Glenn in design mode
Invitations are the first point of contact with guests and they set the tone of an event right off the bat. Glenn and I wanted to convey the idea of a modern celebration, equal parts “love” and “party”, and minus the flower toss, presentation line and other traditional bits from the get go. For us, the challenge came in three parts: design, wording and quality.
Not having a theme {i.e. garden party} to work with, but rather our concept of a “non-wedding”, we toyed with drawing inspiration from the history of our venue, The Distillery District, but wanted the design to convey the experience we are trying to create, of which the venue is just one part – we also didn’t want to get stuck incorporating cobblestones or Victorian lamps on menus and signage.
After months of searching for the perfect invitation and finding little inspiration, we drew on Glenn’s Adobe experience and went to work ourselves. We loved taking total artistic control and not having to worry about fitting our wording into an allotted space.
Kellie going for paper-based inspiration
The wording itself was next, we didn’t feel beholden to formal language and decided we could have some fun. It was an interesting challenge to balance a light, fun tone and still convey the meaning behind the celebration.
People do not receive “good mail” anymore; junk mail and bills, yes, but actual correspondence? … Not so much. It was important to us to use paper that felt substantial and wasn’t the same stock as say, a pizza flyer.
The professionals at Paper Things in Yorkville walked us through our options and helped us find a thick, cotton-based paper that worked with our design. I might actually read junk mail if it were printed on this stock. We choose thermograpahic printing {raised ink} to literally stand out and keep with our modern, bold design.
As I write this, the invites are being printed, the envelopes will go to the calligrapher shortly, and we’re starting on the other invitation elements. Though I will reserve judgment until I have the final product in my hot little hands, I am really happy with our decision to design our own. We were able to express what we wanted in exactly the way we wanted on the paper we wanted. I’m all about the customization.
Kellie Smith is The Daily News’ Bride-in-Residence. Kellie and her boyfriend (she hates the moniker fiancé), Glenn, will be married in August 2009 at the Historic Distillery District: they have been engaged since December 2007. Read Kellie’s and The Wedding Co.’s other real weddings posts here.