Spring is the perfect time to be working on the design of the printed materials for another wedding. My brother-in-law Geoff and his lovely fiancee Tina were inspired in part by Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and in part by the forested landscape of the upper peninsula of Michigan where the wedding will take place. One of the ideas behind the design is to play with the perception of a single (albeit abstracted) tree form and a grouping of trees that represent the way family and friends grow together and merge as a result of the union of the couple. The save the date card is being printed now but through the miracle of the interwebs you actually get to see if before the guests.
A Celebration of Paths That Have Crossed
At last the wedding invitations have been designed, printed and sent on their way like seeds cast into the postal trade winds destined to spread across the land. With any luck they will arrive in the appropriate mail boxes and take root on a few refrigerators and bulletin boards in anticipation of the big day(s). Ours will be small celebrations as weddings go but like everything that involves my lovely Cindy it has been and will be lots of fun – from “will you?” to “do you?” and beyond.
On the front the lines represent the moment Cindy and I found one another and how quickly our lives began to merge and entwine. Inside the lines reach out to two places that are important to us where we wanted to celebrate. The meaning behind the colors, the size and basic style remain the same as the Save-The-Date card that preceded the invite.
Cheers
At Last an STD I Want To Share
Designing something for yourself is harder than popping the question but I finally stopped designing our Save-The-Date card which means it must be done. The basic idea is that I came from California and Cindy came all the way from Hawaii and it is here in Minnesota that we have managed to weave our lives together. We’re getting married in two places (hence the two dates) and the colors are influenced by the color of the house in Michigan and the house in California, the season and (it goes without saying) chocolate :)
In a stroke of minimalistic brilliance I left the back completely blank and discovered the exciting opportunity this created for the hand writing of addresses. Larger version
When you ask a girl to marry you and she says yes you sort of want to share the news. When you’ve gone to the trouble to ask her at a very precise moment in time you have to share that too (even though everyone who doesn’t enjoy numbers the same way Cindy does will wonder what all the fuss is about).
This card was designed to reveal its message as it folds open and then to fold back on itself and stand up in colorful proclamation that “Todd and Cindy have this number thing that I don’t quite get but apparently it is worth getting married over.” So, just to explain we were engaged at 8:07 pm on July 20th, 2007 which (using a 24 hour clock) can be expressed as in the card: 2007 2007 2007. Larger version
I promise you this site is not about to turn into babies and weddings (the guys won’t let it come to that) but I just wanted to post a wedding invite I did for my brother recently. It’s totally not my usual style, super traditional, but my future sister-in-law wanted something simple and traditional in classic black and white. She loves it, so that’s all that matters.
I was planning on letterpressing them but my press was acting up so I ended up screen printing them. There were a few bumps along the way but after a marathon screen printing weekend (mixed in with a lot of real work :P) and countless trips to Paper Source because apparently I don’t check things quite as closely as I should they were done.
I’m off to Chicago this weekend to hand them off and celebrate with my future sister-in-law at her bridal shower.
Have a good weekend!
(And I promise not to inundate with babies and weddings too much more but since there are at least a few of us who have weddings in their future I added a wedding category just in case you have a craving for wedding-related posts.)
I’ve been look for unique wedding photography and realized I should share it since a number of you are getting married (and you know who you are ;) The trouble seems to be finding someone who is unique and cool, affordable and doesn’t need to be flown in from half way round the world. Do you have a favorite? Post a comment.
To get things started I’d like to introduce you to Max Wanger who’s photos are really fun and look like they were shot by a friend (who happens to be a professional photographer).
wow. that’s a wedding invitation by designer chris maclean. so simple, so clever, so perfectly lovely.
and there’s more lovely stuff in chris’ portfolio too. definitely worth checking out.