I am so excited about today’s real invitations!  The invitations were submitted by the bride, Caitlin, who is thrilled with the custom design that her stationer, Li Lai, developed for her invitations.  As you’ll see, Caitlin and her husband Joseph went for a vintage aviation theme in their wedding invitation design.  The aviation theme was itself inspired by the album artwork from one of their favorite bands, Neutral Milk Hotel.  I love, love the way Caitlin worked with Li to translate this inspiration to a successful wedding invitation, so let’s get right to it!

From Caitlin: We asked Li to design something flight-themed using a vintagey line-drawing style.  We actually gave her the liner notes to one of our favorite albums, “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel, to use as inspiration for the overall design (Aeroplane was also our wedding song):

Li found a bunch of flight images and tweaked them a little bit (adding the people in the hot air balloon on the front, etc.) and created a really wonderful, whimsical invitation:

The invitations include a pocket for the RSVP card and return envelope, as well as a fun bookmark containing all of the directions (and a bird charm tied on with pale green string).  I think the bookmark is my favorite part, with all of the weird images of different antique flight contraptions:

Finally, Li made us a custom rubber stamp with a crest tweaked to include our initials, with which all of our envelopes were stamped with on the back:

Gorgeous!  I love the way all the different elements work together, from the kraft paper envelopes and details to the vintage design elements and drawings, while still reflecting the design’s original lyrical inspiration.  You can check out more from Li Lai’s portfolio — including Caitlin + Joseph’s bird-themed Save the Date — right here.  Thanks Caitlin!

{image credits: invitation photos by Li Lai; album artwork by Neutral Milk Hotel courtesy Merge Records}