invitation: save the date round 1

We've already established that I love yellow. It's a perfect color for our warm & sweet, playful summertime fete. Mr. P and I knew our invitations would be equally sweet and playful with lots of yellow for good measure.

If you compare the "look" of a wedding to a corporate identity (brand), you find many similarities. The tiny business card, containing the most information on the smallest piece of paper, is the starting point for the brand. The colors, fonts, shapes contained within it are then applied to everything else! Continuing the analogy... the Save the Date is the wedding version of a business card. It's your guests' first impression of the wedding, hinting at the merriment and joy to come!

The mood you convey here should be carried over into the rest of the paper suite (invitation, rsvp & more) and possibly even further into the decor itself. Which is why I had such a difficult time beginning. Design paralysis! To beat back the procrastination, I thumbnail sketched 40+ layouts before popping the simplest into Illustrator.

Begin with the basics: the date and request to save the date.*

See, a date and the words "save the date." 

*One would think this is obvious, but ah... do not be fooled for your guests will call, email, or even phone your mother asking how they RSVP and where is the rest of the information. Your eye may begin twitching if it hasn't already.

Making it more obvious - STD in larger letters.

What if the guest has more than one wedding to attend? How will they know this is Miss and Mr. PaC's STD? Oh bother, might as well put our stinkin' names on the thing.

Add a little color. All yellow is a little boring, but not really feeling this green.

My favorite of the bunch in colors that make me crave
lemonade, orange juice and pink lemonade.
But I was satisfied with none of these. They were too modern and not whimsical enough. I stepped away from the STDs for a few days and promised Mr. P I wasn't procrastinating again. Ok, maybe I was a little bit, but I always find my eye is more objective when I take a few days to ruminate on a design.

Did you coordinate your Save the Dates with the feel/theme of your wedding?