So I figured I’d choose a simple design off the shelf from an invitation company, and the fancy paper and printing would be the focus. But when I started working with Pier Gustafson on the monogram, he sent me some samples that were printed on an inkjet printer at a very reasonable price and looked great. Better than great—they looked AMAZING.

from snippet & ink

I realized I could either put our resources toward engraving or letterpress and give up a unique look and feel, or I could put the money toward custom design and print them myself, relying on Pier’s guidance on ink and paper so they won’t look chintzy. Guess which I picked? Put it this way: I can’t wait for the invitation printing and cropping and assembling madness to begin…not. But it will be worth it in the end!

The best part about the visit (besides the invitation mockups that I am SO excited about) was seeing Pier’s studio! It was like something out of a Dickens novel. Every inch of wall was covered with drawings, doodles, inspiration, half-finished monograms, and snippets of image and text. He has collections of antique typewriters and binoculars and other old dusty things.Gathered together, these anachronistic devices were as beautiful to me as a bouquet of flowers. I love old things, imperfect things, and things that “go” (but don’t match), and Pier is a man after my own heart. Check it out (sorry they’re so blurry; I took them on my iPhone):

I emailed with Pier to find out his prices and whether his work load could accommodate us, because I knew from seeing his work he’d be very much in demand. His prices were surprisingly reasonable (depending on the complexity and number of letters). I can’t even remember how we got on the subject of a custom monogram; I think he suggested that he could bundle the pricing for us if we got both a map and a monogram and I was sold. He asked if any of the images on his site made me smile, so I picked out these:

I also sent him this:

And this:

to give him an idea of what we had in mind.

I wasn’t able to verbally express my ideas very well, but Pier somehow knew exactly what we wanted. He was so nice and professional on the phone. Once we agreed to go forward and he saw the images I sent him, he turned the first sketch around in a day. Wow! Check it out:

I liked it very much, but I thought that the letters should be the same size (I guess in calligraphy the capital “E” goes below the line of writing so it appears to be bigger than the capital “D”). I also wanted to make the monogram more compact and narrower. Again, the turnaround was a day:

I loved how equal and symmetrical it is. I’m not changing my name, so a simple two-letter monogram seems perfect for us. I know we are investing in something we will continue to use our whole lives. Now I just have to decide how we’ll use it for the wedding! Anyway, Pier put his design into a software program, cleaned it up, and sent us the final product:

I was thrilled. Supporting local artists is important to us (Pier is one of the few designers who does everything BY HAND and then enters it into Illustrator or InDesign). So we got a fabulous monogram from a ridiculously talented artist who was right in our backyard! And I did it all over email (and one phone call).