The crickets that you hear are because life interfered in blogging. In a good way. My last post was October 6, five days before Bryan and I celebrated our wedding. And the last two months have been filled with travel and getting back on track. Sprinkled with a few holidays and a not-so-sweet case of the flu to shake things up. Awesome.

Back in late summer, I posted the "Suite-Hearts" designs for our own Save the Date and Main Invitation. Check them out, if you havn't already.

Each year, I have the unique opportunity to create bridal stationery suites for couples looking for the ultimate in customized solutions for their wedding - and it is truly one of my favorite projects. Super creative, very personal, and always tangible. And while the paper itself might have a short shelf-life, the reason behind the project and the memories created, do not. For a designer who is often doing more business-focused work, it can be a welcome distraction to color outside the lines.

The final piece to my own bridal suite was in the "day-of" implementation. Most times, a suite-hearts package extends beyond just the invitation -- in our case, to menus, programs, golf cart signs, marriage certificate, custom honey labels {favors}, lantern tags and fro-yo spoons. And just in case I wasn't DIY-crazy enough, I handmade the boutonnieres {with coordinated pennant tags}, all table florals, bouquets, and clay name tags {on dinner napkins}.

First up, the design proofs.

Friday Dinner Menu and Friday Ceremony Program - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Custom Golf Cart Sign and Marriage License - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Saturday Program {tri-fold, outside} - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Saturday Program {tri-fold, inside} - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

And photography by the always-amazing, insanely-talented, The Schultzes.

Save the Dates - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Invitation Suite and DIY Bouts - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Friday Ceremony Program - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Friday Dinner Menu - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Friday Dinner Menu, Place Setting and Custom Honey Label - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Custom Honey Label - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Saturday Program - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

Custom Fro-yo Spoons, modeled by Maid-of-Honor / Sister of the Bride / Designer Extraordinaire, Bryce

Lantern Tags - Erica & Bryan 10.11+12.13

It is terribly hard to blog, run a business and plan a wedding at the same time. And that is coming from someone who is entrenched in the wedding industry. I design custom wedding invitations. I design albums and branding systems for wedding photographers. I am constantly wading hip-high in our overly saturated, highly stimulating visual world of Pinterest, Facebook, bridal magazines and blogs. And that is just because I work in that space, not because I am planning wedding. But, I am also doing that. And I vowed to myself that I would make it simple, stress-free, classic and "me." Ha. Well, that works for me some of the time.

One of my favorite areas of the Summer House, is our "suite-hearts" product – fully custom wedding suites including {but certainly not limited to} save the dates, main invitation suites, on-site suites {menus, programs} and more.

But, let me tell you. Being "your own client" is rough. You nitpick every design decision. You overanalyze the color, type, image, process, content and production costs. You become immune to seeing anything with "fresh eyes" and having the capacity to really make a decision you feel comfortable with. All of that being said, I would never dream of hiring someone else to design my wedding invitations. Or -- *gasp* -- even fathom choosing them from something already pre-designed and at the ready. Oh no. I dove in head first. And at the end of the day, when they finally hit guest's mailboxes, I received the best compliment that I could – "they are so you." After all, isn't that our goal? To have it be "so you" rather than "so pretty, just like another wedding?" I think so.

As with anything, I never do it the easy way. Or, the "normal" way. Our wedding event is no different. Instead of one day, we are having two. Instead of a big ceremony and reception with our entire guest list, we are having a small private ceremony followed by a big honkin' BBQ party the next day. Seems like a great idea, right? Well, I know it is the right idea for us as a couple. But it is a horribly big challenge to figure out HOW to convey this message to our guests via printed stationery.

Design preview for Erica + Bryan's save the date element in their suite-hearts package.

Our suite started off with a save the date card, as most do. But not one design. Two. I knew I wanted simple. Something that appeals to my "right angle issues" and love of clean lines and white space. Something that pushes the envelope on typography. {Wait, that's not me, nevermind.} Something modern. So, I started with two fav images from our e-sesh with the incredible Schultzes. I added simple black type, a combo of sans serif and script. A clear message {here is when and where it is, please be there}. And laid it all out on the most gorgeous 24 pt super-thick crisp white matte stock I could find. Combined with two different lined envelopes, a uniquely shaped address label and a custom rubber return address stamp {here is where I allow myself to blur the lines of perfection}, and it was in the mail.

The final product, printed cards for Erica + Bryan's save the date in their suite-hearts package. 24pt matte, 4/1, offset press combined with a kraft paper and snow white envelope, lined with stardream metallics.

"Instead of searching for inspiration, how about you search out someone to inspire."

— TONY KIM

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