Kearsley + Edward’s New England Quahog Wedding Invitations

Well this is fun! A collaboration between artist Kearsley Lloyd and Albertine Press, these invitations feature a bright and colorful color palette with a regional New England Quahog inspired design – and some beautiful watercolor illustrations to boot. Pretty!

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From Kearsley: Having designed custom wedding monograms and crests for years, I was especially eager to craft an invitation suite for my own wedding. All of my designs begin by hand with an original watercolor and gouache illustration, which I then manipulate digitally. The watercolor painting is preserved for use on stationery and paper goods while the digital version can be converted to any color scheme to feature on embroidery, screen printing, stamping, and other decorative uses for weddings…and well beyond.

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Our save the date was flat printed to preserve the unique appearance of the watercolor, and then invitations were letterpress printed by Albertine Press. It introduced and established the colorful theme and playful impression that carried through the invitation and entire sequence of wedding events.

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Our wedding was to take place at my family’s home on the Rhode Island coast, so we chose to feature the well-recognized Rhode Island Quahog (also known as a cherrystone clam) in our theme. Since my husband and I live in Bermuda, a British colony, the Hog Penny had become a symbol of our new life together and a fun secondary theme. Finally, a little research turned up a handy coincidence: my fiancé’s Celtic family crest indeed featured wild boars! You can imagine what fun we had, once the ‘Qua-Hog’ theme was established!

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I love taking a twist on traditional letterpress printing by infusing it with unusual colors and pattern. Echoing the fish scale pattern of our save the date card, I introduced an intertwined monogram design that served as the central theme of our wedding day décor. The painted edge on the invitation tied the color palette together beautifully. To that, I added a colorful tri-fold schedule of weekend events, as well as custom postage for the outer and RSVP envelopes. The design from the back of the dave the date greeting became the perfect pattern for the envelope liner, and my vibrant watercolor map design was a handy travel guide, included in a welcome bag for out-of-town guests.

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Thanks Kearsley and Abby!

Design: Kearsley Lloyd

Letterpress Printing: Albertine Press

Styling: Abby Capalbo

Calligraphy: Deanna Wiles

Custom Postage: Zazzle.com

Albertine Press is a member of the Designer Rolodex – you can see more of their fabulous work right here!

Photo Credits: Erin McGinn

Shauna + Darrell’s Rustic Tea Towel Wedding Invitations

You might remember Shauna and Darrell’s amazing rustic wood etched save the dates for their summer barn wedding – and today Shauna is back to share her invitations! Based on her save the date, I wasn’t surprised to see that Shauna took a non-traditional approach to her wedding invitations, elevating an inexpensive Ikea kitchen towel into a wonderful wedding keepsake!

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From Shauna: I didn’t want my invitations to be thrown in the garbage – and I wanted something people could use afterwards, like a keepsake.  So I bought one hundred Ikea tea towels and had my design printed on them using a flat-bed printer. I hired a talented illustrator, Kyle Metalf who helped me carry out my vision. The illustration acts like a map and shows a school bus (which we rented) taking our guests from Calgary to the small town of Okotoks.  It features all the buildings and landmarks on the farm where we go married. I am really happy with how it turned out!

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Thanks Shauna!

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: ShaunaMae

Ali + Zach’s Leather and Gold Foil Passport Save the Dates

These stunning leather and gold foil passport save the dates – for a destination wedding in Italy! – from Arley-Rose and Morgan of Ladyfingers Letterpress are just beyond incredible. From the gold foil monogrammed covers, to the custom envelopes, to the incredible 18 letterpress printed pages in between, I’m just in awe. Take a look!

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From Arley-Rose and Morgan: When you invite 125 of your favorite people to spend a week in Italy for the wedding of your dreams, no ordinary save the date will do. For Ali and Zach, the sky was the limit, so we created these letterpress printed and gold foil stamped hand-bound leather booklets to let guests know that this was not going to be any ordinary wedding!

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Each booklet arrived in a thick, custom designed letterpress printed (and wax-sealed!) envelope that opened to reveal a map of Italy printed in teal on the inside. The leather covers of the booklets, emblazoned with a gold foil custom monogram, were crafted from raw leather and hand-dyed to match the exact color that Ali and Zach favored. Each booklet was hand-stitched and enhanced with another wax seal.

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Marbled Florentine end papers were imported from Italy and a letterpress book plate was tipped into the first page to greet each viewer. As you paged through the interior of the 18-page booklet, you were met with photos of the couple and letterpress printed pages that outlined the exciting week ahead!

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As one of our more complex suites we’ve ever designed, we documented the creation of this project on our blog. We were so excited to discover that this Save the Date was awarded 2014 Louie Award for Print and Production Excellence!

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Thank you so much ladies!

Design + Letterpress Printing: Ladyfingers Letterpress

Ladyfingers Letterpress is a member of the Designer Rolodex – check out more of their beautiful work right here or visit the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Ladyfingers Letterpress

Minyi + Brian’s Modern Watercolor Wedding Invitations

These beautiful wedding invitations from Meghan of And Here We Are mix whimsical watercolors and hand lettering with a modern chevron pattern for a Fall wedding at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Boathouse. And the illustration of the bride and groom’s French bulldog on the RSVP? So cute!

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From Meghan: Minyi and Brian had a fall Brooklyn wedding in the Prospect Park Boathouse. The wedding style was classic romance with a modern & fun twist, so we mixed a loose hand lettered script with watercolor backgrounds and chevron pattern, and also got to make a fun illustration of their French bulldog, Thor, for the RSVP postcards. Their colors were deep purple and succulent green; and Minyi loves all things sparkly, so metallic gold was a must.

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The save the date and invitations feature hand-drawn letters and illustrations, which were then hand painted, letter press printed AND hot foil-stamped. They also included an after-party invitation on gold paper, and a tri-fold map of Brooklyn with some of Minyi & Brian’s favorite Brooklyn places listed. We printed a double run of the maps so that they could also be tucked into the welcome bags for out-of-town guests.

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We also created loads of day-of goods including menus, programs, seating chart, signage, and place cards. The day-of items were mostly digitally printed, and the signs were hand painted with watercolor and gold leaf gilding.

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 Thanks Meghan!

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Invitation photos by And Here We Are / Day of wedding photos by Levi Stolove

Ilana + Gregg’s Modern Outdoorsy Wedding Invitations

I featured the outdoors-inspired save the dates of Ilana from Sugar and Type over the summer – and I’m so excited that Ilana is back today with her wedding invitations! Ilana continued the playful outdoor vibe from the save the dates, combining modern design elements with kraft paper envelopes and plaid patterns!

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From Ilana: When we started planning our wedding, we knew it’d be playful and outdoors, and it was so fun to apply that vision to our invitations and wedding stationery. We wanted the wording to be friendly, casual, and a bit silly. I used kraft paper envelopes with a custom plaid liner to match Gregg and his groomsmen’s shirts.

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We definitely wanted to include a map since our ceremony was in the middle of a park and we didn’t want anyone to get lost! We included an itinerary for our out of town guests, and a list of our favorite places waiting for them in their hotel room when they arrived so they could explore the area! We really wanted a cohesive feel with our save the dates, so we took the one bike from that piece and added a second bike to symbolize our journey together.

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  The fun part was the text messages and phone calls we got asking “should we dress like we’re going to play with puppies in the park, or for a wedding?” We had a great and fun day and I can’t wait to share more pictures from it!

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Thanks Ilana!

Design and Envelope Addressing: Sugar and Type

Letterpress Printing and Edge Painting: Greengirl Press

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers or visit the real invitations gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Audra Zaba Photo