Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Sage and Lavender Art Deco Wedding Invitation

We're so excited to be unveiling this latest invitation! Meeting with Karla and Dave was a pleasure from the very beginning, even if the weather wasn't!  But such is the way with Spring weddings in Buffalo - planning must begin when the weather is at it's worst!! Everyone braved the weather, including Karla's adorable parents, who are friends of my husband's family. Some designers find it distracting, but I LOVE when parents want to be involved in their kids' wedding plans - especially when they are as sweet at Karla's!
So you must be saying to yourself, if this is Karla and Dave's invitation, WHY does that photo say Craig and Cam? In lieu of inner envelopes, K and D decided to do personalized monograms on EACH of their invitations. We love what a personal touch this is! To have each invitation with each guest's own name on it is just brilliant.


I think if there is one art style that resounds loudest in WNY it must be Art Deco. The city is inundated with it, especially in it's architecture, so it's no surprise that it is a recurring theme with our brides. However, here the use was subtle; Karla is using calla lilies throughout her wedding, so we kept with a simple, art deco calla design for the inside of the invite.  And we love how the linen texture of the ivory paper gives the whole piece a soft touch.


K and D wanted to include all the information their guests, from in town and out of town, could need to make celebrating their special day easy peasy. 


This included information about reserving hotel blocks at several downtown hotels, offering a vegetarian option for dinner right on the response card...



... and specific directions, not just to the church, but from the church to the reception at Templeton Landing as well. 


We also printed a map on the back of the direction card, to make navigating the streets around both the church and the reception as easy as possible. [And trust me, as someone who has gotten lost on the waterfront on her way to Templeton Landing – more than once – I think this will be much appreciated!]


We're so thrilled K and D were so happy with their invites. Each design is such a collaborative effort, I hope they feel that this expresses their personalities, and their big day, as well as we think it does.



Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A Vintage, Wine-Country Inspired Wedding Invitation

This invitation debut has been a long time coming!! One of our favorites, I've been holding out on getting these professionally photographed before posting them, but finally I said, enough! It's time these lovelies had their day in the sun, and what better way to kick off OUR official start of "Wedding Season?!"

Let's start with the envelopes, which I totally heart. Tricia wanted a natural, almost vintage plantation feel for her invites. We used kraft button-tie envelopes, raffia wraps, and ivory textured paper for first impression.



Inside, Tricia picked a fun green and blue color scheme that went so nicely with the Niagara-On-The-Lake subtle rustic, wine country theme. 


She also did one of my FAVORITE things, and put a funny twist on her RSVP options. They were "Wouldn't miss it for the world" and "Being detained against our will elsewhere." 



Rather than having a lot imagery, we used a variety of fonts with different sizes and spacing to create the graphic feel of the design. Then we topped it with something sweet. 


Well there you have it, a wedding invitation suite that is as sweet as Tricia and Michael and their perfect day. Our brides are as much a part of our design process as we are, which is how there are never two alike, each unique to the style and personality of the great brides we work with. 

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Color Me ImPRESSed!

I am so lucky to have such talented, creative friends! One such friend (who I've mentioned before) I had the honor of designing save the dates for. But not just any save the dates, LETTERPRESS save the dates... ooooh how I LOVE letterpress! I wish I could say it was more than a hobby I'm learning about, but alas for now I'm still a novice. And part of the learning process is kicking it old school, ie pouring over thousands and thousands and thousands of letters and spacers and itty bitty pieces of lead for hours and hours to make something that takes about thirty minutes on a computer. But it is a labor of love, I assure you! So in the last class I took, I made some save the dates for Andrea and Michael.





And from here, Andrea made them spectacular. She added 3 layers, with different patterns and textures and made them super luxe... Check out how she did it here.


The finished product:




Simply gorgeous! Andrea's fabulous eye for design really shines through with these, her wedding is truly going to be a beautiful, elegant affair.