OUR WEDDING INVITATIONS

I know our official Design Darling wedding week isn’t starting until Monday, November 13, but what better way to invite you to stick around than by sharing our wedding invitations? Picking out our paper goods was one of my favorite parts of the wedding planning process and I am so happy with the way they turned out that I’m hoping to find a way to frame the whole suite for somewhere in our house. (If you have any ideas, let me know!) I got so many questions about the design and wedding invitation wording after posting a sneak peek to Instagram back in June so today I want to take a moment to shine a spotlight on the lovely people who helped me bring this vision to life!

OUR WEDDING INVITATIONS

design darling wedding crest

Kearsley Lloyd created our watercolor wedding crest as well as the monogram design and Nantucket outline that we used on custom stamps from Minted. I’d been in love with Kearsley’s work for years and knew since before we were engaged that I wanted to work with her someday! I knew I wanted our crest to incorporate hydrangeas and Kearsley suggested using our first initials since M and W intertwine so nicely together. It only took a couple iterations before we landed on something we both loved — so much so, in fact, that we ultimately incorporated it onto not just our invitation but also the plastic cups at our welcome party, the paper napkins at our cocktail hour, and the table numbers at our reception! We also had the crest printed on wedding stationery that I used to write thank you notes for gifts at my bridal shower and from our friends and family.

design darling wedding invitations with wedding bands

We also worked with Kearsley to create a watercolor map of where our wedding festivities would take place as well as a few landmarks on the island. I think this is such a fun detail for a destination wedding! I knew our guests wouldn’t actually use the map to navigate around Nantucket on our wedding day, but I liked the idea of giving everyone the lay of the land. My dad’s mom was a gifted watercolor artist and this watercolor map felt like a happy homage to her talents. Kearsley was kind enough to send us the original to hold onto!

design darling wedding invitations

Once we had Kearsley’s artwork, we worked with Shelley at Albertine Press on designing wedding invitations and planning out the rest of our paper goods. She encouraged us to add a watercolor border to both the invitation and the map and I love the way it ties everything together. I also knew I didn’t want to do traditional white or ivory envelopes and she helped us source the perfect navy and hydrangea blue colors to play off the colors in our watercolor crest.

design darling nantucket wedding invitations

We splurged on Albertine’s letterpress for the text on our invitations and then chose to print the other items (event insert, map, and RSVP enclosure card) to keep things more affordable. I love this shot that Cameron captured of the letterpress with our wedding bands!

design darling wedding invitations with engagement ring and wedding bands

Shelley also showed us an invitation in her portfolio where the bride and groom’s names were done in calligraphy to stand out from the rest of the invitation and we loved it so much, we decided on the spot to do the same for ours. She recommended Megan from Delighted Calligraphy, who did our names, the outer envelopes, and the escort cards in the most beautiful classic script.

design darling wedding invites

I wanted to mention that none of these vendors are based in CT or NYC so we worked with all of them remotely, save for one day trip to Boston to meet Shelley at Albertine Press. Once we found the dream team, it didn’t matter that they were based in Bermuda, Massachusetts, and North Carolina — no matter where you’re based, if you’re looking for something similar for your own wedding, I couldn’t recommend any of them more highly! I’m so grateful to each of these lovely ladies who helped us bring these to life. I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our wedding — stay tuned for many more details in the weeks to come!

P.S. You can see our save the date cards in this post!

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