Haley Young
Reminisce-Web1(Cover).jpg

Wedding Invitation Suite

For the Reminisce Magazine redesign, it was important to keep the nostalgia but cut the clutter. Pages used to be overfilled and had distracting backgrounds which made the stories difficult for the older generation to read. The goal was to focus on their audience, which is ever evolving, and the stories of their past, to create a more stream- while staying familiar to its loyal subscribers, as well as seeking to gain new readers.

 

Wedding Save the Dates & Invitation Suite

This one is a little different. It is a personal project. So let’s be candid.

Many things go into planning a wedding, one of those things that were extra special to me was the save the dates and invitations. They have a way of setting the tone for your day. I mean it is stuck on the fridge and glanced at a couple of hundred times, right. At least that's what the designer in me kept telling myself.

I knew I wanted to keep it delicate, elegant, classic yet still modern. I didn't want to look back on it in some thirty years and question what I was thinking, it needed to be timeless. I took this approach with many aspects of our wedding in an attempted to not always go the more trendy route.

I order sample paper packs from Minted, Moo, and Etsy, some of which were free. I fell in love with the Deckle Edge Cotton Paper from Etsy. The organic look and feel to it, made it feel special. Like a keepsake. The organic edges mixed with a more simple design felt like it could stand the test of time.

I ended up going with Indian Cotton Paper Co. from Puducherry, India. They had a variety of options for sizes and tons of great reviews. I highly recommend them, they even answered some of my printing questions I had later on.

I ordered:
5" x 7" 210gsm Sheet - Invitations
5.25" x 7.25" Envelope - Invitation Envelopes
4.1" x 5.8" 210gsm Sheet - Details & Attire Cards
4.5" x 6.4" Envelopes - RSVP Return Envelopes
4.3" x 8.7" 150gsm Sheet - Programs
2" x 3.1" - Place Cards

For the printing, I ran into a little trouble getting it printed because of the deckled edge being different on each piece. After many print shop fails, I turned to my own home printer. I tested it on a couple and it smeared the ink. But with the help of my dad, we figured out if we used blue painter’s tape to attach it to a standard 8.5x11 sheet we could send it through without it getting hung up. I adjusted my documents to accommodate this method, and we were off! Yes, that does means I (and my father) hand-feed each of one of the invitations, details, accommodations, and program cards at a time. There were some 400 sheets of paper. Talk about a labor of love. It was worth it for the end result but I had my doubts there for a little bit, but it was more economical right.

I had all the addresses and place cards done by Paulene a Calligrapher off Etsy, Leenmachine who is also based in South Carolina. She was also able to confirm in advance that my paper worked before shipping it to her.

We sealed our envelopes together with a gold Wax seal of our wedding monogram, and the Love postage stamp designed by Jessica Hische, a personal favorite.

This project was special for so many reasons, but I enjoyed stretching myself and trying on all the hats: Art Direction, Designer, Printer, and Client.

More pictures to come.