The scenic garden at Saddlerock Ranch in Malibu was the perfect setting for Skyla and Danny’s wedding this past July. The couple married next to a 250-year old weeping willow tree with grape vines and the Santa Monica mountains encompassing the scenery behind them. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with Skyla and Danny to create their California inspired wedding invitations fit for their Malibu affair. Thanks to the help of our friends over at Urbanic, we created a design that maintained a classic look yet still had a taste of Los Angeles flavor which featured palm tree illustrations. Skyla and Danny shared even more about the details of their day below, so we’ll pass it on over to them from here:
Q: What was the inspiration for your wedding?
A: Most weddings that we had gone to growing up were indoors so we wanted our family and friends to experience something a little different. We looked at almost all the outdoor venues in the LA area before settling on Saddlerock Ranch in Malibu. When we both saw it, we instantly knew that this was where we wanted to get married. Also, since this was a destination wedding for most of the attendees, we wanted to have the wedding, cocktail hour and reception all on the same grounds.
Q: How did you choose the design and ink colors for your California inspired wedding invitations?
A: We wanted to have our invitation hit on the outdoor / vineyard / Los Angeles theme so we knew we wanted to put a little twist on a classic invitation. We went with the colors of the groomsmen suits (blue), bridesmaid dresses (blush) and added an illustration of a palm tree to give it some LA vibes. We wanted to elevate the look and feel of the invites so we incorporated a bit of debossed text with gold foil for elegance.
Q: What surprised you most about your wedding?
A: When you’re planning the wedding and making all the decisions, it’s hard to truly visualize how it will all end up looking together. The feeling when you arrive at your wedding and you see everything that you’ve been working so hard on planning for the first time is pretty surprising. Surprising in the best way possible.
Q: Advice to future couples planning their own wedding?
A: Planning a wedding is all about collaboration – whether it’s between the people getting married, the two families that are joining together, or the vendors and the couple. It can get stressful at times but try to make the process as fun as possible. Oh, and taste a lot of cake. You can never have too much cake.
Q: What was your favorite moment?
A: Some of our favorite moments include: seeing each other for the first time during our “first look” the speeches from our parents / best man / maid of honor, and Skyla’s bridesmaid dance to Beyonce to open up the dance floor!
Q: what’s next for the newlyweds?
A: After going to Greece for our honeymoon, we’re excited to explore more of the world together and eat more delicious food. We’ve got plans to travel to Italy, Japan and Lebanon soon!
We were thrilled to have had the opportunity to create Michelle and Neema’s maple foil invitations thanks to the help of our friends at the Dandelion Patch. We were even more excited to see their wedding come to life through the eyes of their photographer Katie Stoops. The couple was married at Union Market’s Dock 5 which they transformed into a space filled with gorgeous greenery, Persian rugs, and all their loved ones surrounding them. Michelle and Neema wanted their special day to be reminiscent of a dinner party on a much grander scale so they created a warm, intimate overall environment for their guests to experience. Their invitations reflected the color palette of their day with burgundies and blushes represented in the florals on the envelope liner and invitation backer. After attending 21 weddings with Neema by her side, we’ll let Michelle share more about the most special wedding of them all, her own:
What was the inspiration for the wedding?
We host dinner parties for friends at our home in DC all the time, and our goal was to create an (obviously much more elaborate) version of that. We wanted it to feel warm and personal, centered around delicious food paired with good wine and conversation. For example, we picked menu items that we like to cook at home (crab and avocado salad; duck breast with port wine sauce; vegetable wellington); we created versions of the dishes at home and tasted various wines alongside them to choose pairings for dinner; and we used our guests’ nicknames on the menus to serve as place cards. Hosting the wedding at Union Market, DC’s favorite food market was the perfect anchor for it all.
What surprised you the most and what was your favorite moment?
My answer to these two questions is the same – the ceremony! I was mostly looking forward to the dinner and dancing part of the evening and didn’t really expect how meaningful the ceremony would feel. Our officiant (a good friend) wrote a beautiful tribute to our relationship filled with insights from our family and friends; our mothers and my sister participated in a traditional Persian sugar ceremony (happily married female relatives grind sugar cubes over the couple to ‘sweeten’ the marriage) to honor Neema’s heritage; and instead of feeling self-conscious and overwhelmed as I expected, I felt so in tune and in love with Neema as we said our vows. The dinner and dancing parts of the evening were obviously amazing too, but I have to say the ceremony was my favorite part!
Advice to future couple’s planning their own wedding?
It’s easy to say “try to relax and have fun with it!” but the reality is, there will always be moments of stress, conflict, and indecision. Our best concrete advice is to sit down at the very beginning with your partner and make a list of which wedding elements are most important to each of you, and which elements you care less about. That way, down the road when it’s time to make decisions, compromise will be easier because you’ll have established priorities from the start. For example, I wanted a band but Neema felt very strongly from the beginning about having a DJ, so I compromised on that; I felt strongly about having a small bridal party (only our siblings) so Neema gave his group of five best friends the role of ushers.
How did you choose your invitation design and ink colors?
I was initially hesitant about sending paper invitations for environmental reasons, but after some urging from my more traditional mother, I did some research on printing options and learned about Bella Figura’s green printing commitments, which made me feel much better about the whole process. We visited The Dandelion Patch in Virginia who helped us create a gorgeous fall floral suite, again finding a compromise – I adore big splashy florals, but Neema preferred something more streamlined, so we designed a simple maple shine foil invitation card with Bella Figura’s amazing floral print on the back and on the envelope liner. The beautiful purples, burgundies, and blushes of this print matched perfectly with our décor colors. The wording on the invitation was very important to me as well – we avoided the standard language and crafted a message carefully to reflect the kind of evening we were planning and how much we appreciate our guests.
What’s next for the happy couple?
After our wedding, we took a couple months to enjoy some downtime before traveling to Sri Lanka and the Maldives for our honeymoon over the holidays. We can’t recommend this break between wedding and honeymoon enough – the comedown after a wedding is very real, and the delayed honeymoon gave us something additional to look forward to while allowing us to rest and recuperate in between.
After a 29-year engagement filled with all the twists and turns life has to offer, Claudia and Daniel were finally married on the twenty-sixth of August surrounded by all of their loved ones. In 2012, Claudia was diagnosed with stage three cancer and from there endured a treatment plan that included chemotherapy, radiation, a double mastectomy and a full hysterectomy. In 2016, Claudia’s cancer metastasized to her bones which led to a partial hip replacement and she is currently on oral chemotherapy. Though Claudia and Daniel have experienced many ups and downs, the love that they share for each other has remained constant. We were lucky enough to play a small part in this couple’s incredibly moving story as we worked with Brilliant Event Planning and Wish Upon a Wedding to create their dream invitations and day of pieces.
Using our Everly design as inspiration, Claudia and Daniel picked a warm color palette of Cobblestone letterpress ink and paired it with Gold Matte foil. Botanical watercolor accents were added throughout each piece including the envelope liner to give everything a softer overall aesthetic. We’re excited to share a glimpse into the making of this couple’s invitations and day of pieces below. It takes a love like Claudia and Daniel’s to remind us of all the good in the world and to embrace it every single day.
Start spreading the news, we recently spotted Alexandra and Matthew’s timeless wedding invitations on Carats & Cake and we’re thrilled to share a glimpse into their big day. The couple worked with our friends at Cardture who helped us to design and bring their vision to life. With a harmonious color palette of Olive letterpress and Copper Shine foil as the accent color, the couple’s vision of a simple yet luxurious invitation shined through. To enhance the level of sophistication, Copper Shine foil edging was added to their lavishly thick 3-ply invitation. The suite truly reflected the elegance and refinement of the inside of the New York Public Library with its warm tones and metallic accents. It’s easy to say that this classic invitation was the perfect fit for Alexandra and Matthew’s New York wedding. Carats & Cake has even more photos from their big day, but here are a few of our favorites – take a look!
We worked with Letterheads to create these tropical foil stamped wedding invitations for Katia and Ntanzi’s Miami Beach affair. Our Copper Shine foil shines brightly and boldly when it’s paired with our Bella Gray paper. Using our Traditional Palm design as their inspiration, this couple decided to give their invitation a little extra Miami flair with contemporary font choices. Both the reply card and information cards coordinated with the rest of the suite perfectly also using Bella Gray as the backdrop to the bold foil. This statement maker was finished off with a solid Copper Shine envelope liner to tie everything together.
Foil stamping color: Copper Shine | Fonts: Brandon + Bernhard Fashion D (supplied) | Design: Traditional Palm | Paper: 2 ply Bella Gray | Size: F-8 | Liner: Classic Color in Copper Shine l | Customization: 41964 | Letterheads
