Mrs. Canary, New York
Age and Occupation: 24, Marketing
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Journalist/Editor
Engagement Date: February 16, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: October 19, 2007
Venue: Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers
About Me: I'm a born and raised New Yorker who loves all things crafty and artsy, food (cheese and dessert!), magazines, and shoes. I'm a power shopper always on the lookout for good deals or great quality-- sometimes I'm lucky and I find both! I love to dance and "shake what my momma gave me" but can also really enjoy a quiet night in with Mr. Canary and a good episode of Seinfeld or curl up with a good book.
And They’re Off!
May 21st, 2008 @ 5:41 pm by Mrs. Canary
After sending out our fabulous save-the-dates, we immediately began work on our invitations with our designers, Bird and Banner. If I haven’t gushed about them enough in the past, I’m definitely making up for it now.
During our initial meeting, we showed Nicole things that inspired us. One of the few things I whipped out were paper cuts I had purchased in China. She thought that we could definitely find a way to incorporate paper cuts into the design.
Some of the other criteria included:
- needed an insert that included a translated version of the main invitation so that we could have traditional Chinese wording as well.
- allow for easy versioning (i.e. some guests would be invited to both the rehearsal dinner and wedding reception, whereas others just the wedding reception
- include a map with directions
- some kind of creative binding like a booklet, but not a folder
Well, we were blown away at the first round of designs. Bird and Banner provided us with three options and couldn’t decide between two, so we combined them!
Without further ado… our babies.
The whole package. We have two versions: one that includes a rehearsal dinner invitation and one without. The whole design is about texture and paper cuts! Our designers were inspired by paper cut extraordinaire, Rob Ryan (who also has a wonderful blog and a great book that would be the perfect groom’s gift.) Bird and Banner used a combination of hand cutting and illustration techniques to come up with the custom designed borders. We also used two types of paper with different patterns and color tones, which were then letterpressed with the text and art.
Then all the cards were punched with a brass eyelet and hand-bound with a gold ribbon.
The Chinese version of our invitation. Bird and Banner provided me with the card spec and I set the type in an Illustrator file and returned it to them for printing.
The beautiful map that Bird and Banner recreated. I provided them with the invitation inserts that Pier Sixty gave me. From there, they used a mixture of hand cutting and illustration to design a map that fit the tone of the invitation. Behind the map are printed directions. This way it’s easy to flip over and skim (if necessary) while driving!
The cards all spread out. I love that the design is tactile yet compact!
The rehearsal dinner + wedding reception reply card and envelope. These were tucked behind the invitation, secured by the ribbon binding. Our outer envelope matched the antique gold of the reply envelope.
I am so happy with them and our guests have been emailing and calling to rave about the design. This was my big ticket item to splurge on being a huge paper fanatic… so I’m really glad I did. It’s getting everyone (myself included) very excited for the wedding!
And I can’t thank Nicole and Erin enough. They were so engaging throughout the entire process. Even though we weren’t in the same state, I was able to email and talk to them on the phone frequently. They even hand delivered our invitations to us to make sure that they arrived safely! I highly recommend them if you’re looking for an invitation designer. They do not have a standard wedding portfolio and custom design every invitation. Check out some of their past work on their site– I used to visit just to drool over all the featured designs. Or contact them directly:
Email: info@birdandbanner.com
Phone: 215.285.8055
Were invitations high on your priority list? Did you design them yourself or work with a designer?
ed. note: please see our editorial policy
7 Responses to “And They’re Off!”
Ohhh, just breathtaking Canary. I could spend hours examining every beautiful detail! I just love the idea of integrating paper cuts and I love the inventive way everything is bound.
Invitations were my big splurge too, as I’m a paper fanatic like you. Saima Khan of Saima Says Design created mine and like you, I don’t regret a single penny 
SO beautiful! I totally love the map - the hearts in the corners are adorable!
Invitations and paper products in general are a high priority for us (well, let’s be honest… for *me* - I think Mr.GV would be fine with evites), but the budget wouldn’t allow for too much of a splurge. We’re doing ours on etsy through Stelie Designs, and she’s been absolutely amazing with all my micro-managing and indecisiveness. The save-the-dates went out last week and I’ve already gotten lots of compliments… they cost under $1 each for a 4×6 postcard on textured recycled cardstock with a custom graphic, 2 fonts, and 2 ink colors. The invitations + envelopes and reply cards will be under $4/set, and we’ll have a slightly more elaborate version of the STD graphic, maybe one more ink color, and some cutouts for dimension and texture. She does absolutely beautiful and meticulous work, and I couldn’t be happier with the product we’ve gotten… not to mention how reasonable the price is and that we’re supporting a private business! I highly, highly recommend her.
Those are lovely! I also found that I cared more about paper than a thought… but also had a budget. I used paperedtogether - a custom letterpress studio out of Minnesota with an Etsy store and got a custom invite at a terrific price. Even though I am in IL, I was able to work easily with them over email. I highly recommend her.
Bird and Banner is the best, seriously. They are sooooo beautiful! I love the ribbon and the paper cuts are so NEAT!
Your name is Nellie? My name is Nellie! Spelled with an “ie” ending too. Hooray!
gorgeous! very nice!
I received my invite, it was smashing… I was instantly transported to those the best days of my life: the ones where you dragged me to the paper store and told me how great everything was. Yup, its that mind bending. Mr. Canary can’t seem to shake those days out of his mind either.
