Ruby + Swallow: Wedding Invitations: Keryn + Derrick

We love to show our readers what we get up to behind the scenes. While our blog Ruby & the Swallow is one of our biggest loves, we also have another love: designing wedding stationery. So when we get to do both of these things, it makes us very happy!

Today we are showcasing a sneak peak at the assembly process of invitations we designed for Keryn and Derrick's wedding. They are a lovely couple from Joburg, and with their wedding in September, we are currently designing the rest of their stationery. Let us paint a picture of their soon-to-be Big Day: their wedding venue is in the Joburg CBD and is the second oldest building in Joburg. It is quite a feature, and the couple will get married on a staircase, while their photos will be taken on the streets of the city. The venue is quite opulent, with thick carpets, wood finishes and chandeliers, so they were looking for stationery that complemented this venue.

In a nutshell, this event will be an elegant, classic, city wedding. Keryn and Derrick had already decided on colours, textures and shapes before they got in contact with us, and this was so helpful in understanding exactly what they were looking for! They wanted the invitations to be printed on square card, in a booklet, with a colour palette of midnight blue/navy, ivory and hot pink. Keryn had already designed a monogram that she used for her Save the Date, and they wanted to use it as the motif of the wedding, running consistently across all the wedding stationery.

The paper preferences the couple had were what ultimately chose the designs, as they were very specific. The cover of the booklet invitation was printed on an ivory matte board which had a 'self stripe' texture on the card. The insert of the booklet, where all the text and guest information was placed, was printed on a transparent, pearlescent vellum paper (which is almost like tissue or tracing paper in its opacity). To keep the two booklet pages together, we used hot pink ribbon that tied a bow on the outer spine. With all these gorgeous textures in mind, we designed invitations that we hope Keryn and Derrick really love as much as we do!

A damask pattern is elegant and classic, and this was the perfect print to use for these types of wedding invitations. A midnight blue damask was used on the cover, while a more transparent grey damask print was on the inside cover (on the transparent paper). The serif fonts used for the text tied the classic theme together so beautifully.

The self-striped card was stunning (we hope you can see properly from these photographs), but we did find that it was much more difficult to print onto than normal card. The finished product seemed to be well worth it though! From the pictures below, you can see how the hot pink bow on the spine gives the invitations so much character.

We possibly get more excited about the packaging of the invitations to our brides than we do about the actual invitations themselves! We love putting together beautiful boxes of invitations wrapped in tissue paper, that the bride will be so ecstatic to open. We know we would be :). As you can see from the pictures below, the couple wanted midnight blue envelopes to finish off the invitations, and we must say, they oozed city elegance when being placed in those!

To Keryn & Derrick - thank you for allowing us to be a part of your special day! It has been so great working with you, and we cannot wait to see the photographs. We're sure there will be many future blog posts surrounding your wedding!