Oh So Beautiful Paper

Mar19Tara + Michael’s Illustrated Jewish Wedding Invitations

I just love seeing the way that real couples and designers work together to produce an invitation design that represents the bride and groom as a couple and suits their unique wedding style.  Today’s real wedding invitations were created by Tara, half of the design duo behind Paperwink, for her own wedding in 2006.  The invitation design is based on the Jewish concept of Besheret, a concept that definitely played a role in my own wedding last year.  I just love the way that Tara used the images of a flower and bulb throughout the invitation suite as a visual representation of the concept.

Tara’s invitation suite conveys the Jewish concept of Besheret, or fate – in Tara’s case, the fate that brought the bride and groom together originally, as well as the fate that would bring their loved ones together on their wedding day.  The invitation also included a quote, which says “man and wife ‘are the roots to one complete soul’.”

The quote served as the inspiration for the mail visual elements of the invitation design. Paperwink used a hand-drawn flower and bulb as the central design elements throughout the invitation suite to visually represent the concepts of roots and fate.  The invitations were letterpress printed on ultra-thick coaster stock to add an organic texture.

In addition to the main invitation, the suite included a custom map of the area and rsvp card.  In the map, the roots of the bulb were converted into the highways and streets of Atlanta, giving out-of-town guests a sense of the city as well as taking guests on a journey through Tara and Michael’s relationship and places that brought them together:

The rsvp card even chimes in with a “It was meant to be. Were you meant to be there?” Guests were given two reply options – “It’s Besheret, I’ll be there” or “I’ll be there in spirit:”

Finally, the concept of Besheret and the visual image of a bulb was carried through to the wedding itself.  The ceremony programs incorporated design elements from the invitation suite:

Escort cards (actually small boxes) played double duty as favors, containing flower bulbs for guests to take home and plant.  Tara placed color-coded hand-drawn flowers on the outside of the boxes to indicate the guests’ previously chosen entree preferences:

Can I just say how much I love this invitation suite?!  The entire suite is so beautiful, and I love the way Tara incorporated the concept of Besheret throughout the invitations and wedding – creating a meaningful design that represents Tara and Michael as a couple as well as their new life together.  To see more of the incredible creativity over at Paperwink, click here to head on over to the Paperwink wedding collection.

{images via Paperwink – thanks Tara!!}