Lynda Loves owner Lynda Athey Watson is a luxury wedding stationary designer based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where she expertly crafts stunning wedding stationary, sophisticated calligraphy details, using premium materials for the delight of couples from UK and overseas.
Roberta: Lynda tell us just who you are and what you do.
Lynda: I’m a wedding stationery designer. I worked in London as a graphic designer for about 25 years for an architectural company. I’m now based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent with my husband and I started my business around about the same time when I got married.
I designed my own wedding invitations, and also for friends and family. It kind of escalated from there. So, I think I started my side-line then. About six years ago, I started to get quite busy, and I was struggling to juggle both jobs and my commute was awful, so I left about four years ago.
R: I can tell you’re very passionate about it, it really comes through when you talk about it.
L: I think a lot of people in this industry are passionate about what they do. It can be so easy to give up if you have a bad day or because so much competition out there, but you keep going because it’s something you love doing.
R: Indeed, and your style is totally 100% authentic,
Where do you find inspiration for your wedding stationary design?
L: I love interiors. I’m quite inspired by to design palettes and trends. You can put that into your stationery colours that are in nature, botanicals, you know they’re still quite popular.
For wedding invitations I love typography letter forms, calligraphy. I love to practice and to develop my own calligraphy style. Always looking for new typefaces and fonts for collections. You know things that are quite unique and collaborations with other suppliers in the industry because it’s quite inspiring to see their briefs and everyone get together and create something special.
And then definitely you get inspiration from the couple stays from whatever they tell you they like as an inspiration.
R: Exactly. That’s the beauty of creating something bespoke, unique in its genre. Every love story is different. And so, is different inspiration, isn’t it?
R: What’s your process? Do you guide your couples, or they tell you what they like mostly?
L: Generally, they have some idea whether it’s through colour, or a certain style that they like whether it’s something floral or botanical, something that’s typography based or traditional or some couples points out something quite contemporary.
So I’d usually send them a collection of samples based on that brief that would appeal to them. And we go from there, so we can customise it to their requirements, whether they wanted to relate to their bouquet or a colour, or if they’re having quite a traditional wedding or a modern wedding.
It’s all about communicating that vital information into something that’s beautiful to see in print. So we’ll also cover what works best in terms of typography so that it’s legible. Some people struggle to see certain types of fonts.
Stationery has two main functions really to, to communicate that information and to give guests a taste of what to expect on your wedding day.
R: How important do you think it is that stationery design fits the overall wedding aesthetic?
L: I think I think that is critically important. Certainly, to have your invitation suite and then to carry it on onto your reception items, such as an order of service or a theme, which most couples do.
And I think I see a lot more couples have become quite detail orientated with their reception stationery and continuing the design onto their table settings and to the writings. So, things like cutlery, plates and napkins and menus, they all match and they all complement each other, whether that’s through colour or style.
R: And then you get other ideas, I guess, like incorporating it with a nice napkin fold.
And yours are just so elegant so refined, premium materials, like your wax seals and your flat lays are just so elegant.
Do you want to level up your wedding aesthetic?
R: How do you think is different for you when you work directly with couples or through a wedding planner?
L: It’s I guess it’s slightly different. I think I’ve done a fair share of both. It’s nice to meet couples and hear directly from them, their plans and their vision.
Normally that’s done through zoom. Sometimes in person if they prefer and if it’s doable. It’s nice to have that personal relationship with them through the whole planning progress.
But it’s also good working with a planner, because they control quite a lot of the organisation and the requirements that the couple have, if they have any problems or issues that through the planning stage, and they can also recommend suppliers who have similar styles, so they keep everything on track in terms of timeframes, which can be quite tricky at times.
R: Do you find that the couples prefer the planner to send the invitation and just take care of the RSVP as far as you’re involved in this, or they prefer to do it themselves?
L: I would say 50:50. Some couples like their RSVPs having returned to them. Others just want to give everything to the wedding planner. And I guess it just depends on how busy your lifestyle is, because planning a wedding does take up an awful lot of time.
R: Some people even if they have little time, they prefer to do it themselves. They prefer to be completely in control. But at some stage, I find it becomes impossible to do everything. it’s not that healthy tension, You don’t want to get to that wedding day like that but have nice memories.
R: What would you find is the most stressful factor for couples leading up to their big day? Obviously, you’re not there on the wedding day. From your point of view.
L: There’s so much to consider now in terms of a finding suppliers, a venue where to book certain things, when to send your stationery out, it can get quite overwhelming. That’s when it’s good to have a wedding planner because they can take control of that, and it’s all done for you.
They have some critical organisational skills, planning everything month by month, up to the wedding day itself. I planned mine myself, and I found it quite stressful and wow! I was so anxious about getting everything right.
It’s important to keep calm and let someone else deal with it or delegate to family members.
R: I know exactly what you mean because I planned mine as well. And by the way, I’m a bit of a control freak. So, I’ve been naturally very organised but on the wedding day, I was so tired.
R: Do you work only with local couples?
L: Thanks to the internet is just, I think that kind of sort of dotted all over the place. Few up and down the country. I get some overseas, quite a few from the States that find me online which is great!
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