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.

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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!

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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.