Coming soon in 2012!

Coming soon in 2012! Hitched Invites will be launching a stationary line called Just Write. Just Write will feature flat and folded note cards that will feature various forms of saying "Thank You" and the ability to personalize some pieces with your name! We are super excited and a shopping cart will be set up on our site in the near future. We will also be able to be found on Etsy.com. Stay Tuned!

This Years Xmas Card

As promised, but a little late! I planned to get this up earlier. I decided to use a few different colors this year that are non traditional. Fuchsia, Purple and Lime Green with some Grays. I used a purple pocket card to to house the card. The card has a fuchsia backer. I used a big blocky text with some smaller text. The outer pocket card also has a band that incorporates the ornament from the actual card and a band that says "happy holidays" in lime green. To add a little touch I included an ornament hook on the ornament.


I also designed my mom and dads Xmas card. For this it goes along the idea of a car scent tree. We used traditional Red and Green and made the tree red with a catchy holiday saying. The Tree has a hole punched in it and a ribbon is tied through. To add some extra kick we sprayed a holiday scent on the tree!

Last of the Surprise Birthdays!

Earlier this summer I had mentioned that I had a lot of Surprise Birthday invitations to create. I can finally share the last of them with you. My Aunt Darla turned 60 this past weekend and her children put together a surprise party for her.

I was asked to design the invitations and the place cards for the guests. We also added some trivia cards. My cousin Farrah was in charge of the decorating. She will be a certified party planner at the end of December and she is starting her own company called Simply Azure Events. This was her first event!

We discussed a theme and it was heading towards Egyptian but upon research we quickly learned that most of it is hokey and with a limited budget to get it exactly how she wanted it would have been impossible. We decided the use the peacock feather for it's meaning and incorporate her as the Queen and her 60 year reign. With the invitations starting everything off Farrah was able to do a great job with the rest of the decorating. The invitations feature a teal, brown, cream and gold color scheme. They were accented with teal crystals and depending on which invite you received you had a gold or brown ribbon. There was also an en enclosure for hotel booking info. So take a look at the finished products!

Coming up next... This years Holiday Card and a recap of the past designs!

Their Little Snowflake Is Turning 1!

I just couldn't wait until I had an actual piece to photograph to blog about this. Mostly what I create are wedding invitations but every now and then I get a repeat customer who needs bridal shower invitations for a friend or family member, holiday cards or birthday invitations.

Julie was a client of mine a few years ago, I designed her wedding programs. I received an email from her a couple months ago regarding first birthday invitations. Her and her husband had a baby boy and he is turning one at the end of December. She wanted a design that was wintery but not holiday-ish so no reds or greens!. I totally understand because my dad's birthday is the day after Christmas! She had the saying "our little snowflake is turning one" and wanted to incorporate the "one" with winter wonderland.

We decided on blues and grays and a snowflake theme. We started off with the traditional snowflake but then she had an idea to do a kind of aretro flake. In the biggest retro flake she wanted to have a picture of her son.

Julie had professional photographs taken by
Amy Tripple of Amy Tripple Photography. www.amytripplephotography.com. Amy's focus in photography are little ones! If you live in the Chicagoland area and are looking for a photographer to take photos of your children I suggest visiting her site and blog!

Julie had a bunch of photos taken and we decided on a picture of her son with a snow cap on, I think it compliments the winter them of the invite.

So after a few rounds of ideas and changes here is what the end result is! There will also be tags made and when those are finished I will post pictures of those too.

Time To Get Back At It!

It feels like it has been forever since I updated this! Actually it has. Summer into Fall has been really busy, not just with invitation designing and client meetings but with family parties and travel. There are a lot of exciting things coming up with birthday invites, holiday cards and yes, more wedding invites so stay tuned!

Below is a story/project from this summer and have not had time to blog about, so here it is. One day this spring I received a phone call in regards to invitations. A few minutes into the phone call I realized this was not my run of the mill information call. The bride introduced herself as Lindsey and she said she had designed her own invitation and she need a way to have it printed. I explained to her that I normally do not do this as I design and print my own invitations but that I would be willing to look into it. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I have a design hand drawn by Lindsey in my inbox. It was beautiful. I spoke with her again and she had told me her color was grey. I told her I would clean and prepare her files for print. She had also told me she would like a textured paper and we decided on a felt finish. I had a lot of fun helping Lindsey with this project and it seems to be a growing trend and have had a few more calls in regards to doing something like this, but I can tell you it is not something I will be doing on a regular basis! So anyways here are the finished pieces take a look.

My Mom's 60th Birthday

In my last post I had said that there were many birthdays on the horizon and I would post as they happened since some are surprises. The most recent was My moms 60th surprise birthday party that happened on Saturday. I can finally show pictures of her invite and some pieces that went along with it for the tables. I used Envelopment's for her card stock and artwork. The colors I used are fuchsia and orange with black. I created menus with the entree selections. I went through the old family pictures and found some of her and used them on top accented with a black ribbon. I also alternated with the Big Six-Oh thee as well. I also included her favorite candy to each place setting with plastic fuchsia cups and added a little circle button that says Six-Oh is so sweet. The tables were also accented with balloon bouquets and small vases of flowers. The picks in the flowers carry the theme from the front of the invitation. There is one more birthday to go and when I can I will post on that! Stay tuned for another blog post with a new twist on invitation design and printing as well.

Birthday's Abound!

Along with creating wedding invitations for the upcoming summer and fall weddings, I have had to design a few birthday invitations. This one I can post because I am pretty sure my 90 year old Grandpa is not on the internet, he may not even have cable!!! As I said this is for my Grandpa who will be turning 90 this July and God Bless him he still drives, works and is as sharp as a tack!!!

He has been in the Auto industry his whole life and we thought about doing something along those lines but my mind went towards a custom beer label or a old cigar box/band look. I settled on the cigar look. After looking online at what these used to look like I came up with my design. The front is to look like the top of the box and the inside is the info as if you opened it and were looking in. The envelope has a custom address label that is made to look like the band and is cut to fit and printed on crack and peel stock. The return address wraps around the back.

My mom designs cakes and we decided that we would take the front of the invite and design a sheet cake to look like that. So here is the invite!!! I will post the others when I can as they are surprises and the Birthday girls and boys are internet savvy!

Custom Stamps

Being a designer, I love to have everything match! One of the best additions that has come along is the ability to customize your own stamp. I have done a few for my personal holiday cards as well as a few for clients. Hitched Invites is able to design you your own custom stamp to match your invites. We will design the stamp for a small fee and we will give you a file you can upload to your favorite custom stamp site. A couple are Zazzle.com and Photostamps.com.

Another trend is to use vintage stamps to dress up your design. Take a look at Championstamp.com, they offer all different types of stamps sure to fit your need.

Below are some stamps I have created for myself and my clients, take a look and if you think this something you may want, just ask us we are happy to assist.

Blue and White "French Country"

There is a hot new color trend sweeping through retail, I have seen it in many stores and adorning the latest home fashions... Pillows, quilts, dinner ware etc. Even certain clothing has trended this way. The colors blue and white but more importantly dark blue and white. Dark blue and white create a striking look. I decided I wanted to design an invitation in a blue and white but not go the nautical route or a classy-plain look. To me blue and white reminds me the most of "Country" or "French Country" toile patterns, checks and flowers. I used a round poppyish looking flower that is not so detailed in like a toile print would be. I also wanted to incorporate a check pattern that reminds of me of a table cloth that would be set on a table underneath a tree out in a field or deep at the end of a backyard. Below is what was created. The wedding is in Galena at a home that can be rented and allows for weddings and has vast acreage which ties into my checkered pattern idea. This is an invitation set but could be paired nicely with a pocket fold if you were having your wedding where guests would need to travel. The pocket fold could include all the travel info and festivities that are going to be going around before and after the wedding! So take a look and as always if blue and white are not your thing it can always be changed to suit your color needs, like black and white, black, white and a deep red or even black, white and yellow.

You know what they say about Imitation...

The focus of this post is my sister. She has found the man of her dreams and she sure does have some ideas as to how she wants her invitations designed when she does get married! She is a horse lover and lived out in Colorado for almost 10 years. She came across this wine called the Show which featured letterpress labels from a company called Hatch Show Prints. Hatch Show prints creates "Gig" posters. They are awesome and I hope one day to get down to Nashville and take a tour of their shop. Here is a link to their site. http://countrymusichalloffame.org/our-work/
Her save the date is a version of a Hatch "Gig" poster and the wine label combined, please note the Cowboy art is low resolution. I told her when she gets engaged I will get a hi res version! The save the date is a 3 color design and has a holder for the save the date with a black band or ribbon. The monogram could be carried through out the invite or other items being used in the wedding. The monogram is made to look like a bandanna folded. The envelope is personalized with touches from the save the date and the monogram. The invite is still in the works and once that is complete I will post.

Two New Designs

With reworking my website and finishing up some client projects I now have some time to post some new designs. Hopefully, I will be able to get a few more out after these. These are horizontal in orientation, I do not have a lot of those so I figured I would create a few.

The first is Vignette. It is done in red and black and is classical in style with a wallpaper type pattern frame with an oval inset for the text. The oval is enhanced with a little border.

The second is Bracket. I love using typographical elements in design. This is done in brown and celadon and has a few patterns running through out. This is fun and modern but classy as well.

As always these can be created in any color scheme of your choosing and font choices as well.

Proofing Your Invitations

As a designer, I get information for the wedding invitations I create in various forms... I will get everything typed out the way the bride and groom would like it, I get basic info and I choose the wording that fits best. I work on these day in and day out and do catch things and also catch things that may need to be reworded or look for continuity with dates and times. Before anything I design gets printed I have the bride give it a once over and tell her to feel free to have others look as well. I am not an English Major and most are not as well. As a designer, I think one of the main issues is that clients can often forget that we don’t know the details of their event as intimately as they do, and unfortunately, proofreading isn’t part of the service. I can’t say that I don’t “read” your invite, but I don’t know how to spell your father’s first name correctly or what time you’ve decided to start cocktail hour, so that means the responsibility of proofing has to rest completely with you.


Proof from a printed source
If you have received a full physical sample of your invite, you should always proof from your printed invitation. If you received only a digital proof, it’s best to print your invitation and accessories and proofread a hard copy rather than relying on the on-screen version.

Read your invitation out loud
Proofread all parts of your invitation suite by reading it out loud. If possible, have another person listen and read along while you read it. This method is a good way to catch missing words or doubled words, as well as general grammar issues.

Read it backwards
Read it backwards, focusing on the words themselves. It may sound strange, but this is a powerful tool for finding spelling errors, as sometimes, your mind will subconsciously fix errors, making it appear as though everything is correct when it really isn’t. Taking time to concentrate on each word out of context will make your proofing that much more effective.

Check names
Check the spelling of all names on the invitation (including parents, children, etc.). You would be surprised at the errors you might find!

Check addresses, dates and numbers
Check all dates and numbers carefully. This includes things like making sure dates are correct, day and date match, addresses are complete and correct (especially street numbers, if included) and also checking telephone numbers, etc.

Check response methods and additional information
Check to ensure your RSVP information is correct, along with information like website addresses, etc. Make sure to proofread any cards with additional information.

Check the overall invitation layout, graphics, etc.
It’s important that you make sure the details of your invitation are accurate, but it is also very important to proof the entire invitation for errors in color, spacing, fonts, etc.

Find a proofreading partner.
Once you have proofread the invitation a few times, have someone else proofread it, as well. It is easy to overlook a mistake on your invitation when you know what the invitation should say. Have a few people who aren’t familiar with all the details (co-workers, neighbors, friends) go over your invite for an unbiased review.

Courtney & Patrick

It's wedding season and it seems everyone I know is getting married, well... not everyone but enough to keep me busy which is a good thing! An old co-worker of mine is getting married in August at the Morton Arboretum. From the start the direction was simple and classic. I was given a picture of the bridesmaids dress color to go from and ivory paper was chosen instead of white. A few different designs of mine were looked at but in the end foliage was chosen because it complimented the nature and flowers theme. We decided to add a pocket fold and made the invite a little smaller to sit inside giving it a more dramatic effect instead of extending it to the end. The outside is adorned with an ivory paper band and emblem. Again this is a Work In Progress and once I have an actual sample pictures will be taken.

Heather & Dave

Heather and Dave are family friends. They are getting married 4th of July weekend. Their colors are green and blue. She liked my Maui design and so I incorporated it into the colors. We went all out. the invite sits in a folder and is mounted to the inside. A portable pocket that is green is attached to the bottom and has a paper band that incorporates the print. The pieces of important information are housed in the portable pocket and stepped so you can see each heading. When folded another paper band and emblem finish off the front. The envelope is blue and has a green liner and custom address labels and a custom photo stamp! I had so much fun putting this together and being able to go all out! Here are some pictures of my files, once I have a complete actual set I will post some actual pictures.

Paige & Jason

I have done my share of boarding pass save the dates. I have only done a few boarding pass invitations. This is the latest creation. Paige and Jason are getting married in the Dominican Republic. They have chosen colors of sage green and chocolate brown. They loved the idea of a starfish. I created a 2 sided boarding pass with all their information. To spruce up the idea which I love because most of the save the dates are just that and stuck in an envelope, I added a boarding pass holder in a light green and incorporated their monogram along with a brown ribbon to accent the boarding pass holder. It will be mailed in a chocolate brown envelope. I loved doing this!!! Here are some pictures from my files, once I have a complete version in hand I will post an actual picture.

Come & See Us At The Rockford Bridal Show This Sunday March 6th!

Hitched Invites will be at Rockford's Most Elegant Bridal Show. Sunday March 6th 2011. 700 West Riverside Rd. Rockford, IL 11am to 3pm. Come out and see us! We will be part of the door prizes with $100 Off any invitation set!!! http://cliffbreakers.com/specials/rockfords-most-elegant-bridal-show/

Pingg.com Staff Pick Again!!!

I was again voted as a Pingg.com staff pick! It was for my Retro Holiday design which is what got picked the last time, Hey I'm not complaining!