Yesterday I finally finished the formal invitations to our wedding ceremony in Boston. This piece of hand-made paper served as inspiration for the color scheme, and the birds fit into the theme as well (being that these were also inspired by The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.)
The invitation is housed in an old-fashioned hat-box, which I had to paint, re-paint, and re-paint again until I found the exact shade that worked. The top was covered in the aviary-themed paper; the bottom was fitted with a fabric pad covered in turquoise Thai silk.
Inside, the invitation itself is actually a book I made that tells the story of Andy and me. It is covered in the same paper and tied with a silk ribbon. It is printed on Watercolor paper, which was chosen for its texture, tint, and elegant-but-still-rustic simplicity. I bound the book myself, using a Japanese book-binding technique, and some perfectly-hued embroidery floss. Stamps and colored-ink were combined with traditional printing to produce the inner pages.
The book rests on a chartreuse velvet pillow (and quite a bit of practice was necessary to craft a proper circular pillow). It seems like it should be easier than it actually was – I mean, it’s just a circle, but what a difficult thing a circle is to sew.
A bit of tufting in the center and a single Swarovski crystal finished the pillow off, creating a fitting bed for a very special book.
It is easily the best invitation we will ever send out. (And fortunately also the smallest in number – only seven people will receive one. There’s simply no way I could make another.)
