Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Beach Wedding Invitations

As I mentioned yesterday, my sister-in-law is getting married in Florida. I was lucky enough to design her invitations for her!

During the design phase, I was incredibly busy with work and she was beginning graduate school, so we had no time to get together to discuss a plan. We did everything via e-mail and text.

Her only request was "brown, blue, and a palm tree." I suggested adding coral to lighten things up. I sent her a few beach designs from real designers to get some perspective on her asthetic. She loved this invitation from Ceci New York.


Unfortunately, that beautiful rattan paper was nowhere to be found. My printer could get it for me for the price of a full invitation suite ($800). I finally figured out the right keywords and found it online, but it would have been $200 + expedited shipping, so it was out of the question.

I actually really, really struggled with a design for this project. I'm not really a beach person and couldn't let myself just toss a palm tree on a card and call it a design -- and, believe me, I tried. Poor Andy must have voted on 30 different configurations of cards with palm trees moved one millimeter. I needed something sassier. Since her wedding's taking place at a resort near Palm Beach, Florida, I had the Kennedys on the brain and, as a result, couldn't get preppy rattan furniture out of my head. So, I combined my kitsch with her beach to come up with this logo:



Thankfully, she liked it! Here's the final product:


My printer had the EXACT number of envelopes needed in the most perfect blue-green color.
The color is not-quite-Paper Source Pool, so I got lucky finding these few envelopes at the printer.


The Latin Jazz stamps were perfect
for my jam band sister-in-law and drummer brother-in-law to be.
Andy's mom liked them almost as much as the envelopes.

Image: USPS

I used wrap-around labels. Even though they're twice the work,
I'd rather sit and cut and glue for two hours than sit still and write neatly for one hour.


 I lined the envelopes in papaya-colored paper from Paper Source.


The front page of the invite.


 The full invite. I did not intend to use the tri-fold design again,
it just sort of happened due to time and expense.
I was really behind schedule on this project, so I didn't have time to cut things myself.
Paying the printer to cut for me wouldn't have been cost-efficient for 25 invitations.




The back of the postcard.


Thankfully, she didn't want a map or any other details included on the back. Thank God. I hate maps. From what I hear, the invites are getting good reviews. I feel so much more pressure to do well because I know that Andy's family tells people that I'm into this stuff.

I'm about to ship some tote bags, schedules, and menu/place cards down to Florida tomorrow morning. I'll share those projects next week so that I don't ruin any surprises for the wedding guests.

9 comments:

Julia said...

wow! I'm not really a beachy person either, but these look fantastic!

Kelly said...

those look awesome! question - how did you die cut the monogram on the front?

Cheap Wife said...

Wow! Good work!
These look amazing

Sev said...

As I said before, you are truly the paper goddess! :-)

very married said...

i really like how the boarders are brackets. so cool.

Emily said...

The date is wrong–it says 2008! Otherwise, they look great!

jessica lynn said...

wow, tina! what a great job!

Colleen said...

l-love these - so much that i stuttered! when are you opening a etsy shop??

natalie said...

I would freak out if I was invited to a wedding where the invite asked me for my flip flop size. These look fabulous, although I am mad at you for buying all that shimmer copper and papaya from another Paper Source. Come visit me!

I second Colleen's etsy shop comment.