I wanted to start the new year with a post about one of my favorite wedding projects of all time; Brooke & Stephen’s wedding in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Brooke and Stephen are some of my best clients ever, working with them was an absolute dream. When I asked them how they found out about me they said they saw my work on Snippet & Ink (one of my favorite wedding blogs!). Recently, this project came full circle in the most exciting way when Kathryn, the creator of Snippet & Ink, said she would be interested in featuring this wedding on her blog!
Please check out Kathryn’s full, 2-part, feature here. Be sure to see Rick Scibelli’s phenomenal documentary-style photography. Please, also, take the time to watch the most romantic film “trailer” created by Thread and Film, they are so talented, I never knew wedding cinematography could be so good! Thank you Kathryn for this wonderful feature, I am honored to have played a small part in this very special story…..
and now, on to the invitations!
Here is the main invitation. Brooke and Stephen wanted something elegant but also earthy and rustic, like the Santa Fe landscape itself. I hand-lettered the wording in a mixture of old world typefaces and created a flowering succulent illustration in an old botanical style. I letterpress printed the invitation in espresso brown ink and hand-painted each illustration with watercolors and gouche.
Brooke and Stephen wanted their rehearsal/welcome dinner invitation to be inspired by a Mexican Fiesta menu that I had previously designed. The dinner was to take place at wonderful Spanish restaurant, in their outdoor garden courtyard. The imagery for this invitation was festive with a New Mexican flare.
The simple and charming RSVP card for both events.
I silkscreen printed a tissue overlay with their names and date of their wedding and bundled each invitation suite with twine.
I planned to surprise Brooke and Stephen by tying a little sacred heart milagro to each invitation. Luckily, before I committed to this idea, I decided to do a test run through the mail… unfortunately, the milagro damaged the invitation while going through the post office sorting machine. I gave the milagros to Brooke and Stephen anyway and they ended up using them to tie, as charms, to the fans for all the guests at the ceremony…. brilliant idea!
I lined the outer envelopes with an array of soft desert-toned papers from my vintage collection.
Photographs by Rick Scibelli
And last but not least, custom papel picados that I had created for the rehearsal/welcome dinner! I love these stringed banners, such a simple way to transform a space… they are great keepsakes for your guests too!