I know we’re barely out of January, but I can already tell that these wedding invitations are going to end up as one of my favorites from 2011.  Samantha and Whitney, the talented ladies behind Gus & Ruby in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, teamed up with illustrator Nate Duval to create a truly custom wedding invitation designed around the wedding venue – the groom’s family farm!

From Samantha and Whitney: Elizabeth and David came to us looking for a completely original wedding invitation design. After much discussion and many sketches, we hired illustrator Nate Duval to bring our vision to life.  With our direction, Nate illustrated the farm that David’s family owns in Madison, New Hampshire (and the wedding venue!).

Their color palette was a mix of bright colors: yellow, orange, green, and blue and they gave us complete free reign to be as creative as we wanted.  Nate did an awesome, graphic illustration of the house, barn, and hills and even incorporated geometric patterns to fill in shaded areas.

Nate did a singular illustration of a day lily (they are abundant on the property) as well as a ridiculously awesome illustration one of the cows (a very specific breed) that graze on the farm fields.  One of our favorite moments with this couple was when the groom’s mother saw the suite for the first time and exclaimed “Oh, it’s Fiona!” upon seeing the cow.  She recognized the specific cow immediately!  Too cute.

Instead of pairing a refined font with Nate’s rad illustrations, we decided to opt for hand lettering.  Whitney set out and hand wrote every piece of information – from the invitation text to the wording for the rehearsal dinner card – it was a labor-intensive process, but we couldn’t have been more thrilled with the results.

Our favorite part of the suite, which Whitney dreamed up just as she was preparing the final files, was to create barn doors as a vehicle to hold the invitation.  When guests pulled the suite out of the envelope they were faced with the doors and had to untie the rustic twine to reveal the invitation.  The additional pieces (reply card + envelope and rehearsal dinner invitation) were tucked underneath the twine on the backside of the doors.

Are these not the most adorable farm wedding invitations ever?  The entire suite is absolutely stunning, from the save the dates to the illustrated RSVP card.  Thanks Samantha and Whitney!

Illustration: Nate Duval
Hand Lettering and Letterpress Printing: Gus & Ruby

Invitation Styling by Meagan Gilpatrick of Maine Season Events; Photography by Brea McDonald