A save-the-date to remember.
For the save-the-dates sent out to family and friends ahead of our microwedding, my fiancé and I knew we wanted to deliver something unexpected. Drawing upon our shared art school background, as well as our interest in and proximity to the fashion world, we landed on the idea for a zine to give prospective guests a taste of the experience to come, as well as a brief refresher into our backstory. This was an amazing opportunity for my design chops to rise to the challenge of combining an eclectic mix of themes: scholastic, travel, cooking, and fashion magazines, Old World antiquity, fairytale, the fine arts, and sketchbooking.
(Left) The front cover, with references to color theory and design, as well as editorial magazine layouts. A custom barcode serves as an Easter egg, hinting at the date of the ceremony.
(Right) The zine in its wildflower-printed vellum casing, accompanied by a “ticket” that informs guests of info regarding their villa stay. This ticket was printed then soaked in black tea to give it a touch of antiquity fit for the historic venue. The wildflowers help to bring the eclectically-designed zine back into a traditional wedding space.
The full zine, unfolded, front and back.
(Left) This page consolidates much of the key information guests need to know. I wanted to evoke a sketchbook effect, so I used PSD brushes that mimicked pencil lines and brush strokes.
(Middle) An editorial-style prenuptial shot from our engagement shoot serves as a clean rest for the eyes amongst the many collage-inspired pages in the zine.
(Right) Our bespoke save-the-date playlist over a backdrop of our dog during our engagement shoot. We made a custom QR code for easy listening on Spotify.
The travel spread that speaks to the “Why Italy?” question. We borrowed design cues from postcards.
(Left) Custom printed Air Mail envelopes fit the destination wedding theme perfectly. Met with sizing issues, we got creative and utilized vinyl tape to restructure the envelopes to fit the zines. Stamps were sourced from Casey’s Rubber Stamps, our go-to stamp maker in the East Village, and addresses were handwritten to emphasize our love of handcraft.
(Right) Collage played a strong design role in this page that speaks to our story, displays our wedding colors, and showcases our ring.
A romantic spread that merges a favorite select from our engagement shoot with a photo of a fridge-magnet poem left for me by my fiancé.
(Left) Guests’ “ticket” to the villa. (Right) A sneak peek into the Tuscan mindset with a simply-designed one-pager of our favorite tomato sauce recipe.
(Left) With a hand-drawn color-by-number background, we put a fun spin on this engagement shot, while referencing Highlights for Kids, a childhood delight of ours, in the process.
(Right) A full view of one side of our zine.