Top 5 Favorite Custom Invitation Suites from 2017
Top 5 Favorite Custom Invitation Suites from 2017
Styling wedding invitations, and wedding stationery in general, is one of my favorite things to do on a wedding day! I could literally sit on the ground in front of my styling surface for hours moving each piece around, adding/subtracting parts of the suite and styling details, and fussing with it until i feel like it’s just right. Sometimes there is more than one right way and we end up with a plethora of shots to choose from. Don’t get me wrong, I do love Minted and we collaborate with them plenty, but there is just something about custom invitation suites that can not be beat! Below are my Top 5 Favorite Custom Invitation Suites from 2017. I worked with the designers one on one to create all of the wedding suites, which is a big part of my design services, and the suites from the editorial shoot for Adorn Magazine and the suite from the Life and Craft Workshop that I taught at this fall were collaborations with the designers, but hugely from their creative minds. I hope you love these suites as much as I do!
CHARLA & JESSE
I really loved this wedding – not just because the bride is a pretty bad ass wedding photographer and friend – but also because she let me take the reins and come up with a pretty cool color palette. I feel like my work is always the best when our clients are up for anything, and she was truly down for the journey. I’d also like to say that it is an incredible honor any time a fellow wedding vendor asks you to participate in their own wedding, especially when it is someone who is this talented and sought after.
Our palette for this wedding was blush, ochre, shades of green blue ranging from dark to light, and pops of black, which I thought was unexpected and modern. We decided to stay with more of the green blue shades for the suite as they have a neutral feel to them, and I knew I could add in some more color with flowers the day of the event when I went to style them. When I am working with a designer on invitations I always like to think about not only the guests first impression of the event, but also ahead to how they will be photographed the day of. I felt like we had enough going on with the suite with the ink bleeds, hand drawn map, sketch of the venue, wax seal, etc, so i decided to keep the styling clean and not add in a lot of superfluous styling tchotchkes – you have to know when to edit.
This wedding will be featured by Martha Stewart Weddings as well as Magnolia Rouge. To see more from this wedding, visit Our work.
Custom invitation suites by Southern Fried Paper with calligraphy from Blue Eye Brown Eye and sketch by Cachet Petty.
Styling flowers courtesy of The Southern Table. Shot by Apryl Ann at Villa Del Lago in Austin, Texas.
Styling board, ring box, and wax sealer from Birds of a Feather’s personal collection.
GINA & RYAN
Gina was another bride from this past year that truly trusted my vision for her wedding and allowed me to move forward with this neutral color palette knowing it would fit the venue and atmosphere she was trying to create best. Gina is a lover of bright colors and has an eclectic personal style, but Palmetto Bluff is the epitome of the Lowcountry. It sits right on the Ashley River and with it’s cottages designed in a classic Southern style and it’s coastal vibe, we decided that shades of sage green, soft pink, light blue, oatmeal, and pops of copper and bronze would fit into the landscape the best. (Don’t fret, a month later we hosted a reception back in Dallas for 150 of their nearest and dearest and bright colors ruled the night!)
Once again, we worked with Chelsea at Southern Fried Paper on this suite, and I am beyond thrilled with how it turned out! I really wanted to set the tone of this destination wedding right out of the gate, so we chose to not only feature the signature live oak trees of the Lowcountry with their hanging Spanish moss, but we also had Cachet sketch the May River Chapel where they would marry onto the invitation itself. Gina is an equestrian and spends a lot of her time rescuing horses, so we gave a little nod to that with the horse hair wrap (faux, of course), and a horseshoe on the wax seal. When it came to styling this suite the day of the wedding, I knew this laurel that I had sourced specifically for the chapel doors would be the perfect accent.
This wedding is currently featured in Southern Weddings Magazine and D Weddings Magazine. See more from their wedding here.
Custom invitation suites by Southern Fried Paper with calligraphy from The Left Handed Calligrapher and sketch and watercolor by Cachet Petty.
Styling flowers courtesy of The Southern Table. Shot by Charla Storey at Montage Palmetto Bluff in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina.
Styled on a velvet linen from La Tavola with a bronze and gold laurel wreath from Birds of a Feather’s personal collection.
MELISSA & THOMAS
Melissa and her mom had a specific color story envisioned for her wedding, and I was stoked about it! We used varying shades of blue as our base, and added in peach, marigold, light pink, and my own personal touch of the tiniest amount of lavender to make it feel more like spring. Their wedding was at The White Sparrow Barn in Quinlan, Texas, which is an all white barn and such a blank canvas to create in. I was enthused about being able to add lots of color into the space!
Y’all. Melissa’s mom designed this suite for her. How cool is that?! This is why it makes this one of our favorite custom invitation suites of the year. I just thought it was so special that she was able to be involved in this way. We had a “Texasippian” theme for the wedding as Melissa is from Texas and Thomas is from Mississippi, so we wanted to add a little Texas nod into the paper since her mother was designing it. We decided to go with watercolor bluebonnet petals as they are the state flower. This ended up being a running detail through out the wedding as we utilized this pattern on the programs, escort cards, and we selected linens and plates that had a blue floral design on them. When I was styling this, I wanted the watercolor details to be the main focal point. Choosing a styling surface and ring box in a non-competing color as well as cutting out some petals with a die cutter from the watercolor paper helped achieve this. The flowers act as color accents to tie it all together with the rest of the wedding design and overall palette.
This wedding is currently featured in Southern Weddings Magazine. See more from their day here.
Custom invitation suites by Tammy Grimmett, mother of the bride, with calligraphy by Cleggraphy.
Styling flowers courtesy of The Southern Table. Shot by Apryl Ann at The White Sparrow Barn in Quinlan, Texas.
Styling board and ring box from Birds of a Feather’s personal collection
SAGE + OCHRE
I stepped back from doing a lot of editorial shoots this past year to focus more on my clients, teaching and mentoring wedding planners, designers, and even photographers, and to get a little more of that “work/life balance” that so many of us are in search of. To be honest, I kind of missed doing them. I really enjoy the time they allow me to obsess over the details of styling that weddings don’t necessarily provide, and I love having close to 100% creative freedom to do what I want as their is no client to take into consideration. We can try things that are maybe a little more risky, things that a bride might be nervous to have at her wedding, trends that are on the horizon – or even just ideas that are in our own heads and may never become a trend. This particular editorial was done for Adorn Magazine and will be in their next issue that is coming out this month.
This mustard yellow is so pretty to me, but has the potential to be off-putting to a bride if she can not see how beautiful it can actually look when paired with other colors. We wanted to be able to showcase that and propel this color forward in hopes of us being able to incorporate it into more color stories for this year. Amy with Letter Love Studio did such a fantastic job with this suite that I did not want to style it with any flowers as I was afraid it would take away from the colors we wanted on the forefront. I think added in these more natural elements gave some texture without competition.
Custom invitation suites, calligraphy, and sketching by Letter Love Studio. Shot by Apryl Ann at Ma Maison in Dripping Springs, Texas.
Styling on a velvet linen from La Tavola with styling accessories from birds of a Feather’s personal collection.
Life and Craft Workshop
Like I said previously, I put aside doing some editorials this past year (and even took on 1 less wedding) so that I could open up my calendar for more teaching opportunities. I’ve been doing one on one mentoring for a few years now, but I added more workshops to my schedule this past fall. I’ve had a program that mainly focus on wedding design that I have taught to other planners over the past few years, but this was my first year to teach to photographers. I’ve added a few workshops to my schedule for 2018 as well, and I’m completely revamping my one on one offerings to add on a second day editorial shoot option (more on that later).
This photo was taken at the Life and Craft workshop that is hosted by Luke and Cat Photography out of Houston, Texas where I taught styling to photographers. I love the color story from this shoot which we ended up naming rose and rust. I live styled 3 flat lays (invitation suite, bridal details, groom details) so that I could talk through the styling of each one and share my thought process with the attendees as I went. They were able to ask questions about my choices as well as actively participate by making suggestions (there are many ways to skin a cat). In the past I have always pre-styled the flat lays and just chatted about my choices while they shot, and I gotta say, I like this live styling format better. I made several plaster boards for this shoot to style with as well as a plaster wall to display the escort cards. Since the plaster boards have so much large texture, I decided to balance that out with some smaller textural items, specifically pieces of this Amaranthus.
Custom invitation suites and calligraphy by Blue Eye Brown Eye styled on handmade plaster board by Birds of a Feather.
Shot by Luke and Cat Photography at their Life and Craft workshop in Boling, Texas
What are your thoughts on custom invitation suites? Will you be going the custom route, or choosing a pre-designed option online? We’d love to hear about your plans in the comments!
