“How do you draw sheer joy?”
That wonderfully moving line came from Joseph, the obviously besotted groom of the wedding pair Joseph and Melanie from England. Their touching submission noted how they are halfway into their lives and about to begin a brand new chapter of it! Melanie, the bride-to-be was also most inspired by the idea of little booklet-type wedding invitations, and the whole concept of quirky and wonderful wedding storybooklets and new chapters and beginnings was just to tempting to resist!
Quirky Wedding Storybooklets for a New Chapter...
Joseph and Melanie’s charette submission revealed a tastefully unconventional couple, who are clearly having fun planning a wedding that is unique and untraditional but still charming and lovely-a tower of cheeses for a wedding cake, a caricaturist in place of a photographer!
The challenge for me was to design an invitation suite that would reflect an unusually delightful wedding for two sets of guests- an afternoon ‘Strawberry-themed tea party and ceremony’ and an evening dinner and party for younger guests. Pink strawberries, peonies, a lovely English venue and the coming together of two families were key elements in their submission that I wanted to depict.
This all inspired the idea for a special spined-accordian ‘wedding storybooklet’ with an artwork cover that folds out into an illustrated scene that is a combination of background stories, families, map and venue as well as quirky wedding details that would hopefully represent the joy of Joseph and Melanie’s coming together. Right in the middle of the illustration is where there will a place for two interchangeable graphics , one for a strawberry-themed afternoon tea and ceremony, and another for an evening party. The storybooklet will be printed on lovely 100% cotton rag paper that is both sturdy and wonderful to the touch bound by a cheerful band that also holds in the RSVP set.
Jigsaw Puzzle RSVP pieces and other details
The next challenge-what sort of RSVPs would be suitable for guests of all ages ranging from friends of their young buys to older friends and family? I wanted to take on Joseph and Melanie’s playful nature and do a twist on the traditional RSVPs- a large jigsaw puzzle printed on stiff matboard and cut out into shapes to be inserted along with their envelopes at the back of the storybooklet, held together by the colored elastic band. The RSVP pieces would need to be returned to complete a large jigsaw puzzle (of the same storybooklet) artwork that can be framed and hung on the wall.
Cover artwork for the storybooklet can be screen printed or hand-illustrated, in a range of motifs from the wedding-strawberries, or pink peonies, the wedding venue, etc depending on the bride-and-groom to be.
As a closing note, it is my hope that this invitation suite would be a highly unusual wedding momento of Joseph and Melanie’s equally unique wedding and story, one that their guests would want to treasure and keep. Congratulations again!
