For me, a handmade, personalized invitation to a (hopefully) once in a life time event like a wedding demanded more attention than an evite. Furthermore, we had decided on a pirate and mermaid themed Chinese wedding, and that was even harder to find something that was "ready made" for. A little extra? Maybe. Oh well. We did it. It was awesome. Yay~

For the invitation, I illustrated a scene that involved a pirate and mermaid (representative of myself and the fiancé) and included Easter egg objects from our lives on the sand bed—symbols of things from our life together that we both loved (dorky, geeky things of course), depicted as sunken treasure. A Game of Thrones shield, Jack Sparrow's compass, Harry Potter's golden egg from the Goblet of Fire and more. In the background, a pirate ship with WJ for Wilson and Jenny on the front sail. I then used the ship from this illustration to put on the Save the Date Card as a sneak peek for the invitation to come.

Although the theme of pirate and mermaid may seem juvenile, I wanted the wedding and invitation to be both whimsical and sophisticated. I incorporated french art nouveau elements and used red, gold, dusty blues and gray colors for a more mature color palette. Red and gold are auspicious wedding colors in Chinese culture, while the blue tones matched the pirate and mermaid theme. The red and gold also reminded me of a pirate's jacket, or of treasure found under the sea. The blue related to the ocean theme, and also because the venue was right on a marina by the Pacific Ocean.

I chose a gold, intricately die cut invitation holder to match the invitation's golden yellow colors, which alluded to pirate treasure and Chinese culture as well. The elegant curves and curls of the golden invite holder beautifully matched the curves of the art nouveau design elements throughout the invitation set.

​Since the wedding was a destination wedding in California, I also included Guest Accommodations and a Things to Do card, repeating the fonts and design elements on them. I printed these on my home printer on simple white cardstock to save a little money, while outsourcing the printing of the invitations for a higher quality card stock.

Lastly, to bundle and hold the entire invitation set together, I used a textured cream envelope and sealed it with a crimson red, compass style wax seal. Though the process took time, creating, designing and finding and each element of the invitation set was like a treasure hunt—and I was beyond proud and happy with the final product (and hubby approved!). I loved this project so much and can't wait to do another (not my own of course!). Now...bring me that horizon!

With over 10 years of experience working with clients from the East Coast to the West, I am happy to help realize your art and design needs. From print materials like business cards, menus, brochures, facility signs or posters; to rebranding design and digital ad design, I'm here to help bring your ideas to life. Learn more about me.