There’s always one highlight of every couple’s big day that they can’t wait to find or create. For some it’s finding that dream dress, a unique venue or creating centrepieces handcrafted by the Pinterest Gods themselves. For me, it was stationery!
As an Illustrator and Designer, there’s definitely and large order to fill when it comes to planning your own wedding stationery. One of the most common things friends and family would say to me was how they couldn’t wait to see what we do with our invitations, and it is to this date the best design brief I’ve ever worked on!
Photography - jasonwilliamsphotography.com
The first step in our wedding planning was deciding a theme that we can decorate the venue with and incorporate into the designs. Nature and wildlife have been a key feature in our relationship, from dates exploring the New Forest to family holidays on the Norfolk broads, plus we both love animals! After falling in love the Clock Barn in Whitchurch, we knew that the countryside wedding would fit perfectly with our woodland animal theme.
We actually planned the table names first as we knew we had roughly 8 tables that we wanted to name after local wildlife, and once we chose our animals, I began sketching ideas for our invitations. I wanted to create a whimsical design using symmetry, deep and bold colours with a nod to vintage botanical illustration. I drew the animals in pen using cross-hatching technique and coloured them digitally on my iPad using ProCreate.
I also designed a new font that adds to the playful aesthetic and added details like a venue illustration, a map for our guests to use and two little dinosaurs that I placed discretely on the inside pages (I was only allowed to use dinosaurs very minimally in the wedding!). We went for a gate-fold invitation as it’s quite impactful and a great way to include the extra information in an all-in-one piece of stationery. For the evening reception invitations, we printed on 5x7 double-sided card.
Now for the decorations! I loved creating the illustrations for the table names and we picked our three favourite animals to use on our favours which were A6 mini prints. We also used the animals on our table plan and as team names for our pub quiz we put together for our guests to complete during their meal! Also how amazing is the photography? Thanks Jason Williams Photography!
We incorporated the order of the day in our little keepsake programmes, along with cute photos of us and our families and the names of our Groomsmen, Bridesmaids and witness. We had these displayed in one of the wooden boxes that I hand-painted inspired by our flowers and colour scheme. We sourced these boxes from Hobbycraft and was the bain of my life as of course I left these until last minute to complete!
Other details I designed were little touches like reserved signs, menus, name tags for bridesmaid dresses, hand-lettered place settings, illustrated wooden letters and our welcome sign. I used Printed.com for all the printing.
I loved creating all these illustrations and designs for our wedding and they added personality and cuteness to our big day! It’s made me fall in love with designing stationery even more, and now I have the ultimate first hand experience, I’d love to take on clients who also want a personalised and illustrated wedding!
Stay tuned for more posts about my wedding, I’ll be sharing details of the dresses, venue and the local indie businesses that helped with our awesome day!