I’m one lucky gal! Not only one but TWO bridal showers are being thrown for me in celebration of our upcoming June nuptials! I’m headed back east this weekend because two of my sister-in-laws are hosting the second bridal shower near where I grew up in Pennsylvania. In contrast to our Jack & Jill shower back in February, this shower is going to be just us gals! How does that translate to the invitation design? A pastel color palette with a pop of metallic gold and a font with lots of swoops and swirls!

This invitation design started with the ombré background (hand drawn by yours truly!). It provided some color and texture upon which the slate grey typography was set. The swirly, curly and very girly Carolyna font is balanced by the clean lines of two sans serif fonts: Bebas Neue (outlined) and Nobel. (Psst, Bebas Neue is a free font download!) The modernity of the sans serif font is carried over to the color of the envelope and the clean lines of the gold herringbone paper used for the envelope liner. The liners were hand cut using Paper Source’s envelope liner template. For a quick refresher on how to line envelopes, check out my DIY video!

Looking forward to sipping some bubbly, noshing cupcakes and catching up with all the gals!

Ciao Amici!

It’s a big year! Not only am I starting this blog… I am also getting married in June! (So excited!!) Between all of the gown shopping, venue hunting and cake tastings, I am designing all of the papergoods for the entire affair. And by “all” I mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! First up? Our Jack & Jill shower invitations. A few weekends ago my fiancé, Jason, and I were lucky enough have a Jack & Jill shower thrown for us at Mozza here in LA. Because the party was scheduled for a Friday evening and both guys and girls were invited, I wanted to design something that would evoke the convivial spirit of the evening while not getting too “girly”.

The first design element that popped into my head was the font Birmingham. I downloaded this font (for free!) months ago and have been eager for the opportunity to design with it. This quirky serif font with extra wide W’s, M’s and A’s embodies a sweet, handwritten quality that fit the vibe of the evening: casual elegance with a bit of personality. Complementary to the font, a hand drawn frame and illustrations of hearts and arrows are integrated with the typography to define the space. Lastly, to make sure everyone knew who the “Mr. & Mrs. to be” was, Jason and I did silhouette drawings that I then scanned and placed into the layout. As for the color palette — a pop of persimmon on an otherwise monochromatic invitation is carried over to the envelope color and punctuated with the heart and arrow strategically placed on the envelope liner.

And so begins the parade of papergoods that I will be creating in the upcoming months for our wedding…