Today’s save the dates were inspired by the wedding venue’s beautiful natural setting.  Sarah and Jon were married in a lovely garden setting hidden away in the middle of Philadelphia.  And since Sarah is an illustrator and stationery designer, she couldn’t help but be inspired by the lush surroundings:

From Sarah: My name is Sarah Greiner, and I am a packaging designer in Philadelphia with a little Etsy shop called RedRedOrange.  My husband Jon and I were married in September in a little garden behind the National Society of Colonial Dames.  It is a historic building with tons of character, but it was the gorgeous garden in the back that we were most drawn to.  Even though the site was right in the middle of Center City, the garden felt like a sanctuary where we could escape the hustle and bustle of downtown.

For the Save the Dates, we wanted to give our guests a sneak peak into what the evening would hold and to set the tone for the laid back, dinner party atmosphere that we had planned.  The ceremony itself was going to take place in front of a brick wall covered in creeping vines and hydrangea bushes, and the cocktail hour would be under the stars.

When I started sketching, I just kept envisioning a magical secret garden with flowers and greenery creeping in from all sides.  The banner that holds our names was a nod to the Chuppah canopy we would be married under.

We wanted to stress that our wedding was going to be a casual affair in a garden setting so I hand drew everything on the Save the Dates (including the anatomically incorrect owl with four wings).  These were digitally printed at home.

Coming up next… Sarah’s wedding invitations!

{image credits: wedding photos by alyssa maloof, save the dates by sarah}