Vintage Wedding Stationery | A Guide from Birdhouse197

Vintage isn't one thing. It's not all ivory card, floral borders and calligraphy fonts, and honestly that's never been what it means to us.

For us it's the feeling of something considered. Something illustrated, something worth keeping long after the wedding itself. That runs through almost everything we make, from our lightest, most romantic designs right through to the darkest gothic ones. This is our guide to vintage wedding stationery: the four designs where it shows up most, and the stories behind them. You can see all four together on our vintage wedding invitations page.

Candle & Key | Vintage Gothic Wedding Invitations

This one started, like so many of our designs, with a biro doodle from Joshua. Open the gatefold and a cabinet of curiosities style gallery wall unfolds, with your wedding details in an ornate oval frame at the centre. A little bit haunted house, a little bit Downton Abbey.

You can have your own silhouettes on the cover too. We draw them from a photo of the two of you, inspired by Victorian cameo and silhouette portraits, so when the invitation opens the portrait parts like a pair of doors. Every cover is different, and that's the point. It's genuinely one of the most personal things we make.

See the Candle & Key collection or go straight to the custom silhouette gatefold.

Lock & Key | Romantic Vintage Save the Dates

Lock & Key started with a doodle as well. Joshua had been floating the idea of a heart-shaped padlock for a while, and it slowly became something much bigger. Two people, one key.

It's a deliberate departure from our darker work. Pale blues, pastel greens, white backgrounds and lots of ornate Victorian detail. We couldn't choose between the portrait and the square, so we kept both. They work as vintage save the dates, single card invitations or evening invitations, and honestly we think it's one of the most underrated ranges we make.

See the Lock & Key collection

Interlocking Rings | Classic Vintage Wedding Stationery

We both chose plain gold wedding bands on our wedding day. No engraving, no embellishment, just two simple rings. That decision became a design.

The save the date has the entire front foiled, one of only a handful of designs where we foil at that scale, and when the light catches it the illustration comes completely alive. There's a matching gatefold invitation too. It's probably the most universally appealing range we make, for anyone who wants something timeless and luxurious without going gothic.

See the Interlocking Rings collection

The Victorian Folding Letter | A Vintage Love Letter

This was Joshua's idea, and it took a while to get right. It reminded us of the paper fortune tellers we all made at school, except this one holds your wedding details. Before email and telephones, a folded letter was how love was communicated, and there's something quietly lovely about bringing that back for a wedding.

It comes in a celestial sun and moon design or with the Candle & Key gallery wall, and we can fold them for you or send them flat to fold at home. We've told the whole story in What Is a Victorian Puzzle Purse?

See the Victorian Folding Letter collection

Not Sure Which One Is You?

That's completely fine, most of our orders start as a conversation. Every design can be printed in any colour, so if you've fallen for an illustration but not the colourway, that's usually the easiest thing to change.

If you'd like to see the card and print in person first, our sample packs are the easiest way to hold a few of our real designs in your hands. We work to a 4 to 5 week lead time from order to delivery, including international orders.

“The quality and care taken to create these incredible keepsakes is honestly beyond what we were expecting.”
Jade | Read all our Google reviews

Where Our Love of Vintage Comes From

It comes from our house, mostly. We live in an old groundskeeper's lodge with an original Victorian range, green star encaustic tiles and shelves full of found things, and it feeds directly into everything we make.

We both grew up being dragged around old heritage houses by our parents too. We hated it at the time. We've grown up to absolutely love it. There's more of that story in our guide to Victorian wedding invitations.

Ready to Start?

Explore our vintage wedding invitations and save the dates or tell us about your day and we'll take it from there.

George & Joshua