'Tis the Season

We designed this cover for Porter Design Company's holiday card. Porter is actually the black labrador in the painting for whom the company is named. Merry Christmas!

Kara & Tom's Prince Edward Island Engagement

Kara and Tom were engaged on Prince Edward Island and wanted to incorporate this location into their Save the Date postcards. The couple had fun with the self-timer on their camera and provided us with this vivacious shot as reference for the final watercolor painting, which will serve as a keepsake of their special trip.

Large Letter Postcards

Large letter postcards were staple souvenirs from many American towns in the early part of the Twentieth Century. Since the Jersey Shore was a resort destination before air travel was common, it is easy to find this style of vintage postcard from just about any of the stops along the shore. We created our own designs for these three couples' Save the Date postcards using photographs and paintings. The painted card (Red Bank) especially evokes the postcards of days past, and was printed on linen stock to further emphasize the look of the older versions.

A Charming Engagement

We're always impressed with some of the creative ways grooms pop the question, and this proposal was particularly sweet. Matt carved his and Brigette's initials into a tree trunk and hollowed out a place at the top for the engagement ring. This inspired their Save the Date postcard for a summer wedding.

Bridal Shower Lottery Ticket Wishing Well

For Stephanie's shower, her bridal party and mother decided upon lottery tickets as a fun wishing well gift idea. We thought it would be amusing to make the insert look like a NJ Lottery ticket and found the right patterned paper to give a similar feel to the actual tickets.

Annie and Paul's Wedding

The very spirited Annie and Paul were wed a couple of weeks ago. Their personalities and enthusiasm (for not only getting married, but also for this part of the nuptial planning), showed through in this map/parody invitation set. Both Annie and Paul are fans of Broadway, so we designed a logo for their very own show/Playbill cover. A hand-cut cupcake functioned as a reception card, and we used the cupcake icon again on the map, with "Han Solo" and "Princess Leia" cake toppers.

Five Years

Today is our fifth anniversary! Thank you to our clients for all of the creative projects over the last five years. We'd especially like to express our gratitude to the loyal folks who return to us event after event, and who choose to share their significant milestones with us.

Asbury Park Wedding

Over the past few years, the Asbury Park beach and boardwalk have become very popular for wedding ceremonies and receptions. Laura and Mike wanted to accentuate the two iconic Asbury Park wedding venues on their invitations, so we created these line illustrations of McLoone's and Convention Hall. Metallic paper stocks and thermography (raised printing) were used to dress up this non-traditional invitation design. "Tillie" is an icon of the city, and we used the graphic on direction cards as well as these signature drink tents.

Alice in Wonderland

Here are pictures from the second Spread the Love Tour stop for which we provided paper pieces: Toronto. The theme this time was "Alice in Wonderland," and what an amazing job Justin and Mary did making it happen! We tend to work in a vacuum preparing things to send for the shoots, so seeing how our pieces are presented with the props, models, and scenery is always rewarding. Credit must also go assistant Julia Gargano, with whom we work to get the details just right, from Mad Hatter seating card tags & hats, to hand-lettered "Wrong Way" signs and "Drink Me/Eat Me Tags" to timepiece signs and tags.

Cowboy Take Me Away

These stunning photographs are courtesy of the talented Justin & Mary based in Connecticut. We were fortunate enough to be a part of two of their stops on 2011's Spread the Love Tour.

These shots are from the Houston workshop, where the theme was "Cowboy Take Me Away." We love how they coordinated a Texas-style wedding. They are always gracious enough to provide us with photographs of our paper designs. For this stop we designed seed tags, an illustrated quilt board on which seating tags were pinned, as well as few dessert signs.

Interior Design Rendering

While not invitation or wedding related, this was an out of the ordinary illustration opportunity from the spring we felt worth posting. We thoroughly enjoyed working with our friend Lauren of Porter Design Co. to create a rendering of this beautiful room she designed. We were given fabric swatches and pictures of the furnishings, as well as a general room layout. While it was challenging to create an accurate rendering without seeing the finished room, it was amply rewarding when Lauren sent us photographs of how the room came together.

Giant Watercolor Wave

Joey and Erika will be married on the beach this October. They came to us looking for something different for their wedding invitation. An original watercolor painting was created for the invitation, which included the moniker their friends have taken to calling them, "Joerika."

Bridal Shower Pun

When it comes to living at the shore, an outdoor shower is an indispensable summertime perk. We liked using the pun approach for Jamie's bridal shower invitation, and including an original portrait of her (created for her wedding invitation)  made the design even more tailored to the event.

Summer Fun

Since summer is upon us, we thought this design was the right one to post to ring in the season! Michele and her friends are sure to have a great time celebrating and enjoying the beautiful Vermont scenery.

Katie and Kevin - June 12, 2010

Clients Katie and Kevin just celebrated their one year anniversary and generously shared pictures of our work from their wedding reception. It was fun to see how the Dancing Shoes buckets looked filled with flip flops. Seating cards and starfish-embellished menus were also nice to see in context. We really enjoyed seeing the photo of Katie's wedding present to her father (an original "Father of the Bride" painting of the two of them) next to the DVD. Photographs courtesy of Thérese Marie Wagner Photography.

Phillies vs. Yankees

Kelly and Chris were married yesterday. She's a Phillies fan and he loves the Yankees. We created a wedding logo to parody MLB's recognizable brand and used it on the jersey-style table cards. Team Line Up cards served as seating assignments. For their own sweetheart table, the bride and groom used Bobby Abreu, No. 53, a former member of both teams.

Bridal Shower Conversation

In the summer, it is not unusual to see groups of friends gathered in small (or large) circles on NJ beaches. Michele and her friends and family have enjoyed many summer memories this way, so we wanted to bring this concept to life for her bridal shower invitation. We tried to present the text of this piece in a different way than we had ever seen or done before. By using characters and dialogue, the message is conveyed in a fun and unique way.

Illustrated Map Save the Date

Save the Date announcements are an opportunity to have a good time: for us as designers and also for our clients. We often do a fun Save the Date followed by a much more formal wedding invitation. Original maps are perfect for such instances, such as this one for Jena and Gary.

Sunrise Engagement Captured in Real Time

We met recently with Lyndsey to come up with a design for her Save the Date cards. When she showed us these pictures of her sunrise engagement on the beach, we knew we had a concept. Eric arranged to have his brother document the occasion from further up the beach. Lyndsey was not only unaware of Eric's grand plan, but also that she would be able to relive the moment for years to come through these photographs. We loved everything about the story.