Earlier on in my proposal I had a list of all of the magazines and websites I was going to take a look at, and the other day I purchased Wedding Magazine, which was at the top of my list. As I have never designed wedding stationary before I paid a lot of detail to the articles within this magazine because it was an Inspiration Special issue. It came with a few other smaller magazines and one of them held over 200+ inspiring ideas.
Mood Board
I briefly flicked through the magazine and it’s counterpart and made marks on the page where I found something inspirational, and I took photos of these inspirational ideas and have collected them all into a mood board.
 |
| All images belong to Wedding Magazine |
As you can see, I didn’t just focus on wedding invitation designs but also wedding dresses, typography, and colour schemes. I really like the whole cream-peach-gold colour scheme as it would bring connotations of purity as well as elegance as white is a very “pure” colour in some countries.
The Articles
The Clothes
The magazine’s main focus was on the wedding dress and the clothes to wear to a wedding (so it was good for bridesmaids as well). For example, in “The Wedding List” it lists the clothing as the first things to note down before leading onto food and films to watch to get into the wedding mood.
Within this list there was a little section on “Style Notes” which was all about wedding dresses and advice on what to wear them with such as the perfect heels. They had some key words such as “BFF” which stands for Back-up Frock Fix, for those brides who want more than one dress for different times of the day (as it’s hard to dance in your full-length gown!)
Around the Worlds in 50 Weddings
One couple actually decided to get married in every country they travelled to, and soon became famous for it. The reason why they did this was because they wanted to find the perfect place to get married but in the end they decided that everywhere was perfect. They won’t get officially married until 2014.
I found this article interesting because of how they would’ve planned everything at the last minute and how spontaneous they were! I wouldn’t be able to do that, aha.
Real Weddings
Unlike the stories seen in other stories, these real weddings were written in a lot of detail including the ideas the couple had for their big day, what theme they went with, where they married, and even the decorations. This information is displayed on one side of a DPS and on the other they have showcased photos of their wedding, with the list of contributors (so photographers, the venue they used etc).
Over on the next page the magazine put together a little mood board to match the theme of the wedding, including dresses to wear, stationary, little decorations and cakes.
Inspiration Insiders
Now this article had little sections for each of the things you needed to take into account on your wedding day e.g. what photographers to go for and current trends. I mainly focused on the little article about stationary that was written by Nichole Michel from Coral Pheasant Stationary.
“Metallics, in particular gold, are making a strong comeback” according to Michel. Art deco-inspired features included typefaces that reflect the 1920s where bold and large typefaces were first brought out, blocks of bold colour and clean lines. I have already seen many invitations showcasing laser-cut paper designs and this seems to be a current trend as well as it “brings a whole new dimension to wedding invitations”.
So current trends included: art deco, foil stamping, laser-cut designs and geometric patterns. I have decided to create a little mood board of all of these trends below to keep me inspired.
Image sources: http://speckyboy.com/2010/07/28/50-tileable-and-seamless-pattern-sets-500-patterns/ http://www.lovemydress.net/blog/2010/04/hummingbird-card-company.html http://www.chartula.co.uk/BSbespokeColln.htm http://ohsobeautifulpaper.com/2010/10/spanish-style-laser-cut-invitations/ http://www.freevectors.net/details/Simple+But+Classy+Geometric+Pattern http://www.purlfrost.com/stained-glass-2/cat12/art-deco-design-7/#.UWp0Risjpms http://venetianred.net/2010/04/20/the-busy-bee-has-no-time-for-sorrow-insects-in-art/ http://bradbury.com/osw_240_tangerine.html
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Sigils-of-the-Houses-of-Westeros-poster/4385899 http://www.behance.net/gallery/RGS-IV-Group/5235487 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Copadata-certificate/2491455
As I have mentioned above, I had found some invitations that used the trends listed above and the foil stamping seemed to be the most popular alongside using bold and elaborately decorative typefaces. I would love to use elaborate typefaces such as calligraphic styles, but I think it might be harder to do foil stamping. I might use metallic colours instead such as gold to give off the appearance of foil stamping.
Speaking of stationary, I saw that they had a tiny section on how exactly to word your invitation here:
I found this really useful because despite the amount of invitations I looked at, only those created by big companies included a little line to place the name of the guest. I think I might need to include this on my design!
Wedding Directory
Right at the back of the magazine there is a wedding directory and I skipped right to the stationary designers. I intend to briefly look at their designs to help me with my wedding invitation as well as the other cards that I aim to design.
Perfect Venues
The venue seemed to be another extremely important aspect in this magazine as they had listed many venue companies as well as doing a page on top venue destinations.
I went onto their website to look further into their top wedding venues because I would need to either make up a location or find a wedding venue that's perfect for a fairy tale themed one. I'm not too sure whether or not to make up my own location to avoid complications (as I don't want to write down the location only to have the company finding my design and panicking that they are hosting an imaginary wedding).
This particular venue caught my eye: Kirtlington Park, in Oxfordshire. When I went onto their article where they had featured some venues it was this one they suggested would be best for an elegant event. This is what they said about it:
"...With its sweeping staircases, decorative plasterwork and antique furniture, Kirtlington Park exudes grandeur and elegance. The venue’s fine reception rooms include the elegant Hall which can seat up to 120 guests for dining, the Saloon for dancing, the lovely Grey Drawing Room and the Monkey Room with its famous painted ceiling. Not only will you and your guests be captivated by the elegant reception rooms, but also by the beautiful paintings, history and breathtaking surroundings. Kirtlington Park is a wonderfully elegant and sophisticated setting for weddings..." (http://www.weddingandweddingflowers.co.uk/article.php?id=315&gm=1&galid=1821 , 4.4.13)
So I went and had a look at the photos of Kirtlington Park.
 |
| Image from: http://www.wedding-venues.co.uk/venuedetails/Kirtlington-Park-in-Oxfordshire.aspx |
Partner Website for Perfect Venues
Wedding Venues - http://www.wedding-venues.co.uk/
After finding the photos for Kirtlington Park I decided to take a look at all of the other venues listed on that website that would be good for a fairy tale wedding. They in fact had a section for castles!
Chiddingston Castle
 |
| http://www.wedding-venues.co.uk/venuedetails/Chiddingstone-Castle-in-Kent.aspx |
Herstmonceux Castle
 |
| http://www.wedding-venues.co.uk/venuedetails/Herstmonceux-Castle-in-East-Sussex.aspx |
This one is in fact perfect because they've also included an option where the couple could put up a marquee outside for the reception, and they provide some rooms for guests too!
Saint Hill Manor
 |
| http://www.wedding-venues.co.uk/venuedetails/Saint-Hill-Manor-in-East-Sussex.aspx |
This also provides a room for the reception - during summertime only - and a marquee!
Highclere Castle
 |
| http://www.wedding-venues.co.uk/venuedetails/Highclere-Castle-in-Hampshire.aspx |
Conclusion:
After taking a look at all of these places I've realised that most of them have included an area for the reception, so on an invitation I could just write "Followed by a reception in the marquee outside" or something along those lines. The perfect location for a fairy-tale themed wedding does seem to be a castle, although which castle to choose is extremely difficult!
I think for now I shall just put Neuschwenstein Castle as the location because it's the most beautiful and fairy-tale like castle I've ever looked at, but later on I shall make up my own location to avoid any confusion. However I would need to talk to my lecturers about this.
No comments:
Post a Comment