Creating Lasting Wedding Memories Through Stationery

Whenever I write, I do it as if I was sitting across from a friend, having a conversation over a nice cup of tea in a café that has been standing there forever, like a vintage-type place where memories are kept for newcomers to discover and make their own new ones. I love history, I love art, I love things that have a story behind them, I love conversational pieces, I love vintage as much as minimalistic modern design, and I love meeting new people and listening to their lives.

I recall conversations with my mother about some of her most precious gems carefully kept in the first drawer of her credenza back in Buenos Aires. Well-kept jewels that clearly showed the passing of time. She would not have them professionally polished or cleaned since they should preserve the signs of time, she would say, the signs of wear, those scratches that hold stories behind them. Jewels that had more sentimental value than anything else. Some were precious family looms and others represented a moment in time that she treasured immensely. "These are the earrings that I wore for your brother's wedding." That was it. That was their sole purpose, to tell the beautiful story of my brother's wedding. And a cataract of anecdotes came flowing from that small piece of art.

She had a pair of earrings, with cultivated pearls hanging from a delicate silver body, kept inside their original small Bordeaux box that looked like it had survived a few wars (which indeed had.) They belonged once to her grandmother and had been passed from generation to generation for their (or should I say our) wedding days. It will be my daughter’s turn next to inherit the heirloom. Every time my mother told me the story about the earrings, it was like going back in time and imagining my great-grandmother, dressed to the nines in her Victorian-style dress, having a cup of tea across from her daughter, my grandmother, in a small town in the South of Spain facing the Mediterranean Sea. I never got tired of listening to the story. It was the “something gifted” to my grandmother Victoria for her wedding day, to my mother on hers, and myself on mine, and so the story goes charmingly. Just imagine the beauty, the delight, and the love; the unconditional kind. So much so that every time my mother told the story, her own eyes filled with emotion as she remembered when she received the earrings and got to wear them almost a century after her grandmother. Our ritual was as beautiful as their predecessors, and I keep it in my heart as one of those that define me.

Photo: Karina Gaio

Memories of the past and future merge in a story that will transcend the barriers of time. The story of the earrings came as a spark while I was designing a wedding suite a couple of weeks back. As we were talking about the importance of memories and deciding on what made them special, I told the story of my own treasure. The path took me to my own wedding invitations and how I incorporated the earrings as an element of my own story, which made me get to that point in time. They became another piece of the puzzle of my life, of what I wanted to share with my guests. Another story to tell. Their invitations are exquisite and personal, just what they were looking for.

When you commission your wedding suite, make sure that the person across from you listens and understands what is important to you, what stories you want to share, and especially, why is it that you selected those particular anecdotes to share. Which memories should be carried on to make new ones?

What makes an invitation unique is that your own story and your future ceremony are reflected in that piece, and interlace flawlessly. Up front, they will look like delightful design elements, but when you and your guests are sharing your special day, everyone will understand the intention behind every small detail, that you have dotted the i's and crossed your t's. Details that have meaning, have memories behind them, and that will become the vessel for new ones. And, in the future, when you all look at this piece of art, your invitation, you will all remember the stories that led to it and the ones that were made by it. It comes full circle.

#timelessimpress