Day 30, 2011: Top 10 Invitations Of The Year – Wintery Hand Illustrated Letterpress Pocketfold Invitation
December 30th, 2011 § 5 Comments
Wow – 30 days have absolutely flown by, and I can’t believe that we’ve just got one more post to go tomorrow to wrap-up 31 Days of Blogging Hath December, the Redux (and a wrap-up it shall be my friends!).
It has been a blast sharing info on etiquette, printing methods, invitation pricing/budgets and most of all my Top 10 favourite Hip Ink custom invitations from 2011.
I often say how difficult it is to pick “favourites” as a designer – it’s a bit like having tons of children and trying to choose which ones you like best. Difficult, and of course the newest one always seems to have a special place in your heart.
But, choosing my favourite invitation of 2011 was actually really easy, for so many reasons – lovely clients, a wonderful theme and colourscape to work with, the opportunity to challenge myself to mix printing methods I hadn’t before, and the opportunity to work with a super-talented colleague. What more could I have asked for?
So, without further ado, my favourite invitation of 2011 was…
Photos by Corina V. Photography
Danielle and Stephen’s Chateau Frontenac/Old Quebec winter-themed pocketfold invitation, featuring a mix of letterpress printing and beautiful hand-painted illustrations by Amy Tan of The TreeSpace Studio.
Yes, I’ve been talking about them forever, and showing sneak peeks on Twitter, but I *finally* get to show you the invitations in their finished state, as Danielle and Stephen were married yesterday in Quebec City (congratulations you two!).
I actually worked with Danielle’s mother and sister on this project (Lorrain and Andrea). They were immediately drawn to our Paris invitation at a bridal show in January, and knew they wanted something with a similar feeling, that would incorporate two specific illustrations – one of the Fairmont Le Cheateau Frontenac (where Danielle and Stephen’s wedding was taking place) and one of a wintery streetscape of Old Quebec.
They wanted something soft and romantic, with a pen and ink/watercolour feeling, and I knew exactly who to call – in fact, I remember blurting out in our first meeting, “I know the perfect illustrator!”. The perfect illustrator was Amy Tan from The Treespace Studio - Amy is an invitation designer in her own right as well, creating some of the most personal and beautiful invitations out there, and I knew her amazing style was perfect for this project (and I was right!).
We had used letterpress to create Danielle and Stephen’s save-the-dates, and I thought it was the perfect mix of modern and old-world for the wedding invitation as well. But…I knew that letterpress was definitely not going to work for the illustration portion of the invite. So, just like peanut butter and jelly, we made two very different printing methods the best of friends – first we sent off the invites and inserts to be letterpress printed (on Crane Lettra cotton stock), and then once we had them in studio we reproduced Amy’s beautiful illustrations on our in-house photo printer (and I caught up on Pinterest while I hand fed each one!).
And here is the result:
The illustrations so beautifully captured the Chateau in winter, with a warm glow emanating from the windows and a snowy Old Quebec street scene, with the bride and groom making a special appearance.
While the colour scheme was a very traditional silver, white and dark blue, we added in shades of lavender to both the illustrations and the belly band, as well as the warm yellow-orange that added warmth to the illustrations and overall piece.
The pocketfold was also something that Danielle wanted from the outset, and we choose a luxurious heavyweight Envelopments pocketfold in Tahitian Pearl, a gorgeous silver textured metallic stock – the perfect complement to tie everything together.
The finishing touch was a belly band, printed with Danielle and Stephen’s name and wedding date, to keep everything in place.
I also had the chance to create a number of ceremony and reception items for Danielle and Stephen’s big day, which I hope to feature in a few weeks time as well.
Hope you enjoyed our 2011 trip down memory lane. I’m so excited to get to work on 2012′s Top 10 contenders 
Check back tomorrow for our 31st and last post of December, all about where we’ve been in 2011 and where we’re going in 2012 – we’d love to have you along for the ride!
Love love love this one. How unique.
Absolutely stunning! What a great design!
What I love about this invitation, is that it is so uniquely theirs. Danielle and Stephen must have been thrilled. Beautiful, amazing artwork and details.
Truly inspired!
Great work Sarah
[...] clients must have been thrilled with!Here’s what Sarah has to say…(Excerpted from her HIP INK blog post) Photos by Corina V. Photography Danielle and Stephen’s Chateau Frontenac/Old Quebec [...]
simply amazing. very unique