner celebration, so it seemed like the perfect engraving. It also looks like the garden ceremony site. We added the gate posts to that remind us of the garden at the wedding site.

The drawing was modified to act as a tissue blotter, going around the invitation. I wanted to use old parchment paper, which was impossible to find. The modern parchment as a slick, oily texture to it. Instead I used old typing paper - no longer made- with a deckle finish and a watermark. I scoured estate sales and got a stack for $2.

We added the gate posts to make the "back" side with the wax seal more interesting. It is very similar to the garden where the wedding will be.

We then finished it off with a wonderful wax seal of Aphrodite, the greek goddess of love.

The wax was another story. we tried a number of different colors, and settled on a soft pink pearlized wax. It is glue gun wax. You can make the seal ahead of time on Silpat, and then attach with a glue dot.  There are tons of videos on the internet on how to do this.

Lots of practice on the wax seals, these are mostly rejects, some good ones in there though.

The RSVP card design was from an old trade card from 1788. It is a business card, very elegant, don't you think? I love the use of the different fonts, and tried to do the same in the items we printed.

The original card is below, from the British Museum.

The Frame Maker business was located in the Portland Chapel (Later known as St. Pauls (1831)) in London, built in 1764, torn down in 1908. The Crown siezed many churches under the Dissolution of Monastaries and Chantries Act, and rented them out as shops, hence the location "Portland Chapel". My daughter grew up in the "Other Portland". It seems like a perfect choice!

We made our own envelope liner, since we couldn't find the perfect liner, but it required a lot of work. Below I am scoring the fold line before trimming to fit inside the envelope. I used a paper cutter's groove lines which worked exactly like the fancy board they try to sell you at Michael's.

I also used the flowers on the RSVP stamp, but not on the invitation stamp.  I thought that needed a plain stamp.

The "frame" on the outer envelope is also an Paris old trade card.  Of course we used a custom stamp design

Here is the original trade card:

The translation of the text is: "Choffard rue des Cordeliers, the first coach entrance on the right coming from the rue de la Comédie Française, at the house of a saddler. A PARIS. Pierre-Phillippe Choffard was an engraver who made his own business card. It is lovely, we couldn't resist the beautiful ribbon and old roses. Estimated date is 1760-1770.

I spent a lot of time hunting for the perfect fonts to use on the envelopes.  I settled on Burgues Script for the main script.

Then we were off to Bridal Veil on the Columbia River to get their special wedding postmark. It's a stone's throw from where my daughter  used to go to summer camp (ok, she would sleep in the barn at the nun's house, they called it camp).

Now I am waiting for the RSVP's to roll in.  Given the tremendous amount of work I put into this, I hope everyone enjoys receiving it. A good friend called and said she wouldn't be returning the RSVP, it was far to pretty and she had to keep it, would I mind? I am happy that someone thinks it is a treat to receive something so special!  I know for sure my daughter appreciates it too.  That makes me happy that she is delighted.

Off to worrying about other details....

1788 Invitation from an Ephemera Collection

I am in the midst of planning my daughter's wedding.  Being the collector of everything antique, I really wanted something unusual for her wedding announcements.  I've started out by using an old invitation from 1788 for her "save the date" card.

When I first heard the word "ephemera", I didn't really know what it meant.  I had to look it up--it means documents that are intended to be thrown away after use.   I am so glad that ephemera has survived.  There are people who collect all kinds of ephemera.  I seem to be drawn to the English trade cards used in the 1700's. However, trade cards really weren't large enough to adapt to this use, so this card seemed to be a perfect starting point.

 The card was tough to clean up, took me hours. However I did work on it, and then I modified it to match the couple, and appropriateness for the SAVE THE DATE announcement.

The end result below. I tried to block out some information so my poor family can have some privacy.

If you are on the hunt for announcements, there are tons of options available to you thanks to the internet.  You can find many things on Etsy, but I had an idea and I couldn't find anything that satisfied me.

I wanted a colorful envelope liner, but didn't want a plain color.   The photoshopped flowers below reflect the joyful excitement I feel about the wedding.  I also love the juxtaposition of the old graphic against the colorful flowers.  So I to a photograph and made color copies, cut and glued them in myself.  You can find Martha Stewart Youtube how-to instructions.

The envelope liners look great!

Below I made a custom flap for the envelope.  The rabbits in the invitation are a whimsical touch, because we live on "the bunny farm" according to my daughter.  We're overrun with jack rabbits, and you can always see a half dozen when you look outside. The shield has an early german woodcut of a couple in the regency style known as "the proposal".

I love the pop of the colored liners against the black and white print. The letterpress work really looks nice.  It made a beautiful flap on the envelope, and the card was superb.

Below is a sample of an envelope using computer calligraphy.

The address above is fake, but thought you'd like to see the beautiful script I purchased online.  I decided to cut cost by printing the envelopes myself, and they look GREAT!   I am very happy with the printing, it is hard to tell that it is not calligraphy, which can easily cost $4 each.  The custom stamp matches the envelope liner.

OK, now I'm happy!  Feel free to email me if you have any questions about the project.   I've been working on this for a few months and am happy to check something off the list.  I toyed with edging the announcement in a fuchsia pink.  We decided against it, thinking it would be just a bit too modern.  The reaction from the recipients has been great.   My brother said that the postman hand carried his to the front door to make sure he got his beautiful envelope!

The next project is the invitation.  It is even more awesome -- everyone expects it to outdo this card.   I must find a DL or monarch size envelope.  Ideally I need an 7.5" x 3.75" card.  I can find the envelope, but I'm out of luck getting an inner AND outer envelope.   Help!   Anyone have any suggestions?