11/27/2009

Best-of Real Wedding Invitations – Mike + Emma

When I think of unique or non-traditional invitation designs, Mike and Emma’s invitations are usually the first that come to mind. Mike and Emma were married in her parent’s home in New York City and really took advantage of having a small wedding in their invitation design:

Mike and Emma commissioned a friend to create a portrait of them that served as the artwork for the main invitation. Â Within the full invitation suite they enclosed a completely personalized hand-written letter (typed on a typewriter, naturally) to each guest, a matching rsvp card, and a passageÂ from Jane Austen’sÂ Emma, which a friend later read during the wedding ceremony:

Friends or family who Mike and Emma were unable to invite to the wedding all received a wedding announcement with the portrait from the main invitation:

And how cute are these buttons of Mike and Emma?

Check out the original post right here.

{image credits: michael fusco design}

11/26/2009

Best-of Real Wedding Invitations – VanÃ© + Chad

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but one of my very favorite things about the blog world is the sense of community that develops over time with your readers and other fellow bloggers. Â I’ve been very lucky to meet so many amazing women through this blog and The B List, and one of my absolute favorite people that I’ve met so far is VanÃ© from Brooklyn Bride.Â Â Just to show how nice she is,Â VanÃ© was kind enough to share some of the details from her modern wedding invitation design for one of my first-ever real invitation features:

The thing I love most about VanÃ©’s invitations is the way she incorporated key design details â€“ like the Brooklyn icons, green and white color palette, modern calligraphy and an architect-designed typeface (for her architect husband!) â€“ to create a completely unique and personalized design, and one that was 100% perfect for VanÃ©’s modern design aesthetic:

Another cool detail? Â Since the invitations were letterpress printed, the tiny sesame seeds on the bagel were left white, and so popped up above the rest of the bagel. Â Those kinds of little details are one of the many reasons that I heart letterpress.

Check out the original post right here.

{image credits: bethalee photography via brooklyn bride}

11/26/2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. readers — I hope you're all spending the holiday with friends, family and your loved ones!

For all my non-U.S. readers, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you! I've got another set of favorite real wedding invitations coming right up…

{image credits: country living}

11/25/2009

Best-of Real Wedding Invitations – Julia Rothman

When I was going through my archives looking for favorite invitations to feature, I knew that the gorgeous wedding invitations by Julia Rothman would definitely be in the mix. Â I first featured Julia’s invitations waaaay back here in October 2008, and Julia was kind enough to share the creative process that led to her beautiful wedding invitations:

Julia illustrated and hand-lettered her wedding invitations, which were then letterpress printed by a friend as a wedding gift. Â I love the organic feel of Julia’s illustrations â€” not to mention the fantastic banner for the invitation text. Â Oh, and since I’m featuring her invitations, how amazing are her illustrated table number signs?

Check out my original post on Julia’s invitationsÂ right here.

{image credits: top photo by jen causey, all other photos by julia rothman}

11/23/2009

Quilled Marriage Certificate

Quilling is one of the few paper arts that IÂ actually know very little about â€” but I’m definitely curious to learn more when I see the results of this amazing technique.Â Â Quilling expert Ann Martin sent over this beautiful wedding certificate that she recently created using silver-gilded black paper:

Can youÂ see the subtle silver detailing on the floral elements below?Â The calligraphy on the marriage certificate was done by Carole Foster.

Luckily for us, Ann has posted tutorials on her blog for anyone interested in learning about this beautiful technique – like this one on how to create a beautiful filigree flower card.Â Thanks Ann!

{image credits: Ann Martin}