Angie + Mark’s Illustrated Wedding Invitations

Today’s real invitations come to us from Angie and Mark, who are getting married next month in sunny California!  Angie and Mark knew that they didn’t want a traditional invitation design, so they worked with a couple of designer friends to create a quirky and totally customized DIY design perfect for them!

From Angie:  My fiancé and I didn’t want to go with traditional invitations.  As beautiful as they can be, we wanted something that reflected our creative and quirky personalities.  Our good friend Jayne Furniss is an incredibly talented artist/designer and when we were staying with her and her boyfriend in London, we came across these adorable sketches that she created and would leave for him.

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Jayne drew the drawings based on how we met and the important places/things in our lives.  We gave her a list of few important events and from that, she hand-drew a beautifully charming scene for us.  The actual invite shows us first meeting through my previous job and he was my DJ that night in Malibu.

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With the help of my graphic designer friend Jamie Walker, we incorporated Jayne’s intricate drawings within the invite for a unique and personalized feel that was then carried over to the RSVP postcards.  My fiance is a musician and DJ and we felt the “flyer” format was fitting for the text on the invite.

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The front of the RSVP card depicts where he proposed (Bamburgh Castle in England), a memorable date we had camping in Joshua Tree with friends, our love of sports (me and the SF Giants, him and Newcastle United), our dog and our upcoming move to London.  We wanted something non traditional and personal that really portrayed our personalities. We couldn’t be happier with how they turned out!

So adorable — I love the way these wedding invitations tell such a sweet story, not to mention they have personality just radiating off each page!  If any of you are interested in working with Jayne for your own invitations, please just e-mail me for her contact information and I’ll be happy to pass it along.  Congratulations Mark and Angie — and best of luck with your move to London!

{all photos by Angie}

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  This weekend I'm looking forward to spending my first full weekend at home in many weeks.  I'm also oddly excited for first big snowfall here in DC this weekend — I'll take any excuse to curl up with some hot chocolate while I finish wrapping up a few christmas gifts.  But in the meantime…

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…a few links for your reading pleasure this weekend:

That's it for me for this week!  I'll be back next week with some fantastic real wedding invitations and lots of other goodies before we all head off for the holidays.  I hope you all have a wonderful — and warm! — weekend, I'll see you all back here on Monday!

{image credits: enjoyco via mossière}

Watercolor + Anemone Wedding Invitations

I seriously love everything about David and Cheri’s wedding invitations — from the watercolor details to the anemone illustration to the small emblems repeated throughout the invitation suite:

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I had seen the photos from this handmade wedding a while back, but loved looking through them again and noticing all the little ways that the wedding invitations served as a preview of the beauty and fun to come on the big day!  Check out more invitation and wedding photos here and here.

{image credits: david rager, via bird and banner}

Kellie + Chris’s Whimsical Illustrated Wedding Invitations

How adorable is this quirky and beautiful letterpress invitation suite — complete with a hand-drawn illustration of the bride and groom?  Courtney from Flush Designs worked with the groom (who created the main illustration) to design the invitation around the illustration, and the invitation suite was then printed by the talented folks over at Spark Letterpress:

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So sweet!  I love that invitation design incorporated pretty floral details and soft colors — like the pink in the reception card — even though the wedding is taking place in late January.  You can check out a few more photos over at the Flush Designs blog.

{image credits: Flush Designs}

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…

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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}