WWW - All In The Details I

What do you most remember about a great wedding? What sticks in your mind? A great band? The food? For me, it's the little details that make the occasion unique to the couple and make it stand out from every other wedding. We are getting married at our country club, everyone and their brother has a country club wedding....so, I think it is important that I pay attention to the details, to make our day special and different.

I'm going to start sharing some of the details I will be incorporating into our big day. At this point, lots of these things are still just plans, nothing has come to fruition thus far. With that said, of course I may not end up doing some of the things I will post about - in the end I imagine time and budget will play a hand in what will get done.

Up first, our wedding map! I've always loved custom maps for weddings. Be it for a save the date, or included in out of town guest bags, there are so many uses for them. The first wedding maps I came across (years ago) were by Laura Hooper. I loved the calligraphy and hand drawn locations...but, at nearly $500 for 100, they are out of the budget.  Then, I kind of moved away from preferring the LH style, and fell in love with a water colored map, like Designs by Robyn Love. Gorgeous, no?! Such a fabulous keepsake from your wedding! But, again, just for the design of the map prices start at $400.

I went hunting for an equally lovely, more affordable option. I found CaligrafiaBella, whose work is gorgeous, but her design fee $200 and you don't get the original artwork included in the price. So, I kept looking. That's when I stumbled up JLH Art Studio. She doesn't have the calligraphy that I love, but her artwork is fabulous! For $75 you receive the original artwork, an 8x10 size. You can then take it to a local print shop to have postcards or whatever made up and hang the original in your new home (well, mine won't be new, but whatever!) This is what I think I will do, add postcards to the guest bags with the weekend agenda and schedule printed on the back side. They will make for a nice souvenir for our guests!

{JLH}

What do you all think? Is JLH a nice compromise or should I shell out a bit more and get my beloved calligraphy from CB (who is still significantly less than the other options listed)?

{CB}

Do you like the idea of a wedding map? Did you have one? If so, how did you use it?