Tuesday, August 3, 2010

2u Presents... Guest Blogger!! Susan Southerland!


Tips for Designing Custom Wedding Invitations
By Perfect Wedding Guide National Wedding Expert Susan Southerland
all images by Liga Photography
I am so honored to be posting as a guest blogger on The 2u Collection’s blog.  Amy is such a talented designer and had delighted me on many occasions with her drawings for The Susan Southerland Secret, but recently we were able to collaborate on a much more personal level.  Amy designed my wedding invitations.









I think the design really set the tone for our Colorado wedding.  Thanks to Jeffrey Stoner we added a fun insertion, a DVD narrated by my fiancĂ© and me with photos of us from past Colorado trips.  We enjoyed sharing those memories with our invitees and for those who have never been to Colorado, it got them excited for the trip!
As a wedding planner, I am used to working with couples in creating their look for their wedding; I don’t want to say that I am detached, like a doctor, but helping them actualize their vision is far easier than creating one for myself.  So, today’s tips come directly from lessons I recently learned as a bride,  for those of you who will be creating your own invitation, or working with a designer like Amy to come up with your signature look.
1. Decide on a color scheme for the wedding.  It is much easier to design if you already know the overall look for the wedding.

2. Create an inspiration board for your wedding.  Look for photos of flowers, fonts and other images that convey the look and feel of your wedding.  

3. Share that inspiration board with your designer (and keep it by your side if you are the one doing the design work).  It will help her get a better understanding of your vision and it will help you stay focused.

4. Don’t micromanage your designer (and don’t be too hard on yourself).  If you are working with a designer allow her to be creative and share her ideas with you.  Those ideas can be tweaked and molded until they are perfect.  If you are designing, remember, creativity can come in spurts, so give yourself plenty of time and then relax and let the ideas flow.

5. Keep pen and paper by your bedside.  You never know when an amazing idea will hit you and you don’t want to lose any gems.

6. PROOFREAD.  You don’t want any errors on your invitations.  Make sure to check and re-check your work.  Give a proof to a friend and have her check it as well.


Remember, the invitation sets the tone for the wedding… so give them the attention that they deserve.
For more wedding planning tips, be sure to visit my blog at www.perfectweddingguide.com/wedding-blog.  You can also become a fan on Facebookand follow me on Twitter.
Your partner in perfect planning,
Susan

7 comments:

Unknown said...

These are so stunning! I don't even think I could have come up with these wonderful and bright designs in my most happiest dreams. I want them more than I want my fiance!
I hope 2u Collection and Amy are free to do mine for my big day.

Unknown said...

I was fortunate enough to receive one of these amazing invitations, and was utterly impressed with the creativity and how personal it felt with the textures which evoke their venue and environment along with the touching DVD insert. Well done to the BOTH of you!

Karry Castillo said...

Wow! Beautiful invitation suite. I love the natural tone. The cd is a really great way to personalize and bring life to the invitation while building anticipation and excitement for the actual wedding day.

Yvette said...

Another win for Amy. So bright and happy! I'm looking forward to getting to know Susan's work as well!

Brandi Zrallack said...

We've had the honor of working with 2u Collection and the work is amazing. This is a great article that highlights the importance of having a company like 2u Collection on your side for your wedding invitations!

Ron Morelli said...

WOW...Some of you might not know this, but my wife and I are both so busy that we often dont get to gleam into eachothers work. So I was very glad that today this post was forwarded to me. So often I am amazed at how these invitations come out, and in fact have become a little numb to the creativity since amazing has become the norm. BUT.. big BUT.. these things are very cool and I am still impressed with how many directions and forms can result with good creativity and truly listening to the vision of the client to come up with totally new results. I cant wait until I can hold one of these in my hand. Hopefully we kept some samples.
So cool that 2U can bring this kind of product to brides all over.
With so much pseudo creative companies offering what they call unique invitations, I really hope many brides can see the difference and the value that you bring to there special event. Truly Unique.

Liga Photography said...

LOVE these invites!!! Great job Amy!!