Olde-world Florida Keys wedding invitations

All our invitations are now out, and we’re hoping that most everyone can attend! Since many people are coming from out of state and are viewing this trip as a vacation (Florida wedding in winter? Escape from Boston weather for sunshine? Hell yeah!) we wanted our invitations to look well, inviting!

This wedding will be in the Florida Keys. We’re going for an edgy, “Olde-world” Florida Keys nautical theme. I designed the invites to look like an old map of the south Florida area and threw in some old Florida icons like an alligator and a Seminole Indian. I also added a tall ship, a sea monster, a mermaid, a skull and 2 pistols over Key West (pirates!), and a nice “X marks the spot” for the wedding location of Islamorada. I then added the text in Photoshop. The ink drawing was done with a calligraphic pen with a fine nib and waterproof Higgins India Ink. The skull and pistols were font dingbats.

Close-up of map

We printed the invites on Strathmore parchment paper ($16 for two pads) through our Epson inkjet and Matt took a small butane torch and burnt all around the edges of each one. Then the invites had hand coloring added – red ink for the “X”, gold leaf for the compass rose.

X marks the spot of Islamorada

Alligator, Seminole Indian and old man Hurricane

Compass rose, Key West and sea monster

We also printed our own RSVP’s, using the compass rose and alligator for design elements. We printed these on parchment notecard and envelope sets, again by Strathmore. I added gold leaf to the compass rose on the front.

Inside of RSVP, the alligator makes another appearance

Stamps for the RSVP envelopes were purchased online at USPS. We chose the Gulf Coast Lighthouse series.

We didn’t want to fold the invites, so we found gorgeous 9” x 12” top open opal envelopes at Paper Presentation. They were a soft, pearlescent metallic. They really looked elegant and pulled the whole look together. I bought smaller envelopes in the same paper for my thank you notes after the wedding. They were about $13 per pack of 10, and probably the most expensive part of the invitations, unless you count the cost of printer ink, which can be more costly than gold!

Our last embellishment was the anchor seal. We purchased a wax seal with the shape of an anchor, and sealed each envelope with a teal wax stamp. We bought the brass wax seal stamp and metallic green wax from Nostalgic Expressions for less than $20. Matt was the one who applied the wax seals to all the envelopes, but I believe he just likes to play with fire!

Anchor Seal

After laying him to rest Friday, and with a depressing Saturday moping about, we decided we had to get the hell out of the house. So we decided on a little rockabilly honky-tonk right next to the Gold Coast Derby Girl roller rink, where we could catch some hillbilly punk rock. I love all kinds of music. I was reared on punk and new wave, and recently have been loving old time jazz, blues and country, so this was a real treat.

So I put on my Frye’s and thrift store cowboy top, and Matt one of his many Hawaiian shirts, and we tried to put our best social face on. We caught dinner at Shenanigans West (Nice to see ya again, Matt the bartender, don’t worry, the jock-tard extolling the virtues of roofies only embarrassed himself, not you, sweetie), watched LeBron sink more impossible 3-pointers, and off to the hot rods, hot babes and hot cycles of The Monterey Club.

A little snapshot: A tattoo shop right next door called Kreepy Tiki with a straightedge gal with Marilyn hair listening to The Smiths. Johnny Cash and Tiger Army on the house stereo near the bar. Combat boots and blond dreadlocks smiling and sipping beers, chatting with robust Louise Brooks red-head girl with daisies in her hair. Illustrated boys playing pool -badly- and asking us if we wanted some new ink at the shop next door. We do, but we see Pooch and Scott up north. Maybe later?

The Monterey Club is like your cousin Ronnie’s basement. Cousin Ronnie works on old cars and motorcycles, has sideburns, tattoos, a pool table, comfy couches, a wide screen TV, listens to lots of Motorhead and Social D, and drinks plenty of Pabst Blue Ribbon. At the Monterey, you’ll see hot rods and walkin’, talkin’ pin-up girls. You’ll see girls in cowboy hats and mini skirts playing washboards with spoons. A crazy hippie on an old guitar playing gonzo punked-up blues from hell. Engines roaring outside from souped-up choppers. Big manly men with tattooed knuckles and big, black boots. The glittery SoFlo metro-sexual douches with faux-hawks, manicures and tight glittery shirts heading for the party at Las Olas would get pretty damned nervous in here.

Playing this night was Smokestack and the Foothill Fury, that dirty hippie stoner bastard (who kicks so much ass), and Boise Bob and his Backyard Band. Hillbilly punks from hell, all of them.

Visiting The Monterey is like inhabiting a Cramps song for a honey-slicked moment of time. And it was just where we needed to be. And bloody hell, it’s literally just a couple of miles down the street. A little slice of heaven in Fort Lauderdale. A comfier, cozier version of Miami’s church of the Churchill’s Pub. A place where R. Crumb could pick and choose his buxom models to ink into eternity. Which is what I pretty much did. Finally, some new art to put up on this blog ‘o’ mine. I hope you enjoy.