Monday, November 29, 2010

Wedding Craft #13: Library Books & Card Catalog Escort Cards

I take great pride in being a librarian. Not only do I love what I do, but I completely embrace the culture. I wear glasses. I love cats. I love old school librarian outfits. And although we're known for being a crabby bunch - I think we're awesome (and I don't think we're all crabby)! It should also be noted that Brian thinks librarians are awesome too. Remember this? I knew the librarian theme just had to be somewhat featured in our wedding.
Books and photos at our wedding reception
Our venue, Castle Green, made it so easy to incorporate our theme. The photographs and books above and below were all sitting on top of an old grand piano, which perfectly incorporated our love for music too.
Books and photos at our wedding reception
Luckily for me, I had lots of access to discarded books, making this all very doable. To give some of the books a whimsical, fluttered look, I folded every other page. Doing this kept the books to stay open and look so fantastic.
Books at our wedding
My real pride and joy of the librarian theme; however, was my card catalog. My dear librarian friend, Joanna, gave me her old card catalog! Isn't it beautiful? I just love these things.
Card Catalog Escort Cards
Once I had the card catalog, I knew I had to use it for the escort cards.
Instructions for the Library Card Catalog Escort Cards
I made a standard Library of Congress style call number for the cards, which read (and stood for):
BA (Brian & Annette)
417 (4/17 the day we got married)
.A17 (April 17, the day we got married)
2010 (2010, the year we got married)
At first, I got real nerdy and wanted to use the call number of an existing book - but I realized that only I (and perhaps the handful of librarians in attendance) would get it, so I opted for the alternative approach and I think it worked out. Each person was led to their table, which we referred to as chapters.
Decor at our wedding
Around the card catalog, we had more books and featured a number of vintage cameras and old photographs. The photographs below are of Brian's parent's and grandparents.
Decor at our wedding
And my parents and grandparents...
Decor at our wedding
Even our rings fit the decor. My engagement ring dates back to 1897! Brian and I both designed our antique-style wedding bands (mine is not pictured), which we had my uncles make. My uncles are so talented!
Our rings
For more photographs of our card catalog and library theme, go to my flickr page.

Up next: Wedding Craft #14: Table Numbers

**All photographs above are by Our Labor of Love

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love your wedding! It's actually very similar to what I'm doing for my wedding in April. I was wondering if you could tell me did you have the library cards professionally done or did you do them yourself on card stock (or a similar material)? I'm having a hard time finding library cards that aren't already wrote on.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

dailycraft said...

Hi there!

I actually had access to lots of unused vintage cards specifically made for the card catalog - so I did it myself, using those. I think just using blank index cards should do.. good luck! I'd love to see pictures of your wedding- April is a lovely time for a wedding (ours was April 17)!

xo,
Annette

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much! It's so funny that you also had the old pictures there of your grandparents because that is something I thought about doing when we first started planning. I've also bought some used books to use (we actually used some of the old books and turned them into invitations for our close family members) Seems like we are wedding planning soulmates! I will definitely post pictures!

Amy said...

Hi, just wondering what you used to print the names and information on the cards?! Thanks!