Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Farm wedding save the date: design to delivery

We met Elizabeth back in October when she and Danielle, her soon-to-be sister in-law, came in to browse through our wedding albums. Elizabeth flipped through them quicker than anyone else I've seen. She wasn't loving anything because she had a vision for her invitations and we quickly realized that creating something completely custom for her was the way to go.

She and David are getting married in July at David's family's farm in Madison, New Hampshire. Elizabeth is taking full advantage of the beautiful landscape and is incorporating hay bail seating, custom table runners and local, in-season flowers. As we sat and chatted about the scene, her dress, and the colors, Elizabeth was insistent that we go "all out" with the farm theme for their stationery suite. Sam and I were over the moon because we could really be as creative as we wanted. First on the list: the save-the-date. I did some initial sketches:



But, in the end Sam and I decided playing off of farm related words such as hay, flock, coop, udders, etc... would be a fun, different approach:


I quickly went to the computer and began playing with type:




We sent 3 initial looks to Elizabeth and David (my original favorite was #2):




They loved the 3rd, but wanted to expand the content so it was more justified like the 2nd option: And this is the final piece printed:


(Photos above courtesy of Gus & Ruby Letterpress. Photos below courtesy of Emilie Inc Photography.)


I had such fun printing this piece because the colors were so bold and this type-driven design really lends itself well to letterpress. And, while we originally had wanted to incorporate illustrations of the actual farm, we decided we would save that idea for the invitation, which we are currently working on.

I don't want to give away the secrets we have up our sleeve, but take my word for it - the invitation is going to be amazing! Don't worry, we'll post pictures of it when it's done... along with photos of their wedding in July!

6 comments:

  1. This is why you guys rock. So much care and personal attention put into these. Great post!

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  2. SO EXCITED for these guys! What an awesome design process, and so funny! Love the play on words! You girls nailed it with this. SO COOL! Lots of time and energy went into this and it shows. I hope I can film the invites at the wedding - Elizabeth be sure to send me one :) I'm sure Anne will want to Photograph too :)

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  3. Farm-tastic! Loved the insight into the design process. I can't wait to see the invitation suite! Well done ladies.

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  4. I love this! Hand sketching!!!!! There is always such a process behind every finished stationery piece.

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  5. Can I just say how awesome your handwriting is?!? You totally need to design a hand-lettered wedding invitation suite. I'm just sayin'...

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  6. Watching the design transform from schematic to complete is wonderful! I love the whimsy and the sketching is fantastic. I look forward to the next 'making of' an invitation.

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