Oo my.

I had an email from the lovely Joycey the other day. In it, she said she's been prompted to email me by finding a beautiful fine-tipped pen that would have "blatantly been up mine and your streets circa 1997. And we'd have used it to draw all sorts of pictures of our imaginary prom."

And I laughed. Out loud. I suppose that means I LOLd, in fact. 

It's true. I have always been a stationery-lover. Good pens ("Ooo, that's a nice writer") have been unleashing Actual Quivers Of Joy since 1991. I was crap at Maths at school, but absolutely ACE at working out how many packets of 69p stickers I could buy with my pocket money in Stationery Box at the Galleries during my weekly shopping trip (the best ones? The furry Jack Russells. No question). I've taken an unprecedented interest in our good First Lady Sam Cam purely on the basis that she works for Smythson. Oo, Smythson wedding invites. Or even Thank You cards. There's the dream right there. 

So about a week ago we set about trying to decide on wedding stationery. And I was excited. This is my thing, you know? Whereas dresses were an unknown minefield of potential disaster, I'd anticpated that stationery would be easy peasy. 

But do you know what? There's a hell of a lot of crap out there. 

Believe me. I've been looking for a while prior to the obligatory Me-And-Bedders-Sitting-Down-Together-To-Sort-It session. And I've been astonished by the amount of - for want of a better word - tack. Rhinestones, for God's sake (rhinestones make me think of Sweet Valley High. Jessica had a rhinsetone-covered jumpsuit in one scintillating edition). Butterflies. Swirly-wirly-twirly fonts. What a load of guff.

I'm opposed to traditional wedding stationery on two counts.

1) Lots of them look like the poor bloke hasn't had a look in. I'd be embarrassed for Adam to have his name on the majority of the ones I've seen. He'd look like a big wet girl.

2) They're really spenno.

So the obvious port of call was etsy, but even there - EVEN THERE - there was a load of crap.

It's made from felt, ergo it's crafty and cool? Err, no. I feel a website coming on. crapweddinginvites.com. A collection of the most hideous wedding tat you've ever had the misfortune to receive through your letterbox.

But if you learn one thing from this post (hark - this blog as educatational resource!), learn this. Perservere with etsy. Even when you're being bombarded with crap from all angles (FELT! SEQUINS! RETRO! VINTAGE! KITSCH! Err, no, just crap, actually), stick with it. Because eventually you will be rewarded. God loves a trier, after all. And here it what God showed us. ellothere wedding invitations. 

Oh, behold. Behold with joy. 

I know. I know, my child.

And again. Stready yourself. Yup.

Delectable. And what about this?

So which one are we going for? You shall have to wait and see ;)