My husband and I were together a long time before we got married, so to say I already had Ideas about the design details of our big day would be an understatement. 😀 I’d had a color scheme in mind for years: aubergine purple (my favorite color) and pale sage green. Happily, my husband was well aware of what he was getting into marrying a designer (one of his vows was to always be color coordinated and never use Comic Sans). He approved the color scheme immediately, and I set to work.

The venue we had chosen was an Italian-style villa in Austin hill country- elegant but not overbearing. It had a lot of greenery and gardens, even a butterfly garden, and we let that set the tone for our invites and other paper goods. Vines and butterflies became the motifs we used throughout. We did find out that there are not a lot of flowers that come in that aubergine shade of purple, so lavender flowers got added into the mix. I worked closely with the florist, as well as the cake lady and our venue’s organizer, to determine all of the details and make sure everything coordinated.

Altogether, our invitation and paper goods suite included:

• Double-sided postcard save the dates on extra thick paper stock
• Large flat 8.5″ x 5.5″ invitation with letterpress printing, on extra thick paper stock, with shimmery purple backing
• Coordinating envelope with letterpress return address and lining to match the invite’s back
• Small rehearsal dinner invite insert
• Double-sided postcard-sized thank you notes, sent in white envelopes
• A fan for our outdoor ceremony, with one side being the program and the other the seating chart for the rehearsal
• Various signage: card box sign, table numbers, guest book & trivia details, bar menu

All details like hotels, registries, and RSVP were on our wedding website, so we did not need any additional cards for that.

Here are the designs as digital mock-ups:

And here some photos of the pieces in action, as well as some other details:

We got a lot of compliments on how lovely everything was. The weather cooperated and there were no unpleasant surprises or hiccups with any of the details. Overall, it turned out a beautiful, very happy day. 😀

If you’ve gotten married, tell me: how did you go about deciding on your invitations? Did you love the process or were there headaches?