AH! FINALLY! I finally get to share one of my favorite invitation suites to date and can't believe that day is finally here! I have been waiting for MONTHS ever since I designed the invitations, had them printed, and held them in my little hands I could hardly contain my excitement and just wanted to share. But I knew I had to wait!

Especially when Melissa said her photographer was Katelyn James...I knew the photos would be worth waiting for, and oh my gosh was I right! I mean, we all know Katelyn; we all love her and her work. She's absolutely incredible. And while we've worked together in smaller capacities before (we actually took art classes together in college which made for some really awful installation art pieces), I've never worked with her on a wedding. So other than total excitement of having one of my invitation suites photographed by Katelyn, I feel absolutely honored to have been a part of this amazing, one-of-a-kind day.

Melissa is wonderful. I mean, seriously. I actually knew Melissa in college. Not well, but we had mutual friends, and we were both in sororities, so we saw each other around. And when she contacted me about invitations and her vision for the paper goods, I was excited for the change to get to know her better, and see how amazing, fun, and easygoing she was. AND she also understands my love for Music Festivals. When she sent me her ideas for her paper goods based on music festival tickets and themes, I knew we were get along famously and I was eager to get started.

When she sent me her ideas and Pinterest board, I really wanted to get her something amazing, bold, colorful and different than anything I had done before. While I love the invitations I do of monograms and watercolors and such, I was delighted, and a little nervous, so get to use my creativity a little bit more in this particular suite.

So I Facebook stalked her. I mean...really stalked her. And I found some images from her engagement shoot with Katelyn James and fell in LOVE with this gorgeous mural wall in Richmond by Jason Woodside. I mean, it had everything we were looking for: colors, boldness, design, and most importantly, meaning to the couple.

So I decided to do something I had never done before: I used a photograph in my invitation. I mean sure, I draw vectors and digitize watercolors and make drawings into digital files, but I had never really used a photographer's image like this in such a bold way (and with permission of course!). It was honestly a huge risk for me, something very different from my usual style and totally out of my comfort zone (I was sweating bullets after I sent it off to her until I heard back), but one I am SO GLAD I took that jump.

The suite is not only gorgeous (in my humble opinion :) ) but it means so much to them. It represents who they are and where they came from. And to me, there's no better way than to represent and start off a wedding with an invitation that means something to you.

Thank you so much, Melissa, for being such an amazing bride to work with and for letting me be a little bit more creative and different with your invitation. I truly enjoyed working together and am so excited for you and David! Congratulations and cheers to a long life of happiness and love!