Three piece invitation set

Shannon had many themes for her wedding day, which I mentioned on her photography post. For the stationery, we decided to keep things simple and went with an elegant bride and groom design, surrounded by subtle snow flakes. We used a pearlescent paper which shimmers and sparkles just enough to make the snow flakes twinkle. Even the envelopes sparkled, so guests would get an instant feel for the special castle wedding to come.

Shannon choose the three piece invitation set, which consists of an announcement page, directions page with a custom designed map, and a response post card. We used shades of red and green to compliment the girls red dresses and the green christmas decorations.

The first piece of the invitation with all of the important wedding details.

Directions card with custom designed map featuring the locations for the ceremony, reception and guest lodging.

Close up of the front side of the response post card with the main invitation in the background.

Front and back of response post card. Guests select their meal option, and mail back to the bride.

We designed these 5x7 folding thank you cards for the guests to have a memento of the day.

After the wedding, she choose her favorite image for thank you cards. The cards are 5×7 inches in size and fit a normal frame, so guests will have a memento from the day as well. Since we didn’t have real snow, I embellished the cards with a similar snowflake pattern as the invitations.

I love how everything came together in one consistent theme. Since Shannon used the Snap Cinema fusion team, her video packaging, proof book and other weddings elements will all coordinate with her wedding stationery. If you enjoy this cohesiveness in design, give us a call today. We are happy to serve you in creating custom, original and unique stationery for your wedding day!

All of the wedding stationery coordinated with the snowflake theme.

The wedding was the perfect blend of her and Kevin’s interests. Roxy, one of their dogs, was part of the procession (Kevin is a veterinarian). A passage was read from the decision in Goodrich v. Department of Health (Rowan is a lawyer). The wedding favor was home brewed beer made by Kevin and his brother. (Part of my job included sampling the beers… they were all delicious, though I was partial to the Hefeweizen and Root Beer!)

So back to the environment. Rowan is a Environmental lawyer, and lover of the outdoors. In fact, she and Kevin met in Alaska! How cool (pun intended). Anyway, most of her communication with guests (save-the-dates, invitations, and RSVP) was handled online. This was to reduce paper waste, as once the wedding has passed, many guests feel no need to keep this information. There are, however, a few VIP’s who will always save and treasure their printed keepsakes. Parents, grandparents, siblings, bridal party and others who are close to you will keep this beautiful and sentimental document for years to come. Thus, a limited edition printing was in order, which is where I come in.

The goal was something simple, recyclable, and fit the theme. The blue and green bubbles were a perfect element, and became the anchor for each piece to follow. We kept things simple with just one typeface and three colors. We then printed the three piece set on brown, recycled paper.

The pattern continued onto the website, and then on to the favors! We used labels and a home printer to create these one-of-a-kind bottles. Well, I just did the layout. I give the credit to Rowan and her mother-in-law for the printing and sticking part! They turned out awesome, and were a big hit at the wedding.

Rowan and Kevin, your wedding was seriously one of the most perfect I have ever been to. It was perfect for you, and you are perfect for each other. Thank you for letting me play a small part in your big day! Congratulations, and many happy years to you both!

I’ll end this post the same way they ended their ceremony, with a quote by Ogden Nash:

To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; Whenever you’re right, shut up.

For more information about your custom designed invitations or favors, email me today!

Recently, Anne brought Marc up to New York from their home in Florida to meet more of the family. While they were here, I stole them away to make some engagement portraits. We had a great time walking along the canal on a gorgeous summer day. When we finished up, Anne mentioned wanting some custom Save-the-Date cards to mail out. I asked about her theme, and some of the keywords that came up were: rustic, vintage, and nature. So I designed some cards for her with the concept of nature, and decided the idea of writing their names on a tree would be a perfect fit for them. Don’t worry– no trees were harmed in the making of this card! (The effect was added digitally.)

Enough of my rambling, here are the finished cards and some of my favorite photographs from their session! Enjoy!

Front and Back of Save the Date Postcards

After you open the invitation, closed with a seal, you see the details of the wedding ceremony, hotel and registry information.

A week or two later, the topic of invitations came up. She was looking at a website, and getting confused by the design/ordering/pricing process. I offered to take a look and see if it made sense to me (after all, I did work in a print shop, so I know my printing lingo). I was able to get a quote, but using their pre-designed templates, I couldn’t find a solution to fit all the information she wanted on the piece. This is a common problem with templates, one size fits most, but not all.

This couple is taking advantage of my photo registry option where guests can purchase gift certificates good toward prints and albums. We printed all of the registry information right on the card, so no paper slips would fall out.

We discussed what she wanted in detail, and came up with the following:

• A one piece (seal-n-send as some call it) folding invitation
• Utilization of her wedding colors (wine and clover) and theme (grapes)
• Information about the ceremony, as well as the nearby hotel they had reserved for guests
• Information regarding their three gift registries (including the Light+Ink Photo Gift Registry!)
• A map to their ceremony and reception site (in the middle of nowhere… self-professed)
• A tear off response card for guests to RSVP with their meal preference

I added one more…

• Preprinted “to” and “from” addresses on both the invitation, and the response card. (Any past brides out there have someone forget to write their name on the response card? This prevents that dilemma.)

The bottom panel of the card is perforated to allow it to be torn off easily and mailed back by guests. Since its a postcard, you save on postage prices too!

From there, I got to work. I devised a way to get all of the information she needed on the six panels of the trifold without making it look cluttered. I created a custom map for them which included the ceremony site and hotel so guests can easily find their way (no screen shots here!). And I found a printer that could score and perforate their invitations to make the RSVP process as painless as possible. I then picked two papers I liked which I thought would go well with their invitations, and presented them with two printed proofs. They selected an elegant, white linen paper.

This custom designed map will help guests find their way from the hotel to the ceremony. It is printed on the back of the invitation.

There are many reasons I love this solution. One is the lack of envelopes involved which saves a ton of paper waste. It also saves on cost, as it uses a normal first class stamp for the outside, and a reduced rate postcard stamp for the response. Another feature that you only get with digital printing is to take advantage of variable data. This allowed me to add all of the guests addresses on the invitation and response card, saving the couple from hand cramps and sticker fingers.

However, I think my favorite part of this whole project was the wonderful note I received from Amber afterwards. When my work is able to make someone’s life easier or better, it is the best feeling in the world. I am so thankful to be able to do what I love, and I am infinitely grateful when others love what I do. Thank you Amber, for the kind review, and allowing me to share it:

“Lori has been a good friend for years and when I started planning my wedding, she was the first person I thought of to photograph my special day. Her pictures are always amazing as if she is freezing time as she captures the perfect moments.

Finding the best route for invitations was not nearly as easy. Ben and I spent days looking at online sites and in the craft stores. We were unable to find an invitation that showed the vibe we wanted to set for our wedding. When we finally found something we liked the web page was confusing and difficult to navigate, we wanted too many features and we weren’t sure how to fit them together. I never realized how much thought went into making an invitation!

Luckily, I complained to Lori about the difficulty I was having and as always, she swooped in to save the day! I showed her the web page with the basic idea of what I wanted and made up a very rough sample for wording, font, and color. Lori listened to my concerns and helped me get everything I wanted in the invitation. Not only did she design it exactly as I had hoped, she took even more stress away by putting  my guests’ names and my return address on the invitations and RSVP cards!

After I approved the proofs she hand delivered and picked them up at the print shop, again taking pressure off of me. I am so grateful that Lori was willing to offer this service to Ben and I, it took away so much pressure allowing me to focus on the important things, like finding my perfect wedding dress!”

-Amber

This is what I strive for in every client experience: make your life easier, relieve stress, and make both the process and result enjoyable. And so, I am proud to announce a new service from Light+Ink: Wedding Stationery Design! If you know a bride under stress, I invite you to share this post with them. Let me take care of the details, so you can focus on the fun stuff!

For your stress-free, easy going, personalized stationary discussion, email or call Lori at 585-678-1905 today.

A portrait of photographer Linda Dow Hayes made at her home

In my previous post, I mentioned the friendships I have built within the local photography community. It is not rare to find myself talking with other photographers about lighting, marketing, or business ideas. This post is about one of those interactions.

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call. It went something like this:

“Hey Lori, I really need to get some promotional material made for an event I’ve got coming up. I realize my talent is photography, not design, so I am looking for someone to design and print them. Someone mentioned xyz printing company, and I was thinking… wait… you do design, don’t you?”

If anyone asks, I am a photographer first, but I also enjoy and practice graphic design as well. My goal with any design is to make the result clean, clear and branded. The best way to showcase photography is with clean, clutter-free design, so it is a perfect fit for me to be designing photography centric pieces.

“Yes Linda, I am a graphic designer, and I would love to make your marketing materials rock.”

Linda Dow Hayes is a good friend and photographer based in Webster, NY. She specializes in high school seniors, children and family photography. Working out of a home based studio and also on location, she has a wide variety of work in her portfolio. We got together to look at her work and discuss her goals for this particular piece.

The Goals

• Two different designs: one for seniors and one for families
• Seniors would have “grunge” feel, while families would be clean and classic
• Featured colors would be black and cyan, to be consistent with her logo and website
• The two pieces would be distinct, but work together as one brand
• Feature work from the portfolio that portrayed Linda’s style
• The cards should work as a hand out, but also be mailable for future use

The Process

• Linda wrote the text and gathered testimonials from past clients to feature
• She also went through her portfolio and selected a broad range of images to draw from
• I then combed through the provided images and chose several combinations for the cards
• I added grunge borders to the senior images, and kept the families clean with straight lines
• Multiple layouts were created for consideration and revision

The Result

• From the layouts created, we selected one for each market
• I also created two matching business cards to go with each style
• The designs were printed on 100# glossy paper with UV coating to seal in the color
• The design works as a handout, with space to write notes, or as a direct mail piece
• The images really shine against the black background, making Linda’s images pop

Senior Promo Card, front and back

Linda’s cards were done in time for her booth at Webster’s Community Art Day, and was kind enough to share some of the comments she received:

“Wow, your photographs look great!”  ”I love the black and turquoise colors together!” and “These promotional pieces look so professional!”

I also asked Linda to share her thoughts about working with me, and this is what she had to say:

“Lori really was so terrific to work with.  Her knowledge of graphic design combined with her understanding about photography made the project turn out as good as I had hoped and then some.  She was patient answering questions I had about the design aspect and helpful when I hit roadblocks with some great suggestions.  I would recommend Light and Ink to anyone who’s looking for a creative, knowledgeable, and easy to work with graphic designer.” -Linda Dow Hayes

Linda was a dream client and it was truly a pleasure working on this project with her. From the early stages of finding the concept, right down to the final details of placement and layout, the process went very smoothly. She gave me so many wonderful photographs to work with, I enjoyed going through them and selecting ones to highlight on the cards. I look forward to watching her business grow and knowing I may have played a tiny part in that.

To see more of Linda’s work, check out her website and blog.

Family Promo Card, front and back

One special part of our wedding day, was when I surprised my dad was a photo slideshow at our Father/Daughter dance. I arranged photos of the two of us from baby times through adult times, and we played them on a screen behind us while we danced. Nearly all the guests were in tears or close to it. My dad loved it and it was the perfect surprise.

The name cards were designed here at Light and Ink and matched the invitations, programs and other wedding stationary we used. The food preference was noted by the color of grapes that appeared on the card.

Its good to be back! I am excited to be back, focusing on Light and Ink, ready to shoot-shoot-shoot! Memorial Day weekend was a busy one for us, so keep an eye out for some more updates coming this way!

Are you a golfer? Does the thought of putting make your knees shake? Well, Peter Pontius has come up with the tool to help you– “The Point” Practice Putter.

The putter will be making its debut at the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida. It is available for individual purchase, as well as bulk purchasing.

For more information about “The Point,” contact Peter Pontius at 315-539-5436.

Design and Photography by Lori Duprey, Light+Ink

Illustrations by Steve Haefele