Wedding stationary
Project
Original, printed designs for save the dates, seating chart, table cards, and a secret guest-generated decoration.
Goals
-
A quasi-interactive and fun but informative experience for our guests.
-
Eye-catching designs that evoke the off-beat quirkyness we are known for.
Pieces
Save the Date
A card containing details for the event, communicated via crossword.
Table Cards and Seating Chart
We did away with table numbers and instead sorted guests by bird, then sent them out bird watching to find their seat.
Guest-written Haikus
As part of the RSVP guests were asked to write a haiku. We took their answers and used them to decorate the walls.
Save the Date
Our goal when beginning this project was to keep whimsy first and foremost. A crossword seemed like an engaging way to communicate details that we could have fun with.
Initial inspiration was the stationary in Wes Anderson movies and puzzle designs in 60s magazines. I leaned towards minimalism with this piece so the text itself wouldn't be overshadowed by the art.
The design originated as a single-sided card, but I quickly discovered this made for a cramped page. As a two-sided piece I was able to give each piece of the design the space it needed to shine.
Design Process
I generally employ an iterative process for client work, producing many test images along the way and sharing them for feedback throughout the project. I found this method useful on this project as well because it gave my wife the opportunity to own decisions as we journeyed towards the final piece.
Layout
I went through several iterations before realizing that this design needed 2 sides of a card to live on. The crossword would expand substantially in size for the final version so this turned out to be a boon in the long run.
Color
I wanted the card to have a vintage feel so I primarily experimented with washed-out colors. Eventually I decided that the original monotone design worked better towards this goal than the two-toned designs I created later. I also experimented with a textured background, but this proved to be too busy.
Final Design
Switching to a two-sided design gave me much more room to work. This allowed me to fully realize some details that had been squeezed into the initial studies.
The crossword was enlarged to accommodate longer words and more information in the "clues." We of course had to take this opportunity to be as jokey as possible (or was it hokey?).
I wanted to visually reinforce the location of the wedding not only because of the event, but because it is our home as well. I created a graphic of Massachusetts, highlighting Franklin County and pinning Montague with a heart. I also made our names really big, which was great for our egos.
Table signage
Seating Chart
As birders, my wife and I are quite obsessed with avian-kind, and take every opportunity to try and convince others that birds are cool. We schemed that it might be fun, in lieu of table numbers, to force our wedding guests on a bird hunt to find their seats.
I designed and illustrated the seating chart along with the poster below to help our guests identify specific birds labelling their tables. They would then circulate through the dining area comparing the table cards with the bird they were listed under on the seating chart, binoculars were not provided but everyone managed.
I'm not sure if any of the guests noticed, but all of these birds are local to our area.
I took inspiration from from vintage ornithology prints and illustrations, like those of John James Audubon. I wanted the birds in dynamic, lifelike poses, each with a unique silhouette to help guests identify them.
Poster and Table Cards
The illustrations were freehanded using images of live birds as reference. I started with graphite drawings which I then inked using a lightboard. Finally, I scanned the lines and colored everything digitally using a graphics tablet.
I placed the illustrations on a background the color of old paper and labelled them in both English and Latin to push the effect. Because I couldn't stand knowing it was inaccurate, I scaled the illustrations on the poster to match actual sizes of each bird.
I designed every image to be printable from the start, so the transition from digital back into tangible was quite smooth. I did many test-prints to get the colors to pop exactly how I wanted. Overall I was very happy with the final products and the level of polish I was able to put into them. Some of our guests didn't even realize I had created them myself, which I suppose is a good thing.
The Poster and Seating Chart were both printed on 3'x2' poster board while the table cards were 6"x4" cardstock.
Final Prints
Haikus
Our guests were given the option to write a haiku as part of their RSVP. Little did they know we planned to print what they wrote and use them to decorate!
In order to let the writing stand for itself, I tried to be as minimal as possible with my design. I wanted a nice pop of color so I chose to make the text negative over a field of color. Since it was an October wedding and we had already leaned so heavily into this theme, I used a variety of fall colors.
Final Thoughts
Some of our guests wrote beautiful mini-poems for us that were touching and evoked powerful images of love. Others took the opportunity to be silly, which was also great and totally fits in with our sense of humor.
This project was quite a large assignment to take on, while simultaneously trying to coordinate a wedding and honeymoon, but I am so glad I did it. Having the opportunity to customize as much of the event as we did made it that much more fulfilling, and extremely personal. I would do this again without hesitation.
