This entry comes from Jason, who needed some brainstorming help for an invitation suite for their vintage-carnival themed wedding. From their submission they seemed like such an interesting couple-they met at gastric bypass support group, dubbed themselves The Incredible Shrinking Couple and are considering having sideshow banners of it made for the wedding! The challenge was, what sort of invitations would have vintage style as well as the curiosity elements of a delightful sideshow attraction?
A little whimsy, a little noir-ish, a little vintage carnival flash
A wedding with a carnival theme is definitely NOT boring and the invitations to it should definitely be out of the ordinary and depicted in a loose, free, colorful style common in antique and vintage carnival posters. Think bold brush strokes, bright cheerful colors.
Also, how do you keep the element of surprise of a vintage carnival ‘sideshow attraction’ in an invitation suite? With the classic pop-up card of course! The cover of the invitation is carefully sedate yet secretive. A small note at the bottom beckons the recipient to lift the ‘curtain’ for the main act.
The Incredible Shrinking Couple
Lift it up and the Incredible Shrinking Couple (Jason and Rebecca in carnival flourish) jumps up to greet you! Some subtleties in design like larger shadows on the cover and smaller figures inside could elude to the shrinking 🙂 There are plenty of instructions on the web on how to construct pop-up cards and Jason and Rebecca would probably enjoy drawing and coloring themselves to be cut out! Print the pop-up cards out on creamy conservation papers (Japanese washi papers or french cotton papers), they work great for an aged look.
And how can one pass up the opportunity to hand out carnival-styled tickets for the wedding save the dates? A quick search on Etsy turns up myriad colorful rolls of plain raffle tickets that would suit the purpose. Some are even genuine vintage. Grab some rubber stamps and start personalizing them with the wedding date and information. Get guests to hold on to their save the dates for a real raffle at the wedding carnival. A wonderful alternative would be a giant carnival ticket stub, folded in the center where the perforations are. This would allow more personalizing and text. There are many such ticket images online, the key is to use screen-print or rubber stamps for an authentic vintage look.
What a fun task making all these,happy crafting Jason and Rebecca!
