Bella Vita Invitations ProgramsHere at Real Weddings Magazine, we find plenty of things to get excited about. From dazzling dresses to dreamy décor, our favorite wedding vendors are endless sources of inspiration.

One area we’velooked forward to highlighting more often is paper goods, everything from save-the-dates to placecards. There are so many beautiful paper creations out there, we look forward to bringing you many posts to our blog series, Inspiration Board: Paper Goods!

Hot off the presses, here’s a project from Bella Vita Invitations. Owner and designer Sara Hamm shares with us her experience creating pieces for a recent client’s wedding (which just so happens to be one of the featured real weddings from our Summer/Fall 2009 issue!):

“Melissa and Michael Votaw, along with Catriona Arcularius of Arcularius Events, had an amazing vision for their wedding day, that went from the spectacular venue at Wine and Roses to the special details of hand rolled cigars.

Their custom printed pieces of their wedding day followed that same amazing vision…down to the details. They wanted romantic, rich and beautiful pieces.

To start, The Memory Journalists did an engagement photo shoot for their save-the-date cards, a soft shimmery cream card with a matching envelope was the first impression for their guests of the upcoming wedding.

Then it was time for the invitation…we choose a rich shimmery brown pocket fold invitation with accents of cream and gold. We had a paisley patterned vellum band to enclose the invitation, which had the guests’ names printed on each invitation, a custom personal touch. We printed welcome basket notes on a 5×5 square with the couple’s signature gold “V” as a watermark, which was carried through the remaining pieces for the wedding day.

For the day of, we did personalized programs, with each guests’ name on it, which an attendant handed to each guest as they arrived to the ceremony. The program also acted as the guests escort card letting them know which table they would be seated at the reception.

Any element of personalization we can do for the guests is my favorite part of the design process….it lets the guests know how important they are to the bride and groom and that the couple was thinking of their guests through the planning process.

Once the guests were seated, there was a section of reserved seats for the family, each with a personal seat card. The reception was filled with little, but intentional details: bar menus with signature drinks, hand rolled cigar signs, and custom handmade bridge and groom banners for their chairs.

Melissa, Michael and Catriona were so much fun to work with and it was so wonderful to be able to help them with the printed pieces of their vision.”

Bella Vita Invitations

Bella Vita Invitations

Bella Vita Invitations

Bella Vita Invitations

Bella Vita Invitations

For more info on Bella Vita Invitations, visit www.bellavitainvitations.com or call Sara at 916-682-8226.

And check out Bella Vita Invitations’ online profile on Real Weddings Magazine’s Web site and click here to see more of Melissa & Michael’s featured real wedding.

Blog Post by Always a Bridesmaid Columnist Darren Elms.

Photos by and courtesy of The Memory Journalists.



 
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