I’ve been holding out on all of you – I hope you’ll forgive me. But I am so excited about these real invitations that I wanted to save them until today – the best for last, right? Anyway, I first fell in love with Laurel & Jedd’s wedding after seeing the hand-stitched signs that Laurel created:
I asked Laurel if she’d be willing to share the paper ephemera from her wedding, and she very kindly obliged. Here’s what Laurel had to say about her invitations:
Creating my invitation suite was, I’m ashamed to say, probably the most important part of my wedding. I just really, really wanted these to be perfect and elegant and appeal to all of our guests – from my creative friends to some of our elderly relatives – and I wanted to make sure each piece obviously fit into my style.
Laurel’s invitation suite included a stand-alone invitation, rsvp postcard, information card with directions and accommodation information, and a reception card, all of which were assembled using red & white baker’s twine in a glassine envelope:
{the main invitation and a fully assembled package}
The invitation suite used a primary color palette of creams and soft browns, with red accents in the baker’s twine and labels:
I don’t think I could have created an invitation with any other kind of color grouping – it just wouldn’t have been me. Glassine envelopes are all over my business‘ packaging – I feel like they are an interesting way to tie printed items together – so I leaned naturally toward including those. I love creams and browns and neutrals and I felt like the pop of red introduced a little vintage country into the design.
{the additional elements from Laurel’s invitation suite}
{the rsvp postcard}
{the double-sided enclosure provided guests with accommodation information on one side and directions on the other}
{the reception card enclosure}
{the fully assembled invitation, ready for mailing}
Laurel also created and printed her own Save the Dates, also enclosed in a glassine envelope, and thank-you cards:
{the Save the Date card}
{thank you cards}
For her ceremony programs, Laurel incorporated the design graphic from the thank-you cards and printed each program on a long single sheet of linen texture paper:
Guests found their programs behind more hand-stitched signs:
For the reception, Laurel printed the guests’ escort cards on obanai tissue paper:
Here’s a bit more from Laurel about the inspiration behind her designs:
I started an inspiration folder for the printed materials I think about 5 minutes after Jedd proposed! I love the idea of found paper and not having anything be “matchy matchy” (I think that might have been the theme of my wedding – NO matchy matchy!). Though it’s hard to get your style just right since each piece still has to fit together!
{Laurel’s invitation inspiration board}
I pulled so much inspiration from Minhee and Truman‘s wedding invitation suite and, oddly enough, home items – like the details found on the ends of silverware, the softness and textures of fabric and wallpaper design.
I also love old office supplies and found inspiration for the labels and the font there. The colors are, well, just me.
Some of my happiest accidents – like figuring out how to print the escort cards on obanai paper with the hand-stamped numbers, and the program design – happened really quickly. Sometimes when you just have to make a decision or else, the best design is produced!
Thanks so much Laurel, for sharing your invitations and design inspiration with us! And it’s so true, sometimes just taking a deep breath and letting things go is the best way to find the right design. If you haven’t already seen them, definitely head on over to snippet & ink for more photos from Laurel & Jedd’s absolutely gorgeous wedding!
{except where otherwise noted, all photographs by me}
