Jennifer + James Sunflower Wedding Invitations

I am so excited to be featuring today’s real invitations and wedding stationery, designed by Lisa from Good on Paper for James and Jennifer’s beautiful sunflower-filled wedding:

Sunflower Wedding Beaulieu Garden Napa Valley

You might have seen this wedding, designed by the amazing Gloria Wong, in the latest issue of MS Weddings, but Heidi and Judy from Gertrude + Mabel Photography were kind enough to send over photos specifically of the paper elements:

Jennifer-James-Invitation-Activities

The bride, Jennifer, also shared the inspiration behind Lisa’s beautiful designs:

We loved the casual, rustic style of an outdoor wedding.  We definitely wanted a beautiful outdoor setting that made our guests feel like they were on a mini vacation (even if they only drove up from San Francisco).  Beaulieu Gardens was a perfect romantic choice for us since it had so many different locations for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception (where we loved dining underneath a canopy of trees).

sunflower wedding centerpiece floral arrangement table signs

Also, it had a very vintage feel to it, and so we were inspired by the look and feel of the South of France.  Our planner used old vintage suitcases as props, a lot of wooden signs, rusted copper and tin containers to hold the flower arrangements, casual french-inspired table cloth runners, mason jars, and sunflowers.

sunflower wedding escort place cards sunflower wedding place card twine

Nancy also did a great job weaving in elements of the two of us.  For example, I love to eat and cook.  For setting arrangements, we labeled each of the tables an herb that I normally use in my cooking.

sunflower wedding wooden herb table name signs sunflower napa valley wedding ceremony programs

We also created a “marketplace” that looked like a farmer’s market (since I love to frequent them) and gave away sunflowers, fresh fruits, flip flops, and a recipe box filled with 12 of my favor recipes to make and a little package of thyme (my favorite herb).

Jennifer-James-Menu

sunflower wedding letterpress recipe card

For the invitations specifically, we worked with Lisa to incorporate the wedding themes too.  The main page had sunflowers that were drawn on them (which was the main flower we used in the wedding).

sunflower letterpress wedding invitation

Lisa also incorporated herbs into the other cards such as the reply card since it tied back to my love of cooking.  We had purchased a herb picture book so that Lisa could get inspired.  Also, everything was very casual with the invitation.  We chose to write everything in lower case for the invitations and all other printed material at the wedding.

I love that Jenny’s love for cooking is reflected throughout the invitations and wedding – resulting in a very personal design and feel to the invitation – and the way Lisa designed the invitation suite to convey central theme without each element being too matchy-matchy.  Plus, the sunflower and herb motif seems like a perfect fit for a wedding taking place just as summer transitions into fall.  So lovely!  Thank you so much to Jennifer and Lisa for sharing these invitations – and to Heidi and Judy from Gertrude + Mabel for providing such lovely photos!

{all photos by Gertrude + Mabel}

  1. I LOVE the sunflowers! What a great, vibrant take on the ubiquitous yellow theme… (I say that lovingly; yellow is one of my colors!)

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