Since about May, I have been working on my best friend's wedding stationery. It was my gift to her and the groom for their wedding. I also happened to be her maid of honor, and my first act with the title was to invite Sarah (the bride) to Pinterest. This was a few years ago, when you had to be invited to the sacred temple of heavily stylized artsy pins. There are pros and cons to the site, which I could go into long detail about, but for the purposes of this blog, I will just say that it served as inspiration for Sarah's wedding suite. She was able to pin flowers, dresses, jewelry and -- most importantly -- preferred design styles for her stationery. Plus, we were able to pin things to the same boards and compare and contrast different styles.
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| A screen grab from our stationery board. (Don't mind the typo.) |
It took a while for me to get the hang of the style and tone Sarah wanted to convey. I might not have been the best designer for the job, actually, because I am used to big and bold design. She wanted a more delicate and elegant feel to her invitations. So, after months of phone calls, emails (some passive aggressive, some generally heart-felt), we came up with a suite.
The save the date postcards were the first and hardest item, I think. Probably because we were still trying to figure out each other. What we came up with was a very unique, somewhat vintage design that got rave reviews. I wasn't married to the "Save the Date" font, especially because it didn't really return in any of the other stationery, but Sarah and her husband brought it back for things at the reception, so that made me feel a bit better. It went through many revisions, but there is so much that's unique about it. I love the aged filter I gave the photos. And my favorite part (the post card label thing on the back) was actually hand-drawn by Sarah. She fell in love with something similar and decided to replicate it.
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| Strange save the dates, front and back. |
The next pieces came together a little more smoothly after we could both agree on fonts. Instead of going with a pocket-fold invite or something else with a ton of pieces, Sarah decided to do an oversized postcard and a business card insert, both in a shiny lilac envelope. It made it easier that she had her guests RSVP online instead of sending in an additional postcard. I love the way these turned out. What do you think?
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| Strange invitation and insert, front and back. |
One of my favorite designs for the suite was actually something I hadn't seen before. It might have been that I haven't been in that many wedding parties, but I digress. It was a rehearsal dinner invitation. They decided to Molly's in Soulard, a creole restaurant nearby the venue. (Which is amazing, by the way.) Sarah and Jeffrey tried it out, and they loved the string lights they had on their patio. So, with a little help from our wedding board, a design was born. If I could do it over again, I would have simplified the type choices on the back, but hindsight is always something... right?
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| Strange rehearsal, front and back. |
The next two things were both present on the wedding day -- the programs and menus. They came together the easiest because we had a groove down by then! The menus were also kind of postcard-like, and the programs were printed on pearlescent white and cream paper. It was super classy. I'll only show the cover here. Can you spot the typo? It kind of became a running joke for a few days ...
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| Strange menu and program, front and back. |
All in all, I'd say the fact that 1) Sarah and I are still amazing friends and 2) we came up with some things that are pretty awesome is a great accomplishment. I was so glad to be able to contribute so much to her special day. For an actual opened gift, I framed a collage with some the pieces of the suite for them to hang on their wall. Maybe I can get her to send me a photo of everything all framed and pretty!
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| Sarah's framed gift set |
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