12/14/2009

70th Birthday Party Invitations

We talk a lot about wedding invitations here, but I'm a huge fan of celebrating any major occasion — from milestone birthdays to anniversaries — with its own shindig and corresponding custom invitation. So when Minna from Minna Designs sent over these invitations for a surprise 70th birthday party, I just couldn't stop smiling. Not only is this Texas-inspired invitation design a ton of fun, but it appears to be perfectly suited for its guest of honor. Scroll on down to the bottom for a bit of background on the design inspiration…

From Minna: The inspiration was using elements from the Wild Wild West. The guest of honor is very passionate about Texas history, an avid Texan art collector, a gifted speaker and adores his dog who accompanies him while pheasant hunting. One of his favorite quotes was added on the back flap of the envelope which states “You will never lead until you first learn to serve.” The family also came up with a clever poem paying homage to their father which we placed on the belly band. Vintage Texas stamps were added as a final touch!

So cool! I love the way everything works together, from the map enclosure to the western typography details, and of course all the personalized design elements. Thanks Minna!

{image credits: Minna Designs}

12/10/2009

Wedding Invitations â€” Belamour Design

Victoria from Belamour Design recently sent over a few designs from her portfolio. Â Victoria likes to focus on the details (or the “elements of style” as she calls them), often resulting in an invitation designÂ inspired by the style of the event itself. Â Since your weddingÂ invitations are usuallyÂ the first indication your guests will receive of your wedding style (black-tie ballroom, informal backyard, semi-formal gardenÂ wedding, etc.), I thought I’d include two designs for two very different weddings.Â First up, a blue and white ocean-inspired invitation design for a laid-back seaside wedding:

The second design comes from the opposite end of the design spectrum, with beautiful calligraphy details perfect for a more formal, black tie ballroom wedding:

Thanks Victoria!Â So tell me -Â how are you incorporating your wedding style into your invitations?

{image credits: Belamour Design}

12/09/2009

Kristy + Adam’s Hand-Painted Letterpress Save the Dates

Before we jump back into holiday cards, I just have to share these amazing hand-painted watercolor letterpress Save the DatesÂ created by Kristy at Momental Designs for her upcoming 10-year vow renewal ceremony.Â The pop of watercolor detail works so well with the letterpress impressions on thick cotton paper â€“ and KristyÂ was kind enough to send over the background behind her design.

From Kristy: Hand-painted details and original artwork are my passion.Â While planning my own renewal celebration I knew letterpress had to be included but of course wanted to incorporate my signature hand-painted look.Â Thus, hand-painted letterpress was born!Â I simply love the very visceral, textured nature of letterpress.Â When combined with juicy, romantic watercolor brushstrokes, letterpress, in my opinion is transformed to a whole new level.Â The intimate touch of the pressed image first makes an impression but then the washy, romantic quality of the watercolor gives the perfect finish.

Choice of materials were extremely important for this project.Â I wanted to mimic the many natural occurring textures so obvious in Zion National Park, where are renewal ceremony is taking place.Â From Crane’s roughly textured cotton stock to the champagne silk ribbon and cobalt blue envelopes, every detail needed to be reminiscent of the crystal clear river, intense blue skies and towering red rock landscape of Zion. Â So many of our guests have never traveled to this magical place.Â The goal was to translate the Zion experience on paper in hopes of creating great anticipation of the adventure to come!

Original illustration didn’t stop at the save the date cover!Â Each page features one of my sketches with watercolor details added throughout.Â At the center of the booklet is a hand-drawn map which is not only functional but seems to unify the look overall.Â Envelope liners are reproductions of vintage topographical maps.Â I just love the rich orange and blue colors â€” nothing needed to be altered!

Betsy Dunlap created a printable file with the calligraphyÂ for my envelope backflap.Â This was a great budget option I would add â€” it certainly doesn’t hurt to save when you can!Â I am saving patiently to have Betsy pen all the invitation outer envelopes!Â When I first contacted Betsy I proclaimed that this particular lettering style was simply perfect as it really mimicked the red rock landscape of Zion!Â Thank you Betsy for your artistry!

Thanks so much Kristy!Â Â You canÂ read more about Kristy’s design process right here and see some of her other recent projects here.

{image credits: Momental Designs}

12/03/2009

Jenya + AndrÃ©’s Illustrated Chandelier Wedding Invitations

As you may have noticed, I adore wedding invitations that incorporate hand-illustrated details – and today’s real invitations are no exception.Â These letterpress invitations were inspired by the chandelier in a summer house on Cape Cod that the bride, Jenya,Â shares with freelance designer Nina Max Daly, who designed these beautiful invitations.Â This design has such a wonderful and personal story behind it, I’ll turn things over to Nina…

From Nina:Â My lifelong friend Jenya and her now husband AndrÃ© decided to get married this past summer on a small compound of cottages on Cape Cod that our families have been renting together for over 20 years. Jenya is also a graphic designer so I presumed she’d want to do her invitation herself, but she was way too overwhelmed with planning a huge wedding on her own to do it, and asked me. I was honored.

When I first spoke to Jenya about the invitation she had little idea of what she wanted.Â She saidÂ the weddingÂ would be ‘very casual and very elegant’ with lots of really good food.Â She said that she wanted lots of re-purposing and collaboration.Â All of the serving dishes would be from our houses, rather than use rental serveware.Â The flowers would be what was growing on the property, hydrangeas, Â the vases collected from various family members.Â My mom would make the wedding cake.

Over the dance floor, she planned to hang the chandelier that myÂ mom found in someone’s trash and which now hung in the tiny sun room of the Cape house that Jenya, my sister Anna, and I share each summer (and now also with one kid and two husbands).Â She thought we could bring couches out from the houses and put them around the dance floor so people would feel comfortable either lounging or dancing late into the night.

The chandelier image really resonated with me, as did the idea of the couches and re-purposed dishes. So I went with it. Â I love to draw, so I started drawing, a couch like the one in our Cape house, a chandelier like ours, some of my favorite old dishes and silverware.Â For color, I chose a lighter shade of hydrangea blue.

Jenya needed her save the date card in a hurry so she went with a cake repeat e-card design that I had already made. I re-used the cake design for the thank you card. When my mom saw the design for the thank you card, she was inspired to make several small cakes, like those on the card rather than one big wedding cake.

AndrÃ©’s good friend Deb is a letterpress printer and ownsÂ Smudge Ink.Â Â DebÂ and Jenya printed the invitations together on a weekend. After the invitations had gone out, Jenya re-purposed several of the designs to use as signage, table cards and gift labels for the wedding favors, little jars of raspberry jam that Jenya’s mom mad with the raspberries we grew. The project came out beautifully and the entire wedding as well as the invitation was a true collaboration.

Seriously, how cool are these invitations?Â I love the dinner plate RSVP card, not to mention all the other illustrated details from the mini wedding cakes to the couch and chandelier.Â Such an incredibly sweet design, with a wonderful and personal meaning to match.Â Thanks Nina!

{image credits: invitation photos by nina max daly,Â favor jar photos by channing johnson}

12/02/2009

Mixed Typography Wedding Invitation

Lately I've found myself drawn to wedding invitations that combine different typefaces as the main design element, or at least one of the primary design elements. Like these fold-out poster-style wedding invitations by Jordan Gray Creative:

The guitar, harp, and bird details are all beautiful, but it's really the typography that gets me in this invitation design. I also love the way the directions and rsvp card fold out from the main poster of the invitation – such a cool detail! The entire invitation folds down to fit into a 5" x 7" envelope. Check out a bit more right here.