watercolor Archives – Swiss Cottage Designs

The Knot :: Playful Palette

January 23, 2015

Last year one our good friends, Jove Meyer of Jove Meyer Events, reached out with a very exciting opportunity. He would be styling a shoot for The Knot and asked Swiss Cottage to create the paper goods for the event. Once he described his vision – bright colors, fun patterns, and bold shapes – we were in!

Jove and all of the other contributors did a truly amazing job pulling everything together. We were so excited to see the photos after the shoot and waited to share them with bated breath. After much anticipation, the time has finally arrived!

Everything came together so beautifully. It’s a great example of how bold design elements can be combined to create a refined and elegant look. The table setting is my personal favorite – everything is unique in its own right without needing to compete with the other pieces.

A huge thank you to Jove for making it happen as well as to all of the talented contributors!

Planner + Designer – Jove Meyer Events
Stationery / Menus + Programs + Place mats + Invites + Save the Dates + Charity Signs – Swiss Cottage Designs
Flowers – Lindsay Rae Design
Vintage Glassware – Little Vintage Rentals
Furniture Rentals / Table + Chairs – Taylor Creative
Tabletop Rentals / Linens + Cutlery + Chargers + China – Broadway Party Rentals
Custom Hand Decorated Shoes – Hushed Commotion
Custom Made Suit – A Suit That Fits
Cake – Lael Cakes

London Love

December 11, 2014

Take a peek through the blog and you’ll notice it’s no secret that I’m a big fan of all things London. The Swiss Cottage studio wouldn’t be complete without endless amounts of tea, miniature Beatles figurines, and vintage London Underground poster. Even our business name is borrowed from a neighborhood in that lovely city!

Being the anglophile that I am, you can imagine my excitement as I worked on this London-centric wedding suite. We opted to move away from the traditional blue, red, and white in favor of black, white, and red. The dramatic colors are balanced with softer, watercolor illustrations of some of the city’s landmarks. I love how striking the overall look is. It’s bold while still maintaining a more gentle, romantic edge. Highlighting some of the most iconic spots around London was also a great way to get guests excited about making the trip for the big day!

The juxtaposition of old and new is such a prominent theme within London, which is why one of my favorite details is the envelope liner of the Underground map. It introduces a modern element alongside the watercolor images of Big Ben and Tower Bridge. There’s a nice visual push and pull within the suite that I had a great time balancing through the artwork and design.

This is one of my favorite suites that we’ve created this year and I’m so happy to have had the chance to work on it! You can see this plus many other new projects on our freshly updated website! Enjoy!

Delicate & Lovely :: Lucia & Ken

September 28, 2011

I feel so lucky to have worked with Lucia and Ken on this project. From day one Lucia was the nicest, sweetest and most easy going bride. She had great ideas but was also very open to the process. She fell in love with the watercolor // calligraphy collaboration with the ridiculously talented Love, Jenna. We used that as our baseline but then added some fun bits & pieces to compliment the idea. Jenna’s calligraphy is, of course, the star of the invitation. It’s plays really nicely off the soft, delicate watercolor. The ombre liner was hand painted and really makes everything cohesive. All four pieces of the invitation suite went inside the glassine bag to keep everything together. We created a custom logo for the glassine bag and return address. It was created based on the couples save the date picture. {it was taken minutes before Ken dropped to one knee!} The back of the map acts as a guide to Amagansett with a sentence or two about each location on the front of the map. I love how this invitation suite evokes the feeling of beach culture without being so obvious “beach.” The entire process was a pleasure.

{stay tuned for Ken & Lucia’s day of elements- so pretty and creative!}

Letterpress + Watercolor= Pretty

April 13, 2011

I don’t need to express how gorgeous letterpress printing is because it really speaks for itself. It’s a classic way of printing that exudes elegance, charm and personality. Danielle and Matt are having an amazing wedding at the Angel Orensanz {on the Lower East Side in NYC} and they wanted their invites to reflect the venue, their style, the location while still being classic and reflective of their black tie wedding. We kept the invite design type based and peppered fun phrases throughout to keep it light. On the details card, we were able to incorporate a few hand drawn illustrations that play a part in Danielle and Matt’s big day. My favorite part of the suite is the belly band and envelope liner. The first thing you will notice about the Angel Orensanz is the lighting. They have the venue lit up in these amazing shades of purple, pink and blue. Danielle knew she wanted to incorporate that into the invite somehow. I hand painted the watercolor print with the venue colors and think it adds a really soft, personal touch. We are going to carry this watercolor print throughout the day of elements to tie everything together. I love the way everything with this suite turned out from the letterpressed envelopes to the illustrated images. It all works well together and really sets the tone for what is going to be an amazing wedding!