These invitations are another of my favorites from 2009 — the mix of woodgrain details and amazing typography just blow me away every time.  I first saw Jefferson and Sarah’s autumn Nashville wedding invitations on the Studio on Fire blog back in November, but when the designer (and groom!) Jefferson Perky sent over his take, I couldn’t resist sharing his perspective!

From Jefferson: This invitation package was design for my own wedding. The idea was to create the feel of an elegant fall wedding with a hint of whimsy.  The growth of tree metaphor was carried out through the entire suite, from the Save the Date through the thank you cards.

Everything but the envelopes was printed in a single color (black) on the same sheet and trimmed from there (a great cost saving technique).  Although I decided early on in the design process that the invitations would be letterpress printed, I still wanted to maintain a good range of value in the greyscale imagery.  So first we had the paper digitally printed to get the woodgrain imagery the way we wanted it before letterpress printing the text of the invitation.

The mix of digital and letterpress printing on soft cotton Lettra paper both allowed for the gradient detail in the tree rings and created subtle tactile differences in the invitation suite.

My wife teared up when they came back from the printer and we started assembly.  Happy tears. (Ed note: awwww… how sweet!)

You can read more about these invitations over on Beast Pieces, and check out the Perky Bros website for lots of cool business collateral and print designs.  Thanks Jefferson!

{image credits: Studio on Fire and Perky Bros}