Lauren's Kentucky Derby Day Party Invitations

After moving to a new house last year, designer Lauren Chism is getting ready to host her first big party! Fueled by her husband’s enthusiasm for the Kentucky Derby, they’re planning a fun Derby Day party full of mint juleps, big hats, and bow ties. For the invitations, Lauren went with a preppy navy and green infographic design with a striped pattern on the back. So cute!

From Lauren: Having moved from a condo to a house last year, we have enjoyed being able to entertain a bit more. We don’t typically host big parties, but are giving it a go this weekend and throwing a Derby Day party.

My husband has a real soft spot for the Kentucky Derby â€“ it might be the bow-ties or mint juleps, I don’t know â€“ but his enthusiasm is infectious and is quickly turning this into an annual weekend for our family and friends. I can’t pass up an opportunity for paper goods, so I wanted to send invitations, but really struggled with a way to merge classic derby themes with the fun casual party we wanted to host. Also, when you run an invitation business, turns out there’s not a lot of time for your own invitations!

With a looming deadline of send invitations or just opting for an evite, I was pretty stuck. In an attempt to get me out of my designer’s block, my husband was listing themes, facts and ideas about the derby and it hit me: we should do an infographic! We then compiled all the details we wanted to included, and filled the rest in with fun facts about the derby. It all came together easily after that. They were digitally printed in a fun layout with a preppy striped pattern on the back.

I wanted it to feel casual and fun and get people excited to grab their hats, bow ties and cute kids and enjoy the Derby with us. It was a nice collaborative effort and I really love how they turned out.