custom wedding invitations Archives – Swiss Cottage Designs

Upstate Love: A Blue Hill at Stone Barns Wedding

May 5, 2014

Ugh, this venue. Blue Hill at Stone Barns isso incredibly gorgeous in every way, it hurts. Throw in two of the sweetest clients I’ve ever had and done and it’s a match made in invitation heaven. Jenna and George are former New Yorkers now living in D.C. They love this city and wanted to have their wedding in a place that meant so much to them as a couple.

When it came to planning their wedding, the couple drew inspiration from their venue in all aspects, including their invitations. They knew they wanted the invites to feel clean and rustic but still sophisticated and elegant. Given this, we went with letterpress printing on a soft white cotton stock. I kept the fonts choices very clean but peppered in hand illustrations to add an organic element to the suite. Jenna and George are big foodies so we came up with the idea to do a fresh herb inspired liner printed on kraft paper. I love how the soft white paper and the kraft stock play off one another here. It’s a great balance of rustic and sophistication. The couple wanted to create a continuing motif to use throughout their day of elements. We came up with the idea to do a Pig weathervane {how cute is that guy?} My favorite part is the red RSVP envelope. It’s simple but creates a pop of drama and color which gave the suite some extra personality.

Jenna and George had us work on all their day of elements as well. One of my favorites things that the couple had us do was to create a custom illustration for each of their table numbers. They chose places that were personal to them and their journey as a couple. After the wedding, Jenna and George had us create a commemorative print that included all their chosen locations plus their wedding date which was letterpress printed. What a great way to remember your day and to bring some custom art into your home.

It was a complete pleasure working with these two and I don’t think we could have created anything more appropriate for their big day!

Here is the print mentioned above, it was printed 11″ x 14″ on 120# Crane Lettra stock

Here is the happy couple and their amazing venue! All photos were taken by Pat Furey

George took the logo we created and had it embroidered on custom slippers- he’s my hero.

Lake Tahoe Wedding :: Kristen + Austin

September 23, 2013

Wahoo! This is one of my absolute favorite suites from 2013 so far. I may be biased as it was done for my lovely sister and new brother-in-law, but nepotism aside, this is still a goody!

This suite was inspired by 1950’s Lake Tahoe with a modern twist: so think Rat Pack, martinis and camping in retro cabins under the stars. Tahoe is notoriously blue so it was natural to have cobalt blue be the star of the show. The bold yellow color complimented the blue and helped play into the 50’s inspiration.

When it came to the invitation, Kristen had wanted to do something with wood to represent the nature of Tahoe. I found an amazing vendor to laser engrave these on double thick wood. It was a great touch and the invites actually smelled a bit like firewood which was an awesome bonus element! With the RSVP card, we wanted it to feel like a post card you would grab when traveling through the area on vacation.

Kristen and Austin had wanted to do an extra element to help tie suite together. When we were brainstorming, we came up with the idea of doing an actual patch like you might get at camp. I ended up working with a great vendor who created the patches (2.5″ x 2.5″) with actual iron on material on the back. Some guests even showed up with the patches adhered to their outfits- brilliant!

My favorite element is the envelope liner. Lake Tahoe is the second deepest Lake in the country so I thought it might be cool to highlight that with a depth chart. Depth charts aren’t exactly the most exciting thing but by using different shades of cobalt and placing it against the clean white paper, it was a great design element that really added to the suite.

Since this was a destination wedding, we wanted the save the date to act as an incentive package to guests. I created a two fold brochure filled with fun facts about Tahoe as well as travel details, hotel info. and more. With destination weddings, the save the dates always end up being a bit more important as guests need to book early.

For the day of elements, we played with cocktail napkins, drink stirrers, buttons, custom kazoos (weird, but fun!) “Keep Tahoe Blue” stickers and silk screened tote bags. I’m a firm believer that the day of elements really help round out the event. It’s such a fun way to bring all the great details from your save the date and invite into the actual big day!

Check it out on Oh So Beautiful Paper today!

the lovely couple and the Lake that inspired the suite

Classic Casino

August 23, 2013

I love when someone’s venue really drives the inspiration for their suite. Brynn and Scott were married this past May at the Canfield Casino right in the heart of charming downtown Saratoga Springs, New York. When you hear Casino, most likely you think of Vegas and or a sad river boat… fear not my friends! This “Casino” is a classic, gorgeous historical building that once functioned as a Casino and is now owned by the city of Saratoga and is a historical landmark. Brynn really wanted their invitation suite to reflect the amazing venue while still having a slight nod to the history of the Casino.

The entire suite is flat printed on Ecru Crane Lettra stock. The invite was duplexed to be 220# while the other pieces are on 110# stock. Brynn had the idea to do a very delicate pattern for the liner/ back of the card that was made up of playing card symbols. She wanted to create a central motif to carry throughout the suite as well as her day of items so we came up with the idea of doing a poker chip {for her day of, she actually made real chips for her place cards- so smart!} for her logo. The fonts in this piece are equally as important as the artwork as they work hard to create a certain feeling. My favorite piece is the RSVP playing card- such a fun touch! We incorporated small moments of gold in the liners and the RSVP envelope which is always an affordable way to get a bit of shine without breaking the budget.

This suite makes me want to grab a cocktail, wear a sparkly dress and attempt to gamble a few clams!

Kraft + Coral: A Florida Wedding

April 25, 2013

I know we’ve all seen a lot of kraft paper these days but, man, I still kind of just love it. Julie was one of our clients from last year who came to me with a very distinct vision. She knew she wanted to screen print white ink on kraft paper and to pair that with hand lettering and illustrations. With that as our inspiration, I set out to create a fun suite that incorporated her whimsical vision. Julie collaborated with the amazing Megan of Makewells for the calligraphy on her envelopes. I absolutely love how it turned out! It was so inspired and complimented the suite. Julie sourced some amazing vintage stamps to pull the entire suite together. My favorite part is the coral envleope with the arrow and heart liner. It reminds me of my notebook doodles from seventh grade {add in some “JTT” references and we’d be all set}. Overall, I love how fun this suite is while still evoking the feel of a Florida wedding.

My wedding invites!

March 19, 2013

I am so excited to share my very own wedding invites on my blog today. After spending the last few years designing for others, it was a surreal experience to be my own {potentially worst} client. Nole, from the amazing blog Oh So Beautiful Paper, shared our invites yesterday but here is a little recap. And by little I mean really long winded, my apologies in advance.

Our invites were quite possibly the hardest thing I had to do for my wedding. Given the fact that I design wedding invitations for a living, there was a bit of “gentle ribbing” from friends and family about their expectations. And frankly, designing for yourself is very hard! We didn’t really have a theme going into our wedding but one thing that kept coming up was music and the colors black and white. Our save the date was based on the Rob Base song “It Takes Two” so we weren’t afraid to get a little weird. For the actual wedding, I used a line from a Biggie song that ended up being a repeating theme throughout our invites and day of pieces.

I knew I wanted the invite to be focused around a hand drawn illustration since that is what I love to do. We got married in the DUBMO neighborhood of Brooklyn which has some pretty awesome views. There is one iconic street that showcases the Manhattan Bridge with the Empire State Building nestled below; I chose that as our main image to draw. The invitation was printed in two parts then duplexed to #220 and printed on Crane Lettra. One of the important things for me was to have the invite sound like how we both actually speak. We have a very dry sense of humor and we really wanted that to come out in our copy.

For the RSVP card, I created a mini-letterpress record complete with glassine sleeve. I paired this up with a petite black, square envelope and had our return address letterpressed in matte silver on the front. The record was little, roughly 4″ x 4″ so it was easy enough for our guests to ship back to us.

My personal favorite detail was the envelope liner! My friend is a photographer and when looking through her pictures, I saw one of a guy with knuckle tattoos. As soon as I saw that, I knew I wanted to incorporate that same idea into our suite somehow. One I realized that “BROOKLYN” fit on the knuckles, it was a done deal! I really had my heart set on black envelopes so I knew addressing them would be an issue. In came the ridiculously talented Jenna of Love, Jenna calligraphy. She created the perfect look for our suite complete with little details to match back to our design.

We did not do a wedding website but instead provided our guests with an insert chalk full of how to spend a perfect winter weekend in NYC + Brooklyn. This was printed flat on kraft paper.

I finished the suite off with a black + gold twine {from the awesome Knot + Bow} and had a die cut tag created to hold everything together. I love little silhouettes and create one of our hair to use throughout our suite as a continual theme. Overall, we wanted our invites to feel classic, set the tone for our wedding but most importantly to make our friends and family laugh.

The last few bits are from some of our day of elements that we snuck into this shoot. I hope you like everything!

Gold Foil Invites: Patty + Enrico

November 26, 2012

When I picked this job up at the printer I was beside myself giddy; I was in gold foil heaven. For this piece, it was all about the “pretty”. We wanted everything in this suite to feel lovely and special. When I first met with the bride, Patty, we talked about creating a lovely, hand drawn border that would encompass her Asian heritage as well as her husband’s Tuscan roots. Patty has a vision that included lots of citrus, greens and vines as well as notes of both cultures. I went about illustrating the border in pencil first, then outlined everything with a fine tip pen to get all the details perfect. Patty wanted her invitation to feel pretty but also rustic so we added bits of hand lettering into the refined typefaces to create a combination style. The entire border and ampersand are gold foil and the rest of the design was done in navy letterpress. We duplexed the weight of the paper so the piece felt even more substantial.

The navy envelope, Florentine paper liner and belly band were the perfect compliment to this gorgeous invitation. We channeled our inner Rumpelstiltskin and tied the entire suite with a super fine gold twine to compliment the foil. This invitation inspires me to always make some extra time for the “pretty” because, hell, it looks good.

Martha’s Vineyard Wedding Suite

November 7, 2012

After all the crazy weather we have experienced over the last week and a half, this invitation suite brings me right back to summer with beers on the back deck and the sun on your face. Joanna and Peter got married this past Labor Day weekend on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Joanna’s family has a home in Chilmark and she really wanted to capture the essence of the Vineyard as well as Menemsha, the port by their house.

With the design, we started with hand lettering. Joanna was really drawn to the organic style of hand lettering and wanted that to be a main factor in the invite. Because the invitation suite only consisted of one piece, she liked the idea of the invite feeling like a letter someone personally wrote to you. We also worked with watercolor. Since college, watercolor has been my medium of choice. I love the versatility that it allows you. Here, we kept the illustration style very loose and simple which I think perfectly compliments the hand lettering. On the front, we created a seafood heart complete with lobsters and citrus. The couple’s wedding date fills out the center spacing creating a really lovely design. On the back, I did an illustration of Joanna’s pup, LuLu, who is holding a banner that says “Come Hungry!”. We decided to have the invitation be a square shape so it felt more unique when the guests received it in the mail. The card opens and on the inside you have the proper invitation with a simple fishing boat illustration. We put the entire card is an inner glassine envelope for an added nautical nod. I revisited the fishing boats for the front of the envelope and created a custom frame to set the guest addresses in.

We used an anchor pattern for the liner and other supporting elements within the suite. We also created custom stationery to match the invitation with two whales at the top and the anchor liner. Overall I love the looseness and whimsy that this suite has. Sometimes you don’t need a million pieces in your suite, one really awesome piece can sometimes do the trick!

Setting the Stage

January 4, 2012

Sophisticated theatre meets playful circus in this fun invitation suite for Kara and Brad. Married last summer in Baraboo, Wisconsin, Kara and Brad wanted to create a suite that emphasized their unique wedding venue. Known as “America’s Prettiest Theatre” the Al Ringling theatre is one of the oldest in the country and famous for its origins {helloooo Ringling Brothers!} as well as its architecture. We decided to start with kraft cardstock to give the suite an overall rustic feel. With the invitation we played up the circus vibe with funky fonts and a nod to the classic moving picture with our fun little logo. The RSVP capitalizes on the truly unique architecture of the venue as well as creative movie lingo in the accepts/regrets section. For colors, the teal and black keeps things sleek while still adding a bit of whimsy to the final product. Not to mention I love how the teal stripe liner really pops in the black envelope. Here’s to Kara and Brad and another inspired wedding suite!

Farm Fresh :: Kelly & Sean

September 13, 2011

Working with Kelly and Sean was like working with your brother and sister. Right away we were cracking jokes and making fun of one another- it was very refreshing. Kelly and Sean are getting married in Maine and are making it a big ol’ party. They really wanted the invites to feel simple and clean yet creative and reflective of who they are as a couple. We used the brown kraft bag to hold everything together so it sat neatly in the envelope. We wanted to create a “seal” that they could use throughout their wedding day but we didn’t want it to feel like a stuffy monogram. We ended up using an illustration of their dog, Angel, and creating a cool linked initial icon at the bottom. Each bag was hand stamped with a custom rubber stamp. For the RSVP, I purchased some vintage seed packet artwork to help drive home the “farmers’ market” vibe we were going for. On the back, we had a standard RSVP post card for guests to send back. For the rehearsal dinner invitation, we wanted it to feel like it was written out on a chalkboard. I hand wrote everything with a graphite pencil {to get a better texture} and messed around with it in photoshop to create the board effect. I love the fresh simplicity of this invitation suite. It also really makes me want to hit up a farm stand for some corn.