Photograph by Chris Von Holle
There’s a sort of unspoken truth when it comes to wedding invitations: They’re gorgeous, yes, but the process of assembling them can be tedious. Fretting over the particulars of etiquette, design, and delivery can take away from the fun of designing your own stationery in the first place.
Photograph by Chris Von Holle
Enter Kristen Folzenlogen. Seventeen years ago, she was working for a communications company in Chicago, using her graphic design skills to craft custom wedding invitations as a hobby. For her 30th birthday, she gave herself a long-anticipated gift: She would leave her day job to start designing full time. Today she’s the owner of Poeme, a custom wedding stationery studio in the heart of Hyde Park that puts a premium on personalized invitations brought to life through a dynamic, collaborative design process.
A bona fide mother-of-the-bride whisperer, Folzenlogen has a special knack for finding compromise. Is mom’s love of Dupioni silk ribbons just not speaking to you? Let Poeme find a subtle way to incorporate the material into your invitations. Ready to jump on the watercolor trend? She knows just the artist.
Poeme mixes in-house design and consultation with outsourced elements like printing, etching, and calligraphy. A truly good designer, Folzenlogen says, knows where their strengths lie—and when to ask for help. “I don’t think people realize how much is involved in a truly custom wedding invitation suite,” she says.
At the end of the day, as many as five or six sets of hands might contribute to just one set of wedding stationery, including local artists like calligrapher Kei Han Goodman, who addresses each piece by hand.
Poeme, 3446 Michigan Ave., Hyde Park, (513) 321- 4999
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