Tuesday, October 28, 2008

the wedding: invites

The very first page I ever tore from a wedding magazine, was this one:




I adore the quirky cute vintage style, which somehow remains quite elegant. I tried making my own save-the-dates based on this one, but that was just ridiculously over-ambitious. Especially considering I only have MS Paint. Eventually, and quite late in the game, I went to see Elsje Designs. Elsje also loved the concept and got to work making it our own.

We had a few hiccups during the process. Finding the right, graphic/iconic images proved much harder than I would’ve thought. There are plenty of vintage images available, and lots of modern ones, but finding a picture that is both at the same time? Not so easy.
Then we also struggled with the font. Elsje found a gorgeous, flawed, inky script that we loved but it came out quite illegible in our text. Then she hated the font we found, saying she’s seen it on every bubble bath bottle and “elegant” menu. This is the kind of input I really value!
Somewhere along the way we lost the part of the RSVP section that gives the date by which RSVPs are due. Oops. It didn't bother me too much as I know people are usually lax to reply anyway, whether there is a deadline or not.
When we approached the end of the line all local suppliers had run out of white on black polka-dot paper and the entire range had been discontinued! I drove around from one paper store to the next, reluctantly settling on silver dots on black for the last batch.
It sounds like about 10 mailed invites out of 90 never made it to their final destinations. That makes me sad… We didn’t print a return address on the envelopes so who knows where they lie now, all forlorn.






Elsje Designs printed the envelopes as well. Originally I thought I’d do that myself to save a bit, but laziness and delay overwhelmed me. I was so happy when we received them though, as the envelopes have sticky strips so no licking required!




I picked the chartreuse colour at random. So far our wedding is basic black and white, which is really weird, as BB and I both love bold colours and our wardrobes are distinctly free of ubiquitous black.



Maybe that’s the problem though, we could never pick just one colour. Our shared favourites are red, apple green, electric blue, and the combination of charcoal & turquoise. My seasonal favourites are lime green, fuchsia and coral. I dare you to come up with an inspiration board that finds the balance there!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

ooh, these are gorgeous. I love with the chartreuse/lime, black and white combination. This is going to be my inspiration for my upcoming wedding.

Janine / Being Brazen said...

Love the invites - too gorgeous. great choice

Unknown said...

Stunning combo of colours.

Em said...

Oh, they're so lovely! They have a timeless quality about them, whilst still definitely being modern. If we weren't making our own then I'd definitely be stealing this idea!

Rachel said...

I spent last night trying to decide which way up to write our invitations(landscape or portrait)...

I love yours! x

Cate Subrosa said...

Oh, I love them! I wish I could hold one!

Don't you just hate how much post goes missing?

Abbie said...

Love the design! I just heard of Elsje Designs the other day... quite interesting to see them again.

beka said...

I love those! What a gorgeous set!

Anonymous said...

those turned out beautifully! Very modern, but still with that touch of vintage!

Marie said...

What beautiful invitations. I love the idea of an inspiration board full of colour. I think Snippet&Ink did one recently. So much to play with!

Hannah said...

Are those YOUR invitations??
Those are gorgeous!!

I can't remember if you've already said this, but when is your wedding? how far in advance did you send your invitations?

Sorry, I know, lots of questions! :P

Mrs T said...

Your wedding is less than a month away. OMG.

I love the invites. They are super cute.

One thing - I am a crazy paranoid anonymous blogger - when you click the photos they come up HUGE and you can read all the detail in your invites. Not sure if you care, just wanted you to know.

Laura said...

They are gorge!

Anonymous said...

My god! I LOVE them, sooooo F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S & creative! So much better than the boring invites I see around here!

The color combination is awesome, they go very well together!!!

Modelmental said...

Thanks Ilane! What a compliment? Good luck!

Brazen, dankie... I do love them!

Kitty, unusual hey?

Tea&adventures, exactly, you get it, great! Can't wait to see yours?

Rachel, thanks, so what's it gonna be?

GS, I laughed when you said you want to hold one... They are quite weighty and not eco-friendly at all, tut tut. I'm still sad for the guests who never saw theirs. (But refuse to send my last one out, it's mine!)

Abbie, I also saw that post about them on oncewed I think? They are quite the top designers in Cape Town so they do get lots of publicity!

Beka, thank you! Me too.

Heather, glad you think so, exactly what I was hoping for.

London bride, I've gone looking for those multi-coloured inspiration boards and they do exist! I'm just way to matchy-matchy to go there... Something I fight every day!

No problem Hannah, yes they're mine and the wedding is 22 Nov - eek! - and I sent them out very early, like beginning Sept, cause I can!

Charlie, thanks for the tip! I kind of knew, but kind of didn't care until BB seconded your thoughts... So they're smaller now. Why can't we live in a world where all can be transparent without fear? I hate that. But thanks, it's better this way! And OMG now it's only three weeks!!!!

Thanks Babypicthis!

Twinkle, yay thank you! I was desperate to have something completely different, I guess it worked. Yay. x