Jessica Hische - wedding invite

Jessica Hische is, hands down, one of the most creative graphic designers around. An illustrator, letterer and all-around incredible artist, she's worked with clients as diverse as Wes Anderson, McSweeney's, Florence and the Machine, and The New York Times, but all that amazing work is nothing compared to what she created as her wedding invitation.

And let me tell you, these screen shots hardly do it justice. As she explains about the project:

I can’t say I was a normal girl, fantasizing about my wedding day from the time I could walk, but when Russ proposed I was ecstatic. A few days later the congratulations started pouring in from friends and stranger-friends along with one enthusiastic and intimidating statement: “Your wedding invites are going to be so awesome!” Russ and I are both designers, so the pressure was enormous to make something crazy. After a lot of scheming we realized one thing: that over the years we’ve met and befriended some truly incredible and talented people, all of whom we had hoped to collaborate with someday. The invite became the perfect opportunity to work together with people we care about, respect, admire, and love. We’re so happy and thankful for everyone involved, many of whom have played integral roles in the story of how we came to be.

To experience it for yourself, check out jessandruss.us, or for more amazingness, spend some time browsing through Hische's portfolio.

where a man can walk a mile high

Happy Friday, friends. I'm currently on my way to Colorado to attend my cousin's wedding. While we've had a major heat wave here in New York, it's supposed to be in the 60s during the day and 40s at night out there, which will definitely be a welcome change! I'll be putting the posts on hold until I'm back in town on Wednesday, but wanted to leave you with some pretty pictures from the Great Gatsby-inspired wedding on Shelter Island that both Jennifer and Jenny recently attended. Have a lovely weekend, and I'll see you all next week.

(Photos by Jennifer Sarkilaht)

Kelli Anderson - paper record player

Listen up folks! You will definitely want to hear the news of Mike and Karen's wedding, as they just so happen to have an amazing invitation, designed by the super-talented Kelli Anderson.

So what makes it so special? Not only did Kelli do an incredible job designing the graphics for this thing, but she went one step way beyond the call of design duty to create not only a wedding invitation, but an actual working record player, complete with original song written by the bride- and groom-to-be. That's right, it's a paper record player! Here's what Kelli says about the details of this awesome project:

The resulting booklet is comprised of a cover, two inner pages, a letterpressed band (with instructions and a tear-off RSVP postcard), and a flexdisc on a screwpost. The recipient bends the second page of the booklet back to create a tented “arm.” With the needle placed, they then carefully spin the flexidisc at 45 RPM (ish) to hear the song. The sewing needle travels the length of the song and produces the sound. Its vibrations are amplified by the thin, snappy paper to which it is adhered. To keep the needle down on the record, we reinforced the back of the “tent” with a spray-mounted half page of heavier cardstock. To reduce friction between the acetate flexidisc and the backing cover, we had the inside of the booklet laminated to be slick and conducive to hand-spinning.

Still not convinced of this invites amazingness? Check out the video to see it in action:


Paper Record Player from kellianderson on Vimeo.

(Photographs courtesy of Kelli Anderson. Via studio sweet studio)

wedding stationary - rifle paper co.

Before we had decided on a location, before we had even decided on a date, the very first decision that was made about our wedding was the stationary. I have been a fan of the talented Anna Bond, of Rifle Paper Co., and her beautiful personalized wedding invitations, for a while. Patrick and I agreed that Rifle was, without a doubt, our first choice to create our wedding stationary. Lucky for us, even though this season was especially crazy for Anna, she agreed to work with us to create our invites, programs and thank you cards.

About our invites: first, just let me say that I do not take pictures well. I'm not sure why this is, but unless it's a totally candid shot, I always look ridiculous in photographs. We liked the idea of a wedding portrait, but the reality was that neither of us actually wanted to take one. Instead, we decided that our invites would take care of this for us. In addition to capturing the feeling of our New York City wedding at the aptly named Park Restaurant, Anna illustrated us into the invites as well. Yes, that is actually what my dress looked like.

And how awesome are these program fans? As the wedding was at the end of June, we knew that it was definitely going to be hot out, we just couldn't have anticipated how hot. I'm taking steamy here, folks. While there was an air conditioned room for people to cool off in, the majority of the wedding took place in the restaurant's park-like, garden space. Let's just say that the fans were a lifesaver.

And finally, the thank you cards. Don't they just compliment the programs and invite perfectly?

So many thanks are due to Anna and the whole Rifle team, who created a beautiful set of stationary that we absolutely love, which turned out even better than we could have hoped.

pop-up place cards

I thought that today, as a change from all of the pictures of Japan, I'd share with all of you one of my favorite things from the wedding itself. I had asked my sister, Melissa, who took a pop-up and movables class in 2009, if she would be able to put her newly-acquired skills to work making place cards. I wasn't sure what she'd come up with, but I'm happy to say that they came out even better than I could have ever hoped. Going with the gardeny theme of the restaurant where we had our wedding, we liked the idea of incorporating flowers into the design.

Each card was painted with the stem and leaves of a flower on the front, with the guest's names written on one of the leaves. Then there's that tab sticking out of the bottom. Pull down and...

Out pops the blossoms of the flower, complete with hanging table-number tag! Isn't that amazing? I couldn't believe how cool these were either when I first saw them.

And on the back, incorporated into the pull-tab, is a heart with our names and wedding date.

Thanks again, Melissa! Best. Sister. Ever.

marriage, jet lag and getting back to real life

Hey friends! Well, I'm finally back from getting married and then traipsing around Japan for two weeks, and man is that jet lag messing with me. We left Japan on July 13th at 4:30PM and arrived back in NY half an hour before we left, at 4:00PM, also on July 13th. Isn't that awesome? It's kind of confusing though, especially since there's a 13 hour time difference to contend with, but here I am, as promised, back to blogging.

Here we are at Koyomizu-dera, a beautiful temple in the Southern Higashiyama region of Kyoto. And trust me when I say that there are many more photos where that came from. It's going to take a little while for me to sort through everything, but I promise to share the details of our amazing trip with all of you once I get back into the swing of good old Eastern Standard Time.

And yes, that's us, having a blast at our wedding. More to come, I promise.

married!

Photo courtesy of Abby Powell.

Yesterday was our wedding. It was such a wonderful, exhausting, fun day. As of tomorrow, we will be spending 2 weeks in Japan for our honeymoon. We can't wait. Unfortunately, I didn't make any plans for guests posts, nor did I plan ahead and set up any posts, which means that starting tomorrow and going through July 13th, I'm not only on a real vacation, but on a blogging break as well. This also means that there will be no Designer of the Month posts for July. But the upside to all of this is that once I'm back, I'll be able to not only show you all pictures from the wedding, but I'm sure I'll have lots to share about Japan as well. So goodbye for now - I'll see you all back here real soon.

somebody's getting married

today!