Well my views changed after doing a spot of Blackberry picking with my wife and children yesterday.  Despite it being the middle of August we have have little sunshine over the last few weeks and the ripe blackberries were unsurprisingly few and far between.  What did seem to be flourishing between the thickets were a surprising number of flowering thistles.  I guess the rainy, cloudy weather we have been having was more akin to that in the Scottish Highlands.

In any case these flowering thistles shone with beauty among the rambling blackberry thorns and up until yesterday I would have probably clumped the two together in the same family.  The heads of the thistle were not at all prickly and quite soft to the touch and the beautiful purple flowers were so vivid against the green foliage.

Unfortunately, many of the thistle wedding invitations on the market seem to overplay the Scottish roots of this flower rather than concentrate, as I did yesterday, on its beauty.  So what you tend to find is that the thistle is surrounding by Tartan ribbon and bows or Celtic knots and symbols.  Well here are some more elegant thistle wedding stationery designs to show you what can be achieved with this marvellous flower.  I think it would make a wonderful choice of wedding flower whether you are Scottish or not.

Emblems Thistle from Olivia Samuel

Thistle Design - Weddinginvitesonline

Bespoke Sketched Thistle Invitation - ValCarr

Blind Embossed Thistle Motif – Letterpress Thistle - Piccolo Press

Elspeth Letterpress design with a Rambling Thistle Border – Willow Wood

If you’re looking for tartan wedding stationery,  you’re either having a wonderfully romantic Scottish highland wedding, or you are a complete fashionista who is keeping right on trend with the recent tartan revival.  Either way this Tartan wedding stationery range from Lilypond Cards is charming and unusual.  The wallet style invitation has the insert inside which you pull out with a pretty, purple ribbon and has a coordinating RSVP card included inside.  This make the cost of  £2.50 per invite very cheap as most suppliers charge extra for reply cards.  There is a full range of matching items available including a postal box for all your wedding cards and small gifts on the day so that you don’t lose anything.