Simple, Striking, Non-Weddingy Wedding Invitations

And to ensure Victoria got a little bit of sparkle, we added a cute little yellow Swarovski Crystal to her name…

The invitation wallet contained: The invitation, two additional information cards and RSVP with return addressed envelope.

We quite simply LOVED the vibrancy and fun element of these invites!

Just wait until will we share the table plan (sneak peaks can be found on our facebook page!)

Earlier this year we were invited to get involved in a creative shoot at the beautiful Lanwades Hall by Fran Wheatley of Fancy Freckle (designer of stunning hand beaded bespoke head pieces) who was styling the shoot, and Neil & Delia Randle of Invision Photography (I’ll tell you a bit more about this gorgeous couple shortly ).

Not only would the images from this shoot promote the venue and the work of the handpicked suppliers involved, but they were also to be used in promoting a wedding fair with a difference (which we exhibited at yesterday at Comberton Leisure Centre). More about the Fair in a minute… lets take a look at the pretty!

Getting in the Mood…

Fran sent a mood board to give me an idea of the style, colours and general ideas of what she was aiming for and then left me to create stationery to suit! Inspired by the ‘Sunken Garden’ at Lanwades Hall and the general vintage feel from Fran’s moodboard we created a collection of stationery with delicate floral designs and a textured finish.

Invitations with a delicate florals and a mixture of textures

Just So… Inviting

The collection that we’ve entitled “Secret Garden” will be forming part of our new and innovative range of stationery under the “Just So” collection (launching in January 2013… more about this soon!) included: Invitations, Escort Cards, Menu Cards, Place Cards, Table Name Cards and a variety of small tags for use on cakes and jars…

Escort Cards work well as an alternative to a formal table plan, but think about how you want to display them… give your guests something interesting to look at!

With a vintage feel to the styling and the setting of the venue we opted for Table Names with a similar feel… in this instance Children’s Classic stories (including: The Secret Garden & Tom’s Midnight Garden).

Cute “Pick your Own” and “Life is Sweet” Labels (ideal for Sweet/Dessert/Cake Tables… or in this instance, Fruit!)

Individual Menu Cards

One of my absolute favorite images from the photoshoot… At Lanwades Hall, your pets can play a big part in your day!

More images from this photo shoot can be seen on the Invision Photography Website here

Back to the Fair…

Organisers of the Fair, Neil & Delia Randle of Invision Photography chose to donate all the profits, and all the money raised from the raffle to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT), a small charity which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The charity supports children with eye cancer (retinoblastoma, which is vey rare and mainly affects children under the age of 5)) and their families. The couple first met CHECT in the spring, when Neil was asked to photograph a group of children at Shepreth Wildlife Park to kick-off the 25th anniversary fundraising events. He was so moved by their stories that he wanted to help further, and hence the idea of a charity wedding fair. If people would like to learn more about eye cancer, which can show up in photographs as a white spot in the middle of the eye, they can go to www.chect.org.uk.

Contributors to the photoshoot included…

Bespoke accessories and styling – Fancy Freckle; Bridal Gowns – Bury Bridal Rooms; Menswear – 1860 Greenwoods Menswear; Venue – Lanwades Hall; Flowers – Wild Poppy Flowers; Cakes – Blondie’s Bakes/Damery Cakes; Hair – Natalie Rayner; Make-Up – Sarah Newman; Campervan – Vintage Vdub Weddings; Venue Styling – Roses & Ribbons; Photography – Invision Photography; and Stationery… well, that was us!

Huge thanks to Fran, Neil & Delia! xxx

Entering into the barn for the wedding breakfast, the guests are met with the message board style table plan. We designed this to be used after the wedding so all pieces can be removed. The fabric was chosen to match the vibrant pink colour scheme.

The style of the Table Name Cards continues the design we created and used in the Invitations. The design includes a vine and the shape of a bottle label both to represent the Champagne theme.

Bring more colour to the table, the Place Cards were tied to the Napkins with a Ribbon.

More of this wedding, including images of the stunning bride & groom, can be found on the Hayley Ruth Photography blog (huge thanks to her for sharing these images with us).

UNTIL a couple of weeks ago when we were delighted to discover that a couple of our clients from this year had nominated us!!! A huge compliment, a big smile on our faces and then the moment of… shall we?!?!? Well, we’ve taken the plunge and fingers crossed we’ll make it to the regional shortlist. We dare not hope for more (yet)… it’s a tough category and we have lots of admiration for our competitors!!!

Our profile is finally live on the website and clients can now vote. There are a few rules… you MUST have been a client of ours and MUST have got married between 1st November 2011 & 31st October 2012 (and you can’t vote until you’re married…).

So, do you think we’re worthy? If you think we are PLEASE spare a few minutes of your time to place your vote and leave a comment.

Don’t forget to vote for other suppliers you used for your wedding… If you think they are worthy of an award let them know and show your support!!!!

To vote for us, simply click on the “We have entered” logo above, or use this link http://www.the-wedding-industry-awards.co.uk/2013/east-of-england/stationery/a-bespoke-design-ltd then click the “Vote for A Bespoke Design Ltd >>” link at the top right corner of the page.

Eeeeek, wish us luck!!!!

Emma xx

The couple chose to add place cards & table names to the items we were to create for them.

Louise’s brother, an architect, had designed the couples invitations and provided us with the basic artwork so we could ensure that the items we created followed the same look & feel.

For clients attending, we suggest bringing along anything that will assist you in choosing colours & fonts etc. If you have a theme or particular style you would like incorporated, please also bring along anything else that you think may be helpful.

Time slots for the consultations will be booked in 40 minute slots. It is advisable to book early  to avoid disappointment.

For more information about the stationery included in the packages, take a look here.

 The Invitations, Part 1

Having sent our Save-the-Dates, we had plenty of time to design our invitations… which was probably a good thing with the amount of detail & content that we included… these couldn’t be “run-of-the-mill”, they HAD to be different!

The packaging… Because of the size of the invitations, we decided to send them in a box which we wrapped in parcel paper & finished with parcel string (just like our save-the-dates). The exterior of the box featured a tag where the guest names were written.

Opening the box guests were presented with a tissue lining which revealed an invitation to join us for the weekend. You may notice that the invitation did not give information about the venue… that’ll be because we decided to keep the location a secret until the day of our wedding… {I Love surprises, don’t you?}

Then, lifting the invitation… to reveal a book! Yep, you read it correctly. Having taught myself the “art” of book-making specifically for our invitations, I set about designing a hardcover 16-page book featuring snippets of information that were presented in a way that gave the impression of an annotated journal.

The exterior of the book, the invitation, the tag on the front of the box and the bookmark (it’s a book, of course it NEEDS a bookmark!!!) were all thermo printed which creates a beautiful texture… perfect for anyone who loves tactile pieces.

The first few pages of the book referred to the plans for the weekend with each day having it’s own page… We produced a small invitation from our parents which invited our guests to a reception preceding our marriage ceremony. This would enable us to get all of our guests in one place to transport them to the ceremony venue.

With punting planned for the Sunday, we inserted a vellum overlay which featured a map of the River Cam…

… and for those who’d never been punting, we gave them some instructions!

Every invite needs directions… ours just didn’t direct guests to the ceremony venue, just the pre-ceremony reception!!!

We popped a loose menu into the book as our guests were able to pre-order their food.

Lots of other relevant information was also included… Gift information, details of our Photographer (Hayley Ruth) with details of her website so they could find & view images of the wedding, and Transport information as we were laying on a coach between venues.

Our RSVP cards were held in place within the book together with a return addressed envelope.

The RSVP cards were quite extensive, we needed a fair amount of information from our guests to allow us to plan each day effectively.

The final section of the book gave an insight into the theming of the Children’s element of our wedding day… A Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. My daughter, Evie, was sending her own invitations (which you’ll see in Part 2 of the invitations) to the children being invited… but so no-one was left out we included the caricature we had commissioned, together with a small amount of information.

The complete invitation suite… with the Children’s invitations to follow in Part 2.

With thanks to Hayley Ruth for taking such lovely photos of our stationery! xxx

To see more of the stationery we created for this wedding take a look here.

As a Wedding Stationer I guess it was expected that our own wedding stationery would be a bit “special”… so, with the expectation level being quite high… we had to deliver… and deliver we did… A little parcel {look}.

After our Engagement in May 2010, An Essex Wedding Magazine requested a photo of us for a small feature within their magazine… not having anything we deemed suitable, the fabulous Hayley Ruth. came to our rescue and took us for an Engagement Shoot on my parents farm. The results were fantastic… we were over the moon with the images, so much so we wanted to share them with everyone, immediately… BUT, instead, we opted to keep them to ourselves (with exception to the image that was sent off to the magazine of course) choosing to share them with our nearest and dearest in a far more intimate format. This is where the idea of using the images for our Save-the-Date cards was born.

Initially, we discussed creating a concertina style album and wanted to present it in a format that gave the impression of a leather bound book, or an old style journal. After deliberating over the possible elements forming a design we decided that the individual images enclosed within a pocket would be most feasible and cost effective, and would add an additional element to the design when the card was opened. Our immediate choice for the printing of the images was moo (having used them before for a client project and being extremely impressed with the quality of print and speed of service). It also meant we could add some details to the reverse of the individual images.

The next task was to create a package that not only gave a bit of a vintage feel but also represented our initial idea of a leather bound book. Using a brown leather effect card, some suede cord and some rather fabulous buttons (which we spent hours trawling the internet for) we managed to create a look that not only fulfilled the leather bound book idea, but also the vintage journal appearance. Printing the wording content in Brown Ink in an old style handwriting font also helped achieve this.

We don’t expect that all of our guests understood the idea or the concept of the design, but we had an amazing response to them. We were delighted to hear that one of our guests had taken all of the images and had them framed… would she have done this if we had shared them with her via Facebook or some other electronic means.

So, if you’ve got an Engagement or Pre-Wed Shoot with your photographer, have a think about how best to use the images they produce from the shoot… do something different!!!

For more about our wedding & the stationery we created, take a look here.

The stationery we created for the day of their wedding continued in the same theme and design as their wedding invitations. The items we produced included: a Table Plan; Table Name Cards; Place Cards; and Order of Service.

The venue, Spains Hall, have an Easel with a frame fitted to it for the table plans to be displayed. We create the table plan to fit within this frame perfectly… giving it the look of being framed!

We provided a sample of the Ribbon stock we had used on the invitations to Exquisite Wedding & Event Services so they could colour match the Sashes for the Chair Covers.

Marie George of Beautiful Flowers sourced seashells which she wired into the bouquets, floral arrangements, placed into the base of the vases and scattered on the tables.