As I gladly accepted role of bridesmaid (for the first time in my life :))…the ideas started going off in my head like firecrackers…and quickly I blurted out,<\/p>\n

“I will help you with your invitations.” <\/em><\/p>\n

And so the consult started.<\/p>\n

Client:<\/span> Charlene – The Bride<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Setting the scene:<\/span> Fancy fall wedding at the beach–“Beach Elegant”<\/em> says the bride
\nColors:<\/span> navy, silver, beige– “night, platinum and sand” <\/em>says I.<\/p>\n

We get together and pull up chairs to the workshop table at Papersource<\/a> (of course).\u00a0 I pull all sorts of potential paper from stardream metallic sapphire<\/a> (reminiscent of the robots<\/a>), textured cover, pure white cardstock, vellum, washi…it was all over the table!\u00a0 All the sudden the Bride’s eyes lit up like a girl on her first trip to Tiffany & Co.<\/a> Then I knew it, the paper bug bit her.\u00a0 From then on, she became infatuated with the alternate universe where paper rules all.<\/p>\n

After strolling down the aisles of Kelly Paper<\/a> (a wholesale paper warehouse open to the public) and Papersource<\/a>, staring at the Papersource paper size chart<\/a>, and an hour back and forth of “what do you think of this…”<\/em> the Bride had made her decision.<\/p>\n

Main Invitation<\/strong>: (blurred because you’re not invited)<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

5″x5″ square 110 lb Curious Metallic cover stock<\/a> in ice gold (bright ice metallic with gold shimmer when it hits the light) printed in thermography<\/a> by The House of Printing in Pasadena.<\/p>\n

Mounted on a petal enclosure inner envelope<\/a> in night with standard 3m double-sided adhesive tape.\u00a0 Font color choices were night (pantone 648 U) and platinum (pantone 877 U, the only metallic silver in the pantone chip book).
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Tip: to have full control of your project and to save money, have your invitations printed at a professional print shop.\u00a0 Your alternative is paying at least double at a invitation retailer\/design house.\u00a0 Get access to a pantone chip book<\/a> so you can choose the exact ink colors.\u00a0 Each shade of color in the world has its own unique pantone color!
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Reply Card<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

3″x5″ square 110 lb Curious Metallic cover stock<\/a> in ice gold printed in thermography\/raised printing<\/a> by The House of Printing in Pasadena.\u00a0 Paired with a 4 bar envelope<\/a> in night.<\/p>\n

Stamps<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We think of everything!\u00a0 The stamp on your envelope even makes a statement.\u00a0 The Bride chose the wedding set USPS.com<\/a> is currently offering.\u00a0 They’re getting difficult to find at the post office…buy online!\u00a0 Its just $1 to ship.<\/p>\n

Map<\/strong>
\nThe Bride is a graphic designer (in addition to being a former member, she is Drifting Pretty’s<\/a> guest graphic designer from time-to-time), so she designed from scratch a beautiful map.\u00a0 She printed it in full-color on transparent vellum.\u00a0 I don’t prefer to mix printing styles (ie thermography and inkjet) but this would be the exception, as inkjet on vellum looks quite elegant and soft.<\/p>\n

Invitation Presentation
\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

To incorporate the beach in this elegant ensemble, the Bride chose\u00a0 raffia ribbon<\/a> in natural to tie on a beautifully diamond swatch-textured platinum paper ribbon<\/a>.\u00a0 This couple acted as a wrap to close the inner petal envelope.\u00a0 The inner petal was then inserted into the main 5 3\/4″ envelope<\/a> in stardream silver.<\/p>\n

The Final Show
\n<\/a>
\n<\/strong>The final ensemble was a harmonious one.\u00a0 75 invitations and 4 hours later, our mission was accomplished: Beach Elegance was found.<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong>
\nIf you’ve gotten this far in my post, you’re crazy, AND you are now hereby accused of being in love with paper!<\/p>\n

The total project cost (printing, accessories and paper) was a mere $400 for 75 custom invitations.\u00a0 Go to any invitation design haus, you’re going to spend much more.\u00a0 With inspirations (like the venue, season and time of night)\u00a0 and your creativity, a project like this is a breeze!<\/p>\n

Thank you to the Bride, Char, for allowing me to share our project with the world.\u00a0 Wedding day is fast approaching…now on to favors!!\u00a0 Cheers to paper and Beach Elegance!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I gladly accepted role of bridesmaid (for the first time in my life :))…the ideas started going off in my head like firecrackers…and quickly I blurted out, “I will help you with your invitations.” And so the consult started. Client: Charlene – The Bride Setting the scene: Fancy fall wedding at the beach–“Beach Elegant” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":982,"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nadinehsu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}