*brooklyn bride* feature

Very exciting news yesterday! Vane at Brooklyn Bride featured our Save the Dates in one of her posts. So glad I snapped a few pics and submitted when I did! A year later...I am still in love w/ them.

operation save the date: complete

I love today. We finished the save the dates finally. I am so pleased with the way they came out and can't wait for our guests to receive them. Our kitchen has looked like a Martha Stewart sweatshop for weeks. Now we can have our lives and counters back for a few months until the next maelstrom of design and crafting begins. As much time as these things took, I think we can say we really are happy with the design. Our goal was to create something that was "SoCal cool"...it's sorta Hollister meets Tragic Kingdom album artwork meets letterpress meets Nick + Halli. I was worried the black and orange would be a bit too Halloweeny, but I have not had that gut reaction throughout all the black and orange experience. I love the way the packet works. They scream "us." Now for the commentary this project's learnings...

1. If you use ribbons on invitations of any type you must really enjoy punishment. Never again peeps. I have made ribbon design choices before but for some reason I failed to remember all the drama that ensues. We solved for it, but lordy it took time and serious attention to detail. We were saved by Zots Clear Adhesive glue dots. They pack some serious adhesive punch. Learn about them.

2. Women- Treat yourself to a pair of amazing scissors. I bought some killer all-steel, seamstress grade Fiskars. I was using some pathetic three-buck Ikea scissors that wouldn't even cut ribbon. These things cut like a hot knife through butter.

3. Photostamps.com custom photo/artwork stamps...like, but not so much in love. Being able to control our the design and tie it into our theme was great, but the stamps themselves are HUGE. They are eating up the front of the envelope. If they were smart they would start offering a smaller size, esp for people who use these on reply cards. I am surprised someone in their product dev department hasn't figured this out. We will save using them again for the commemorative Bizmark von Whiskers stamps.

4. The number one thing that you read about wedding mailings is to hand cancel your envelopes. This is a total scandal with the USPS. They don't do this anymore if you live outside of Mayberry. Even if you do find a post office to hand cancel, they still get routed through the evil post-o-matic sorting machines. Research also shows that the USPS will try to charge brides for this (which is illegal) and sometimes invites get lost. Sorry if your save the date looks kinda chewed up on the outside...at least it is pretty on the inside!

Ps. Paula loves this story about the California State Flag, our design inspiration. The jury is still out on the validity of the story, but regardless, pretty darn funny.

save the date yo

Warning: Lame designer content ahead...

We are getting closer every weekend with save the date ‘identity and campaign.’ The content is finally done and we look forward to a fun exercise in information hierarchy very soon! Our hotel, airline, and car special discounts all seem to have a unique set of information and directions. We are trying to streamline as much as possible from a typographic perspective. Hopefully, in the end, people will access the website too.

The design is going swimmingly! I have it about 85% in place and Nick is going in as the finisher. He pushed my design a bit more (as he does so well when we collaborate) and it is getting pretty tight. I pushed back too of course. We have one more panel to figure out then off to the printers. I am hoping to keep the last panel down to one color so we are more cost efficient.

I have been planning for letterpress as our final form factor this whole time. It’s a two color deal, so regardless of how we end up printing, it will look great. If it ends up being letterpress, some of the elements could be tricky to calibrate. Offset would save us some money, but this design is so destined to be pressed into some Crane’s Lettra in bright white, yummy.

We also bought Envelopments pocket folds to make a mini packet for the whole mailing. I love you dainty, mini packet mailers! I am currently investigating interesting ways to bind it closed. I keep leaning towards a two sided satin 5/8” ribbon despite swearing never to include tying of bows/knots again for a design project. Its just way too hard. Seattle isn’t my favorite place to find ribbon and floral supplies either. In fact, it is a wasteland. Thankfully my mom and I can go on a mission this weekend in LA.