Jane & John Joe’s Wedding

We had our wedding back in September and I’d like to share the thought process that went in to the design of our wedding invitation. I wanted the invitation to represent the story of our lives together up until our wedding day, filled with meaning and personal symbolism. Ailbhe was given the tough challenge of creating the design for me, she artfully incorporated all the focal points of our life together in an illustration, which of course would later be letterpressed!

I was really pleased with the results! All the guests commented on how unusual they were and were kept guessing at all the little references in the illustration. Here was the inspiration board Ailbhe worked from and the process….

1. Edinburgh – where we had our first few dates…
2. The thistle as a representation of Scotland
3. The bridesmaids dresses – purple colour scheme for wedding
4. The wedding car
5. Summerhill house Hotel – where we were getting married
6. Our house!!!
7. The church in Wicklow Town where we were getting married
8. Our baby
9. Us on our engagement shoot on Brittas Bay beach
10. Golf – John Joe’s favourite hobby
11. A clock to represent the time of the church

Ailbhe firstly sketched a rough draft of the layout to see what elements would fit.

In this draft we had included the goat to represent my star sign (Capricorn) and the Crab to represent John Joe’s (Cancer). Our honeymoon was also drafted in which was later removed. The idea was to have each element joined by broken dotted lines so it was all one continuous story.

We toned the design down a lot and cut certain elements out to make it cleaner. I’m a graphic designer and wanted a very ‘graphic’ feel to the illustration to represent this. Our son was represented by the stork, Scotland by the mountains and the thistle, the time by the watch, Jj’s golf was represented in his name (beside the first J). We used Taupe as a 2nd colour to compliment the purple and used the purple sparingly – just for our names and to highlight a few details. It was the perfect balance between playful and graphic style.

We also created a logo for our names which were used throughout the wedding stationery signifying our new union together.

The final invitations were letterpressed in 2 colours on 2 Ply bamboo paper.