We are in the midst of updating our website, and we realized that we’d never shared these plum and gold wedding invitations from Tad and Berkeley‘s berry-pink inspired wedding at the Hotel St Cecilia. Our inspiration board for them envisioned a mix of midnight blues, pinks, and plums with a certain ornate opulence that we translated into their invitations as a multi-piece, multi-step experience for their guests. As a destination wedding for guests coming across the country and meeting in Austin, we took their small guest list as an opportunity to give them a hint of the opulent festivities waiting for them in Texas.
We had Bailey of Antiquaria calligraph both the welcome statement “Your Presence is Requested”, the invitation wording on the opposing side, as well as those luscious envelopes. We screenprinted the black crest [intended to be a subtle backdrop] as well as the gold wording on both sides on navy stock and rounded the edges. These invitations were then wrapped with plum satin ribbon, with a black ostrich feather delicately dipped in gold. Then a double sided hand-cut envelope that was sealed with a gold wax seal, and – when opened – the black outer side revealed a metallic gold Nepalese patterned on the inside. Those were truly something to behold, and it must be noted — we only had to make about fifteen of them! Each envelope was lined with a dusty blue flocked paper that continued the tactile and opulent theme, while the plum envelopes were calligraphed in the perfect flourish-filled style by Bailey Amon.
Who wouldn’t love to open the mailbox and see one of these? The couple was theatrical, whimsical, and loved color, and these were truly something to be hold.
As for the rest of the day-of stationary, we continued the same color palette as the invitations, and used the flocked velvet paper as an outer for their ceremony program, printing the details digitally on simple white textured paper, and sewing the two pieces together. Finally, we wrapped each with a thin plum satin ribbon to finish it off.
The table settings included place cards, menus in a mix of plum and navy paper, with a consistent gold screen printing and calligraphy across both. All signage used the same gold ink on plum paper to create a cohesive stationary set that was a perfect contract to the simple yet graphic atmosphere that the St. Cecilia illicits.
In short, this suite is far more ornate and theatrical than most of our work — that being said, I’ll also admit that it was a lot of fun to create! If you have a smaller guest count, you can really have a lot of fun with the pieces and how guests interact with them. The sky is the limit really!
Photos by Heather Curiel.
