With May Day just a few days ago, I feel like I’ve been hearing mention of maypoles everywhere. Fittingly, it has inspired me to create this post about a very special outdoor wedding in Mendocino, California.
Andie, the bride, was such a delight to work with. She had wonderful ideas, lots of inspiration, and a fun and playful spirit. I was so inspired by her thoughtful descriptions of what she envisioned for her wedding day… a whimsical garden wedding with vintage (circa 1915) English country fair decor, the venue – a quaint inn overlooking the ocean, a tent decorated with tissue pom-poms and bunting, garlands and flags, yellow and white old fashioned flowers (cottage roses, daffodils, peonies) displayed in old tarnished mismatched silver teapots, the entire wedding party dressed in period-appropriate vintage-inspired attire with Andie wearing a mantilla style antique lace veil, a family style feast in the pasture for the reception, ducks and chickens roaming the lawns, …. and a maypole! (Or as Andie put it “er… Junepole, I guess, technically speaking”…as their wedding day was the 4th of June).
The moment I heard it, I knew I wanted to incorporate the image of a maypole into the invitation design. I love how the two strands of silk ribbon join the bride and groom (in 1915 appropriate dress!) and create a canopy over the invitation wording. The colors that Andie chose for her wedding really added to the whole look as well: buttercup yellow and white florals, pale robin’s egg blue and an accent of black and white stripes (like grosgrain striped ribbon). She wanted the invitation to be “old fashioned, elegant & stately but not overly perfect… with an element of whimsey”, a description of a dream project for me! I silkscreen printed the yellow cottage roses and robin’s egg blue and letterpress printed in black. I then wove the silk ribbon onto the invitations, doing some in pale yellow, the other half in pale blue.
And here is the sweet hand-drawn map I created. Most of the guests were staying in the town of Mendocino and being escorted by shuttle to the wedding venue, Glendeven Inn. The property of Glendeven is surrounded by beautiful pastures, holds a llama farm, has chickens, guinea fowl, ducks (and sometimes wild turkeys!) roaming the land, and an organic vegetable garden…. just perfect for a country fair themed wedding, don’t you agree?
With Andie’s lovely sense of humor, we just had to put a llama on the rsvp card. The return address design for the envelopes was kept simple and elegant with swallows and garlands of roses.
And here is an example of what the envelopes looked like. Andie selected the most beautiful vintage stamps, such perfect colors. The gorgeous calligraphy of the addresses was done by Adrienne Keats. Andie had wanted a particular style captured, “elegant but with some element of whimsey and eccentricity”…. Adrienne’s execution was perfect.