Ellen and Mark were having a wedding that joined traditions from both of their families. One of those traditions was having a Chinese wedding invitation. They used my own wedding invitation as inspiration and we went from there. They really wanted to have some fun with the text.
When it came to the inserts, they wanted each one to be unique.
I love how it all turned out. Thanks guys, for sending me one of your awesome invitations. Congrats!
Phi was a pleasure to work with on the invitations for her April wedding. I loved the pocketfolds she was planning to use and did my best to create a flourish that coordinated with them.
I love the layout, it's not an orientation that's used very often.
We created five different inserts, including one that listed all of the wedding party and the couple's "sponsors." I learned that in many Filipino families (especially Catholic ones) they have sponsors that are godparents. They all have a small role in a Catholic wedding ceremony and it's tradition to have them listed for guests to know who they all are.
The wording on the rsvp card made me chuckle a bit.
I had the pleasure of working with Melinda on the items for her June wedding. She wanted to go with a winery theme, but she didn't want grapevines or grapes on the invitations. She saw the wine ring invitations I created for Allison and Eion and she wanted to do something similar.
Many thanks to Melinda and her wedding photographer for the lovely photos!!
JF Hannigan Photography
Images by JFHannigan
We also created place cards and table numbers for the reception.
Image by JFHannigan
Image by JFHannigan
Image by JFHannigan
Image by JFHannigan
A menu also sat at each table.
Image by JFHannigan
Last we created a seating chart that Melinda had framed with wine corks. It turned out so awesome!
Images by JFHannigan
Thank you again Mel and congrats!!
The youngest of my two brothers got married last September with a small ceremony. They were originally planning to get married the following year but chose to get hitched sooner and they only gave themselves five weeks to plan it. Five weeks!!
We were tremendously lucky that Jessica from Jessica Kay Photography happened to be free that weekend and was able to come and shoot their wedding. Thank you Jess!!!
Needless to say, sending a formal invitation was really just a formality. They invited each of their guests either in person or over the phone and then mailed an invitation to those who were coming.
We created a thank you note that was placed at each place setting:
Image by Jessica Kay Photogtaphy
Image by Jessica Kay Photography
For favors, Sara and Michael made a big batch of their favorite homemade taco seasoning and divvied it into small jars. We added silver sparkly washi tape to secure the lids (they popped right off!) and tied a favor tag to the top.
Images by Jessica Kay Photography
For their guestbook, they had guests write well wishes on Jenga pieces. This was such a FUN guestbook!! The sign on the table says: Marriage is a game of balance. Please leave your words of wisdom on a block and help us build our future.
Images by Jessica Kay Photography
My son was so proud to write his name on a block!
Images by Jessica Kay Photography
Our uncle (who makes wine) bottled some delicious zinfandel for this special occasion and I created a custom wine label to go with it.
Images by Jessica Kay Photography
Lastly, there were bright blue signs on each of the bathroom doors at the venue, and they were kind of in the middle of the space where the ceremony was taking place, so I quickly cut out big silhouettes of Michael and Sara and we taped them over the signs on the door. It was a super last minute thing, but I really love how it turned out.
It was quite an experience getting to play a small role in the planning of this beautiful wedding. Congratulations!
I had so much fun working with my younger brother and his fiancé on the items for their bicycle-themed wedding. Both Patrick and Melissa are avid athletes, running marathons, triathlons, sprint races, you name it. And they love long bike rides and races, so it was perfectly fitting to have their bicycles throughout their June wedding.
In the beginning of wedding planning, Patrick was very set, he didn't want to use graphics of a tandem bicycle (which are very popular in wedding decor). "We each have our own bikes!" he said. So I created the graphic with two separate bicycles and things took off from there.
Many, many thanks to Jessica Kay Photography for her stunning images. I don't always get professional images of the work I do since not very many photographers take pictures of the printed details unless the bride or groom specifically asks. But Jessica knew I'd want photos to share and she happily obliged. If you're ever in need of a photographer for weddings, newborn, maternity and family photos in northern California, give her a call!
Their save-the-date introduced guests to the vintage, bicycle theme and included images from their travels together:
Their invitation was a blast to come up with and the folks at FolgerGraphics in Hayward, CA were fantastic with helping us print. More than one custom print shop I contacted said they wouldn't be able to print the bicycles on the gatefold card like I mocked up, but FolgerGraphics was happy to do it for me. And they even scored and folded them all!
We used paper bag colored card stock and envelopes from Paper Source.
They opted for a two-sided, postcard rsvp and we had fun with the wording.
Don't freak out, I changed their address!
We also included a map to the wedding venue plus information about parking and their wedding website URL:
I created a custom return address stamp with Hello World Stamps. I've worked with Kelly on a few stamps for a few different clients and she's been fantastic! I highly recommend her shop.
I changed their address here too, no worries!
Escort tags were printed small and clipped to the spokes of a bicycle wheel that Patrick mounted inside a planter. I LOVE how this turned out!
Images by Jessica Kay Photography
Each table was named after favorite bike rides throughout California with the sweetheart table named after a bike ride Melissa and Patrick planned to ride in Italy on their honeymoon.
Images by Jessica Kay Photography
In lieu of a traditional guest book, they did a "thumbprint tree." I created a bare tree (with bicycles too!) and guests were asked to leave their thumbprint on the tree. It really turned out cute!
Images by Jessica Kay Photography
Patrick and Melissa made all of the desserts for their wedding (yes, you read that right, they even made the small cake!). We created signs to identify each dessert plus a bigger sign for the table. Plain white takeout boxes were adorned with a custom sticker to allow guests to take some treats home.
Image by Jessica Kay Photography
Images by Jessica Kay Photography
We created a custom wine label to go with the Zinfandel that our uncle bottled specially for their wedding along with a fun sign that sat at the bar. The label says "cycling happily ever after" at the top.
Images by Jessica Kay Photography
I tried my hand at creating a couple of custom chalkboard signs too. I used the method Mary Ellen used in this tutorial and I created these two signs. The big one served as their wedding program. It was quite a bit less expensive than printing one for each guest.
Old fashioned bicycle bells were the wedding favor. We added a simple sticker and these came out towards the end of the evening. No one wanted to deal with kids ringing these during the ceremony!
This wedding was truly a blast to work on. And I'd like to give some extra special thanks to my husband for his patience as I got the last minute items finished, especially those chalkboards. Oh and I was eight weeks postpartum when this wedding happened, so there's that! We even managed to get a decent family photo!
Images by Jessica Kay Photography