Wedding Invitations: Brighton & Kurt

(formal invite on white with deep red matte, digital printing)

(front: photo w/ custom monogram, back: rsvp website info)

(complete suite: invitation, reply card, thank you card)

{photos by bethmarie photography}

Brighton & Kurt were married this November at Post Oak Lodge. I love the deep reds and purples that Brighton chose for her wedding! It was such a pleasure meeting and working with Brighton and her father who is a graphic designer in California. It was great hearing his input and praise. Thanks Brighton and Kurt for letting me be a part of your special day!

DIY Bridesmaid Cards

Last month a friend from college contacted me and wanted a fun way to ask her best friends to be her bridesmaids! She loved Anna of Rifle Design's adorable paper doll idea, so we went with it!

(please excuse my messy desk and the low quality iphone photos. my camera is broken .)

I hand cut each row of paper dolls, their dresses, and their hair.

For complete instructions, head on over to Once Wed!

I designed the message on the card to be hidden at first glance. Each chain of paper dolls fits perfectly over the card hiding the exciting message that's written in her dress underneath. The paper doll chains were a HUGE labor of love, but turned out to be such a fun and girly touch that it was totally worth it. I had fun making them!

Thanks Bobbe and Jon! And congratulations on your engagement!

WOWeeee!

Last Sunday I was very lucky to work with the sweet and talented Lacy of Scissortail Events! Lacy was a participating event planner for Tulsa's WOW (Wedding OpenHouse Weekend) at Bridle Creek and came to me for help with her tablescape design. After many design discussions, Lacy decided on going with several paper pieces including menus, place cards, and centerpiece wraps!

I love love the way the lime place cards turned out! Lacy's design was so fresh and sunny. A perfect ending for the summer. I also designed a coordinating invitation set based on the fabric she chose for the napkins. The color scheme was so cheery and lit up the whole room!

(all photos by Destiny Photography)

Scissortail Events did an amazing job on the table design! All of her time and hard work really paid off. I am so happy to be part of such a wonderful event and wonderful design! For more photos, please visit our facebook page!

Wedding Invitations: Mackenzie & Leon

I've been saving this pretty suite for so long to show you. My dear, sweet friend Mackenzie is getting married this weekend and I'm so excited for her! Mac asked me to do her invitations last year and of course I said yes! I always enjoy doing invitations and announcements for friends because its so much easier to capture their true personality. After they were all printed and I began assembling them, I took a step back and realized exactly how much these invitations resemble my friend. The colors, the pattern, everything, screams Mackenzie! And that is the exact reason why I love doing what I do.

Congratulations Mackenzie and Leon!! I can't wait to spend your special day with you!

Bridal Shower: Lacy

Lacy and David were having a very country wedding with a relaxed atmosphere. I wanted Lacy's bridal shower invitations to still keep to that country theme, but also stand out. Foregoing the typical horseshoes and boots ideas, I added a feminine country touch by mimicking a cross stitch pattern. I like to call it Granny Chic. I spelled out several wedding related words with the cross stitch pattern and even added in the names David and Lacy for a personal touch!

A Bridal Shower

I don't know about you, but I am SO ready for spring. I designed these beauties with just the right colors and a little spring shower to help get me in the mood!

The Invitation That Started it All.

I am so excited to finally have beautiful photos of many pieces of my work to share with you over the next week or so! Thank you, bmp photography! My own photography skills just weren't cuttin' it. I decided that I would start it all off with an invitation design that is very dear to my heart for many reasons.

My very best friend, Michelle, asked me to do her wedding invitations while I was finishing up my last year in design studio. Not knowing much about printing and paper options at the time, I accepted the challenge and still think they came out rather nicely with what I had to work with. Two days after I graduated college, I was leaving to study in New York and DC for a couple weeks and then headed to Europe for two months. I remember the night before I left I stayed up till 2am to finish printing them on my old HP inkjet. At the time I had the basic one black ink cartridge and one color ink cartridge, but since I was only printing blue.... I went through a TON of color cartridges only using one color. I printed the entire folder/pocket on one sheet of paper but didn't have time to cut and fold them. I knew she would be lost as to how to assemble the invitations so I did one as an example, drew her a color-coded instruction manual (cut here, fold here, etc), and packed them all up for my mom to ship to Texas the next day.

When I returned home from my travels almost three months later, I found out that Michelle had cut out a few invitations, messed up a few more, and then shipped all of them to New York for help from a fellow design classmate and friend. It still makes me laugh to think that these little pieces of paper went from Oklahoma, to Texas, to New York, back to Texas, and then most of them back to Oklahoma!! And they still looked great! I received many compliments about them and that's when it all clicked... I love making invitations! But it wasn't till even a couple more years and a big nudge from my sister that I actually began steadily designing invitations and announcements. And now, there's no going back!

Michelle wanted something simple and classic for her wedding invitations. I suggested the folds and pocket and she trusted me to "do whatever". One thing I incorporated that is very personal to Michelle and Gentry is the lyrics from a song.

in your heart and in my soul.

.

The band No Justice got their start in our small college town and specifically wrote a song for the couple. During their relationship, Gentry was stationed in Iraq for a year and gave Michelle a heart shaped necklace before he left. When Gentry returned home for R&R he surprised Michelle with the song, Heart on a Chain, that No Justice had written specifically for them. Gentry proposed to Michelle that very same night!

.

Michelle and Gentry's invitations make me smile every time I see them. They make me laugh when I think about how many ink cartridges I wasted, how many cities they travelled to, and how I spelled 'marriage' wrong and no one told me for 2 years. To me Michelle's wedding invitations are a reflection of all the memories and friends I made in college and how much I've grown in my stationery business just in the past couple years. Thank you all for helping me learn and grow with every design.

a Bunch of love.

This past month SwellMail had a very special order from one of my best friends. Kacy has been a very important person in my life since 6th grade, so I was tickled pink that she asked us to create her marriage announcements/invitations! Josh and Kacy Bunch were married on October 10th and celebrated their 10th year together. Wow! Congrats guys! They wanted the invites to be casual and fun to reflect their personality and to also have a 'handmade' feel. We left the front fairly simple with a big photo to show off their beautiful faces. Then we hand-stamped a swirly pattern over the corner of the photo. We also used an ordinary office stamp to stamp on the date of the reception on the back. Kraft paper envelopes and custom labels helped the whole design come together. Thank you so much Kacy for allowing us to be a part of your special celebration. We had so much fun doing the photo session and going through the whole design process with you!

Attention facebook fans!! Over the next couple weeks I'm going to be posting our previous work that is already being enjoyed by those friends of ours on facebook. So please stick with me and I promise we will have new designs to show off just in time for the holidays. If you're not already a facebook fan... then what the heck are you waitin for?! Also, I'm still trying to figure out this whole blogging thing, so forgive me for any mistakes and those teeny tiny pictures I posted before. I think i have the photo uploading figured out for now. But no promises people...

update .... apparently i am still having trouble with image sizes. i will be messing with the layout throughout the day so if you can't see the post or some of the images, i apologize and will get it fixed asap. if you have a minute, leave a comment and let me know if you can see the images or if they are cut off. thanks!

xo
Jenni