More on Monday's post: The invitation, menu cards, table numbers, and place cards
When planning the rehearsal dinner for my brother and his bride, I had the idea to design a paper suite to fit the soon-to-be Mr.&Mrs., with a nod to my brother's love of hunting and all things outdoors. I began by sketching out a crest of sorts for him, with a center monogram to honor the happy couple. What came of the sketch was a crest that included quail, deer antlers, long leaf pine boughs, and a cross of arms. Next, I got to work on painting the image in watercolor.
What resulted was a pretty cool hand-painted crest centered on the bride and groom's initials. For the next step, my super talented friend,
Lauren Cook of Parkway Press, designed the invitation around this crest and the mood it depicted. What we ended with was a personal, lovely, Southern, hand designed and hand painted invite.
I absolutely love the way they came together!
My brother hunts both deer and quail, and my father's favorite tree is the Long Leaf Pine. I incorporated all of these elements into the crest, as well as the bride and groom's new last name.
With the invitations addressed, stamped, and in the mail, it was now time to design the other elements of the party - the place cards, table numbers, and menu cards. Our seating chart directed each guest to a table, where a place card held their name.
The table numbers depicted the same quail, antler, and gun crest from the invitation. The place cards were highlighted with long leaf pine boughs and antlers centered over each name.
The menu cards were simply beautiful too.
Lauren took the hand painted crest and placed it atop our menu for the evening. I painted a few of our menu items to include on the card...it was a wonderfully personal touch that left our guests salivating for the next course to be served!
