The title of this blog will make sense shortly, I promise. The next wedding invitations I’d like to showcase on the blog were a very last minute to the 2011 line up, but since it involves one of my oldest friends, I was more than happy to take on the challenge. My friend Mike and his fiancee Michelle announced their engagement in early June, and followed that up with “the date is set for July 24.”

Yikes! As an invitation designer, I am used to sending out invites 8 weeks before the wedding date, with a comfortable amount of design room built in before that. With the wedding less than 8 weeks out, we really needed to hustle on these! Luckily, Mike and Michelle were great clients who could make very fast decisions. With the wedding color pallette of light green and soft pink, we made the decision to move forward using a soft green metallic horizontal pocket enclosure with a silver mailing envelope.

The couple was looking for an invitation design that was unique and fun, not too flowery, and said “casual summer wedding” while still appearing a tad formal. The ceremony was taking place in a botanical garden, while the reception was a much more casual event, so the invitation needed to speak to both parts.

The final design incorporates a fun pink and green scroll design and an art deco-ish sans serif font paired with a fun script. The invitation was printed on a clean white linen cardstock and the enclosure was sealed with a sticker to match the design.

You may notice there is no formal “reception” card in this design, and that is because Mike and Michelle took a different approach to their celebration. They had a small private ceremony with family and decided to invite everyone to a private pavilion at Festa Italiana to celebrate their wedding. (When the groom’s middle name is Luigi, what do you expect?) As a result, we sent out separate reception-only invitations which coordinated with the design.

Although this was definitely the fastest set of invitations I have ever turned around, I’m still really pleased with the result and think it fit very well with the wedding that Mike and Michelle had planned.  Congrats to the happy couple, it was a great day!