Our second place design contest winner was sent to us by Hailey at Elizabeth Grace in Chicago, and we couldn’t get enough of this four-color customization of our Chapin design! Our contest judge — the talented Amanda from one of our favorite wedding blogs, Ruffled — loved the fresh color scheme and all of the attention to detail. “The green used throughout the design adds just the right amount of detail without overwhelming the suite and is a beautiful teaser for what’s in store for guests on the wedding day” – which is exactly what the couple was hoping for. They were kind enough to share the inspiration behind their unique invitations with us:

Dave and I knew we wanted our invitation to be totally original. We hoped the invitation would set the tone for our big day, and we wanted it to be romantic, feminine, and soft. We are getting married outside of the museum facing gorgeous Lincoln Park, so we wanted the invitation to also be fresh and natural. We are currently working on the design of the arbor we will get married under and are selecting flowers to convey the same feelings of romanticism, naturalness, and softness.

It was helpful that we came in to look at invitations right after a floral appointment! We brought in a couple of flowers for inspiration – all featuring beautiful pinks and fresh greens. We saw many elements that we really loved when looking through the Bella Figura album, but not one that was exactly right. Essentially, we took a design and changed the flowers, colors, selected fonts, and had the flowers vine around the wording. It took a few tries to get the colors right, but we’re glad we took the leap to actually design our own invitation because the end result is so lovely! We can’t wait to get them in our hands and out to our friends and family. 

We love the way the whimsical roses from our motif library were used to customize our Chapin design, and the Spencerian hand calligraphy accents added the perfect amount of elegance and romance! The roses were also used in a custom, design-inspired envelope liner and on the insert cards, which made for a cohesive look throughout the set. Congratulations to Elizabeth Grace for winning second place in our second annual Design Contest, and best wishes to Colleen and David on their upcoming wedding!

inks: clover + olive + british rose + shell | font: jubilant | calligraphy accents: spencerian by debi zeinert | paper: 2-ply white  | invite size: f8  | liner: custom design-inspired liner in shell ink

This design won second place in our Bella Figura design competition for 2012. This annual competition recognizes outstanding and inspired designs submitted to us by our beloved dealers.