Amanda and Matthew are Married!

I've really been enjoying catching all of you up this week on a few wedding invitation suites I designed and printed this past spring/summer that I didn't get to feature right away! The suite I'm about to show you was printed last spring for a lovely couple who were married in late July in Jacksonville, Florida! Amanda and Matthew's wedding colors were blue, white and black and they desired a whimsical, yet modern invitation suite featuring hand-drawn line art of various "landmarks" near, in or around their wedding venues. Here is what we came up with!

You can see the majority of the pieces in the suite in the image at the top of this post. Amanda and Matt's suite included an inner/outer invitation envelope set, an A7 size invitation, a 4bar size reply card with corresponding envelope, a small 3.5"x2.5" reception card, and an A2 size rehearsal dinner invitation with corresponding envelope. All of the pieces were printed on Crane Lettra 100% cotton pearl white paper. All of their envelopes were from Waste Not Paper Company. The reply card envelope and rehearsal dinner invitation envelope were a lovely light blue color and the main invitation envelopes were white.

First things first, though, let's take a look at their invitation!

As I mentioned above, Amanda & Matthew's invitation is a standard A7 size, measuring 5"x7". It was printed in black and light blue inks on 100% cotton pearl white paper. The inspiration for the imagery on this piece came from a photograph of a clock that is near the church where they were getting married. Amanda wanted to include lovely hand-drawn line art of landmarks or other features that were relevant to the particular venues of their wedding throughout the design of the suite. She sent me a photo of this old, outdoor clock and we thought that it would be the perfect motif for the invitation with the hands of the clock indicating the time of the wedding. I love the way that all of the pieces in this suite came out very simple looking, yet modern and elegant all at the same time. All of the designs were really clean and crisp and I love the way that fine line art and typography just sinks into the cotton paper from the letterpress impression. Check out this detail photo to see what I'm talking about:

For their invitation envelopes, Amanda chose a lovely set of inner/outer envelopes from Waste Not Paper Company in white. These envelopes feature a European pointed flap. The outer envelope was unlined and was printed with their return address in blue ink on the back flap.

The inner envelope was unprinted, but featured a beautiful custom envelope liner created from handmade Nepalese Lokta papers in a variety of light blues. Amanda and Matt had quite a few invitations to send out and because Lokta paper is handmade, no two dye-lots of it are completely the same. Because of this we used paper for their envelope liners from a few different dye-lots, which added some lovely variety to the shades of blue in the suite.

Amanda and Matt's reception card was a standard 4bar size and featured a line drawing reminiscent of the tables and chairs in old French cafés.

We utilized the same typefaces and ink colors in the design of this card and gave guests the option to indicate what meal choice (roasted chicken with champagne sauce or seared salmon with citrus buerre blanc) they preferred for the reception.

We decided to dress up the envelope for this card a bit as well, all while keeping with the theme of the other pieces in the suite.

The envelope was a 4bar size envelope in a light blue, also from Waste Not Paper Company, and it featured Amanda's address on the front, printed in black ink, and a characterful mailbox with her actual address numbers on the side. You can't see the numbers on the side of the box because they are blurred out for privacy purposes, but let me tell you - the whole thing was super-cute. Here are the reply card and envelope together:

Amanda and Matt's main invitation suite also included a small reception card. This card measured 3.5" wide by 2.5" tall. The couple chose to do a separate reception card for their suite because they were getting married in a church and holding their reception at a separate venue. For the imagery on this card, Amanda sent me some lovely photos of chandeliers that were in the room where they were having their reception. We figured this would make the perfect little drawing for their little reception card!

Aren't the little line drawings cute?!? Here is what the three main invitation pieces look like together:

Last, but certainly not least, Amanda and Matthew also had me design and print a set of rehearsal dinner invitations, which they sent out separately to certain guests.

Their rehearsal dinner invitation was a standard A2 size, measuring 5.5" x 4.25" and came with it's own light blue Waste Not Paper envelope. The envelope had Matt's parent's return address printed on the flap and the card featured another fun and whimsical line drawing: this time of a crab.

I love the way this whole suite turned out and it was so much fun coming up with the ideas for the different graphics on the different pieces with Amanda! I'm sure their Florida wedding this past July was just lovely!

Congratulations Amanda and Matthew!

Sherry and Thomas are Married!

If you've been following this blog for a while now, you may remember a very pretty little set of black and white save-the-date cards that I designed and printed back in February for a couple who were married this past September in Wheeling, West Virginia. I know it's been quite a while since then, so if you either weren't following us then or don't recall what I'm talking about, check out the Save-the-Date cards here. I realized while writing yesterday's post, that I hadn't ever shown off the rest of Sherry and Thomas' suite, and they were just so cool, I couldn't resist. You can see all of the pieces in the main invitation suite together at the top of this post.

Sherry and Thomas' suite included an A7 size matted wedding invitation, a 4bar size reply card with corresponding envelopes, a small 2.5"x3.5" reception card, and a gorgeous set of inner/outer invitation envelopes. The inner/outer invitation envelopes were A7 size and the inner envelope was lined with a custom, letterpress-printed envelope liner. The outer invitation envelope was unlined and featured a very simple, yet elegant, return address printed in black ink on the flap.

Above you can see the two invitation envelopes and the main invitation together. If you checked out Sherry and Thomas' save-the-date card from my previous post, you'll recall that it featured a really neat blind-embossed pattern that acted as a frame for the words. For the inner envelope liner of Sherry and Thomas' invitation envelope, we printed this same pattern on a black paper in silver ink and custom die-cut the liners to fit in the envelopes. I absolutely love how fresh and pretty silver ink on black paper looks! Isn't it cool?!?

Here is their wedding invitation by itself:

Sherry and Thomas' invitation was an A7 size that was printed on 100% cotton, Pearl White, Crane Lettra paper and then matted on a piece of black card stock to create a 1/4" black border all around. We used the same pattern from the save-the-date cards and envelope liners to create a blind embossed border pattern around the text of the invitation. We also utilized two large, dramatic, flowing flourishes (say that five times fast) as decoration throughout the design. All of the flourishes and typography were printed in black ink. These are stunning! Here are some detail photos:

Isn't the blind-embossed pattern combined with the black, flowing flourishes absolutely lovely? I think so...

Sherry and Thomas were married in a church and held their reception in a separate location: The Wheeling Artisan Center. For this we needed to create a separate reception card as part of their suite. The card was fairly simple: we still utilized the same typefaces and flourishes from the other pieces as well as a small blind-embossed area, but as the card didn't have tons of information it didn't need to be very large. We chose a custom 2.5"x3.5" card size for it, which you can see below.

For the reply card and envelope, we chose a standard 4bar size. The card was blind embossed and printed in black ink on Crane Lettra Pearl White Paper and the envelope was a 4bar size black envelope with a European Pointed flap, printed in silver ink, from Waste Not Paper Company.

I love the way the black envelope with silver ink coordinated perfectly with their envelope liners!

As with the reception card, the reply card was kept very simple and elegant, without a lot of extra "stuff". Just clean, simple, gorgeous design with black ink and blind embossing on black paper. I love it!

Sherry and Thomas were absolutely wonderful clients to work with and I'm sure that their wedding this past September was just as wonderful as they are! Congratulations Sherry & Thomas!

Kristen & Gregory are Married!

During the summer months, Twin Ravens Press prints a lot of wedding invitations. Often we are working with so many couples at the same time that even though we're turning out lots of gorgeous stationery, we often don't have the time to feature it on this blog right before or right after the actual event. However, because it's all so lovely, I sometimes like to share it with you anyway, even if it's been a few months since the event took place. The suite I'm about to show you is one such wedding suite. This suite was completed last May for a lovely couple in Virginia who were getting married in a church and having their reception at Virginia Tech University!

Kristen and Gregory's suite included a gorgeous matted wedding invitation, a double-sided reception/driving directions card, a reply card with corresponding envelope, a custom-lined inner invitation envelope and an outer invitation envelope. You can see all of the pieces in this suite in the photo above.

Kristen and Gregory wanted a very elegant and traditional invitation design, but wanted to add a splash of color and tip their hats to their Alma Mater, and the location of their reception: Virginia Tech University. In order to do this, we created an inner/outer envelope set for the suite that featured an inner envelope that was lined with a custom, letterpress printed liner in a damask pattern in Virginia Tech's school colors: orange and maroon. I love the way just this envelope liner adds a dramatic splash of color to the suite, while everything else is very elegant and traditional. The outer envelope was unlined and featured the couple's return address in a calligraphy-inspired typeface.

Here is their invitation:

Kristen and Gregory chose a very beautiful and elegant, classic invitation layout featuring two typefaces: a gorgeous script for their names and the name of the church where they were married and a classic serif font for the other invitation information. This invite was an A7 size, printed on Crane Lettra Pearl White Paper and then matted with a black invitation matt to create a 1/4" wide black border all the way around. Isn't it beautiful?!?

Their reply card was designed to match and utilized the same two typefaces we used for the invitation. On it, Kristen had a place for guests to indicate which events (ceremony, reception, or both) that they would be attending. This card was a classic 4bar size and came with a corresponding white envelope.

The last piece in Kristen and Gregory's suite was a combination directions and reception card. This card was also a 4bar size and was double-sided, featuring the reception information on one side and the directions on the other. Creating a combination card like this for an insert is a great way to save both paper and money on your printing!

Kristen and Gregory's suite turned out absolutely beautiful and I'm sure their wedding last July was just as wonderful! Congratulations Kristen and Gregory!