I haven’t blogged for about a week, and since I have {joyously!} been getting all the materials prepared for Emily’s Atlanta wedding, I don’t have a tutorial prepared. Instead, I thought I’d talk a little bit about the projects I have been working on lately, my recent creations.
This week, I have dedicated many hours to Emily’s wedding, which is already coming up this weekend. I have been working with Emily since early December, so it’s surreal {to me, at least} that the event is happening already. It’s also a little sad! I work so closely with clients that by the end of our collaboration, we have become friends rather than just designer/client. When the event is over, I don’t have an excuse to check in all the time!
For the past few days, I have been making her place cards with the Finetec gold palette {Arabian gold, I believe}. I used Medioevalis artisan-made {Italian!} paper for the place cards; I love using this paper because it’s luxe and has low absorbency, which means the ink stays very vibrant and crisp.
I am working on Emily’s event with the collaboration of Melanie Hobert of Celebrate! Event Design and Sweet Meadow Farm. Two weekends ago, Melanie beautifully put together another event I had worked on with another client of hers, Beth. The photos from that event — taken by the immensely talented Anna Howard — are stunning! Take a look.
{The menu set-up; I designed the menu and the place card.}
{The inside of the event … I can’t take any credit for this, except for the table numbers! Isn’t the arrangement of everything stunning?}
{The escort cards, which were pinned to a fishing net … how cool is this?}
I was so happy to see these photos because it’s one thing to see event materials laying in unassuming piles on my desk — and quite another thing, entirely, to see them adding magic to an event. Thanks again to Melanie and Anna Claire for sharing these photos with me, and letting me share them with readers!
Another fun thing I worked on quite recently was this whimsical wedding map:
My Chicago client wanted a wedding map in Kaitlin style calligraphy; and she had a special request for me to incorporate Nala, the family dog. At first I was daunted by this task because Nala has beautiful black fur — which can be hard to render in an illustration! However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Nala ended up adding a very personal, sweet touch to the final product.
The last project I want to share with you is Rodger Mayeda’s {of Rodger’s Pen Box} anniversary map.
I have never created an anniversary map before; my watercolor wedding maps have thus far been used either as save the dates or supplements to a suite. This was, effectively, different and fun to make! It was also a bit more simple than other maps I have created, and I made a point not to incorporate any black. The map is pure watercolor — no India ink involved.
The Japanese translates to “Love needs no teaching.” {Thanks to TPK reader Meredith for translating; the meaning had completely escaped me!}
After I sent this map, I got such a great photo back from Rodger! Check out Rodger and Dianne holding their anniversary map:
{How great do they look?!}
I hope you enjoyed looking through my hodgepodge of recent creations. Creating things like this is hard work … yet it’s so much fun, that I am still in awe that it’s my career. If you have any questions about how I made any of these, feel free to ask! I’m an open book.
I’ll be back next week with a tutorial or two; and this month, my goal is to create a Kaitlin style premium worksheet for your enjoyment. Stay tuned for that!
As usual, thanks so much for reading. You guys are the best.
XO,