As 4 of my friends are getting married this summer, I’ve found myself involved in some fun projects with lots of creative freedom. Now that these invites are printed and mailed, I’m excited to show the final product. The goal was to do something that represented their fun and carefree spirit while still having classic elements. Upon request, they gave me 10 words to describe their relationship that could be useful for inspiration. Among the ones that stood out to me were colorful, fun, fresh, wild, and true. Somehow, I wanted to have the design embody a little piece of each of the 10 words in some way.

Once we settled on the format of a tri-fold cd style booklet, I liked the idea of having some simple illustrations looking at each other on opposite sides of the wedding info. The bride had to look a bit glamorous, of course, but the groom looking across at her like he’s completely captivated and content really adds some dimension and “trueness” to it. What’s going on in his head as he watches her, hair frolicking in the wind? Putting some interesting and fun shapes behind them helped to give a bit more depth and personality, and add some directional pull towards the middle–almost like there were pieces of self breaking off and coming together to become one.

The cover has some more classic elements with a line that Sara gave me to include somewhere on the invite. I love the funkiness of paisleyish patterns–it’s a classic but it’s got so much character to it… The way it twists and writhes around, it has this alive, growing, festive feel that really felt right. And of course, the kitty Mini-Wheats had to be included somewhere, like on the save the date. He’s hinted at on the rsvp card behind the headline.

A funny side note… One of the words was “jedi”. This might have been the one word that didn’t get represented as much as I’d have hoped, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. A different concept had this illustration for Nate instead, but we decided it looked a little too sleazy for an invite. Bummer, he really loves that hat!