Willow visuals

graphic design, calligraphy, illustration

Where to start with your invitations?

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invitationsblog1_willowvisuals_suite(Pictures: Just My Type )

Let´s start from the beginning: Congratulations! 🙂 You are preparing for one of the most profound and beautiful experiences of your lives surrounded by your beloved ones. You have the date, booked the dream-venue and probably you have started the search for The Gown. So it is very soon time to think about the invitations. But actually, where to start? What are the elements of the stationery suite?

Honestly I would say that there are no exact rules or right answers to this question. Every wedding is different, so every suite will be different. However, it usually includes a primary invitation asking your guests to attend the wedding. I am often asked what to include in the text. I praise the idea of keeping everything “clean” and simple with only the most important details:

  • names: full or only first names
  • date
  • place and time of the ceremony
  • place and time of the reception
  • RSVP-date

Before you start creating the text, there are some things worth considering. Are you planning to have a more formal, traditional wedding or is it going to be more laid-back? I think that the way you form the text with the outlook of the invitation already sets a certain tone for the wedding.

Save the date

In some cases invitations are preceded by save-the-date cards. When you´re organising a destination wedding or you´re marrying during a high-travel time, it´s a great idea to inform your guests in this form. This way they can be prepared well ahead, so there is a higher chance they can actually make it to your day.

invitationsblog1_willowvisuals_savethedate

(Pictures: Just my type stationery / Coccorina / Instagram / Offbeat Bride / A fabulous fete )

What else?

You can add enclosures to the invitation. Of course the amount and type of cards depend on the special details of the day.

RSVP-card with return envelope:

It is a more traditional way of asking the favour of response from your guests. This is usually a small card attached to the invitation with a response envelope. It is a very elegant solution, but it is maybe more common in the US than in Finland.

Instead of sending RSVP-cards, a popular solution nowadays is setting up an RSVP-function on your wedding website. (More about the website in another post.) But without doubt, the RSVP-card adds a nice touch to the suite. 🙂

General information card:

You can call it in many ways and you can attach really as many as you want to the invitation. Usually they include information about:

  • details of venue
  • food options
  • dress code
  • accommodation
  • directions
  • etc…

It is good to share information that is otherwise not obvious. You can save yourselves a lot of time and probably hundreds of phone-calls / emails if you chose to have these enclosures.

However, I suggest you to have just as many extra cards as it is really necessary. I believe that too much information can be overwhelming for the guests. Here again, if you have a wedding website, you can significantly reduce the amount of prints. Of course sending these cards is a very respectful solution towards guests who are less likely to use computers in general.

If you are super prepared and organised, you can also add here the schedule of the day. On the other hand, handling out the program on the actual wedding day is quite enough and for sure your guests will not accidentally leave it at home.

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(Pictures: Yao Cheng Design / Ryn Frank / Wed Luxe / Bklyn Bride / Style Me Pretty / Wedding Chicks / The Girl Tyler )

Wedding map:

A popular – and personally my favourite 🙂 – enclosure is the wedding map. Usually these little graphics are hand-drawn and they add a twist to the suite. They can present for example the direction from the ceremony to the venue, the road from the airport to city center or even different stations at the reception (cocktail-bar, dance-floor, photo booth, etc). I love the handmade feeling of these maps and I can spend a long time admiring the little details on them. They make the whole package fun and very personal. 🙂

To sum it up…

If you´re into delicate and lovely details, you´ll most likely care about the papers and colors you chose for your wedding. One thing is for sure. Your stationery is going to be one of the first things your guests interact with. It´s a beautiful and tangible way to communicate the significance of what you´re celebrating. And it is a keepsake of the day not only for you but maybe for your guests as well. That is why I suggest you to take a little time to think about it, to be creative about it and to make it special. 🙂

Petra

All about wedding paper

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Willow visuals_green stationery blog1

For the last months I´ve been a little bit quiet on the blogging side. It is partially because of a busy working schedule (for which I am very thankful) and partially because I was in the middle of organising our own wedding. There are quite a lot of things that I learnt during that process and maybe some points are interesting for other brides as well, so I´m going to write a separate post about that experience.

Willow visuals_greenstationery_blog2

Willow visuals_green wedding stationery_blog4-5Anyway, my plan for now is to start a stationery-related topic, where I write about wedding paper. All about printing, embellishments, etiquette, texts, elements etc.

There are a lot of aspects to it and going through them might be useful or inspiring. I honestly think that wedding paper is something very personal and it gives a great opportunity to make something that is truly you and something that you keep for a nice memory.

I made a schedule for the posts, so for now here is the plan for each Wednesday:

  1. Wedding stationery: what it is and what it includes – coming right this Wednesday 😉
  2. Looking for inspiration
  3. Printing vs. handwritten
  4. Paper options
  5. Embellishments
  6. The “stationery-etiquette”

Hope you´ll enjoy the topics and let me know if you´re interested in something more!

Petra

What it takes…

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Sketch_Willow visuals-1

In the last weeks I have been asked about logos, calligraphy and even tattoo-projects, but most of the time the questions were about wedding invitations. I am always so thrilled to receive messages, because it´s nice to see that there is interest towards handmade stationery and calligraphy. 

1.”Do you write and paint every invitation one by one?”

2.”Are all the elements handmade?”

3.”Do you use calligraphy fonts or pre-made, downloaded watercolour elements in your designs?”

The very short answer to the questions:

1. mostly no

2. definitely yes

3. definitely no.

However, I think there are some useful aspects to know about handmade designs, so I decided to dedicate a post for the topic.

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I know and I completely understand that wedding planning can be overwhelming and choosing the right stationery is not an easy decision to make. On the other hand, I like helping this process. It´s about exchanging ideas, setting up your preferences and bringing in creativity, so the results are always something very unique and personal. So far, I´ve made invitations with illustrations of summer forrest berries, flower wreaths, flying doves, olive branches to mention a few. And it´s nice to know that these elements made the couples very happy and their weddings a little bit more special. 🙂

However there is an important part in each and every design, that stays sort of “invisible”. It´s time. Developing something handmade equals investing a lot of time into the process. As 90% of my work is based on hand drawn elements, I  spend hours with sketching / erasing / testing / calligraphing and painting. For an invitation suite, I add watercolour elements as well, which I draw and paint sometimes with several layers. If your dream is a delicate flora and fauna wreath sketch, I can make it with the ink color of your choice. If your wish is a realistic rose bouquet painting, or a simpler abstract color-blend, that is also possible to make. After these elements are finished, comes the digital process. Scanning / “cleaning” / editing / resizing, etc. All in all, it´s not ready at one fell swoop. But when the design is already digital, things get easy to send them to production and print.

I understand that 100% custom-made is not an option for everyone, so this year I prepared an invitation collection with different handmade designs, models and sketches. You pick the one you prefer, then I add the calligraphy and text the way you like it. Every element can be used for invitations, info-cards, save-the-dates, wedding programs, RSVP-s, seating- and menu-cards. (Please e-mail me if you are interested to see the catalogue. 🙂 )

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Getting back to answering one of the questions, of course it is possible to make invitations one by one. I see very famous calligraphers (including my favourites) doing it each and every day, like the incredibly talented Tara Spencer from Septemberletters. I admire her beautiful, airy designs on delicate cotton paper and I love the ethereal elegance that her work reflects. But preparing 30-50 pieces of invitations & envelopes one by one requires a lot of time, precision and a higher wedding budget.

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And here is the question that I also received some time ago.

Is it really worth having handmade designs?

I would say, that it is completely up to your personal preferences. Probably when you see handmade stationery designs you will be able to decide whether or not it is your cup of tea.

So maybe this question is left for you to answer. 🙂

xx,

Petra

Colors of 2016: rose quartz and serenity blue

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Probably it´s no news anymore that Pantone picked rose quartz and serenity blue as colors of 2016. However the year has just started, so why not still talk about it? I´m personally glad to see that this year´s winner hues are softer and the tones are pastel. 🙂 As I am a big fan of “color blending”, I think it´s a very nice touch of the Color Institute to choose two complementary hues that can be washed together in countless ways.

rs_1024x759-151203061444-1024.Pantone-Color-Of-The-Year-2016-Rose-Quartz-Serenity-JR-120315_copyNBCNewYork.com

Picking the color of the year is an interesting topic for lots of designers and wedding professionals, so I have been very curious to see how they envision these two tones mixing. Based on some of the many ideas I found on the Internet (e.g. Style me Pretty, The Knot), I thought I´d put together here some wedding color – boards too with a few tips.

My tips about rose quartz and serenity blue:

  1. The two hues are complementary, so you can easily combine them in millions of ways.
  2. Just like I mentioned in a previous post, using different textures is a big “Yes-Yes” here as well. 🙂
  3. Rose quartz is almost a neutral color, so mixing it with something bolder, like fig, lint or thyme can bring out a very nice color combination.
  4. Serenity blue looks awesome with very strong, bright, rich colors. Try it next to vivid green, yellow or ruby red.
  5. Check the wide range of flower options with these two hues. If you want to keep your wedding simple with no extra decoration, a subtle rose-quartz and serenity-colored centerpiece or bouquet can be a nice touch.

Rose quartz palette:rose quartz

 (Photos: Wantthatwedding.co.uk / Apairandasparediy.com / Style me Pretty / Elizabethannedesign.com / Burnettsboards.com)

Serenity blue palette:

serenity blue

(Photos: Invitations by Ajalon / Fabmood.com / Burnettsboards.com / Chicvintagebrides.com / Hellomay.com / Style me Pretty )

Mixing rose quartz and serenity blue:rose quartz-serenity

(Photos: bellethemagazine.com / shopluels.com / Style me Pretty / midsouthbride.com / Careergirldaily.com / Style me Pretty / modwedding.com)

I hope these tips were helpful and maybe the boards gave some ideas to you too.

Happy planning! 🙂

Petra

In a nutshell…

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2015 has been by far one of the busiest years I remember. There have been so many changes, so many projects and so-so-so many insanely cool things happening that I thought it´s better to make a quick inventory before I forget them.

Just in a nutshell in 2015:

…I quit my day job

…started my own business

…started and graduated design school

…have met fantastic new people

…have spoken a lot of Finnish (thanks to every Finn for bearing my awful grammar and my sentences that probably very often didn´t make any sense)

…filled up almost 1TB space in my Dropbox with photos all taken in 2015

…learnt dip-pen calligraphy

…learnt how to make good sushi

…have had the privilege to document beautiful weddings

…have been very lucky to be asked for cool design projects

…have spent countless hours to learn and prepare for the next challenges

and.so.on.

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All in all it seems like 2015 passed in a blink of an eye and I just realise now how many things have actually changed in 365 days. 🙂 Sometimes it is nice to sit down and wonder about the baby steps we take / we have taken for something we really really want to do.

And let me mention here all the amazing people I´ve had the chance to work with this year. And of course my beloved ones. It´s hard to express how lucky and grateful I feel for the trust, compliments, opinions, ideas, constructive criticism I got from you. It starts sounding quite like a cliché, but I mean every word of it when I say, THANK YOU! 🙂

So, today I opened my brand-new calendar for 2016 and started filling it up with notes about projects that I´ve been keeping on post-its until now. Looks like 2016 will not be a boring year either! 😉

To the end, here is the #bestnine of 2015 from my Instagram.

willowvisuals

Cheers to you all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

xx

Petra

September wedding L & J

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weddingphoto_lj8

In late September I had the pleasure to accompany Norbi from N2Photo to photograph a wedding close to Szeged, Hungary. It´s always nice to see other photographers working and to work with, because it´s challenging, it´s fun and it´s teaching a lot about cooperation. Norbi is a true veteran photographer and videographer, so it was a privilege to second-shooting with him. His willingness to help and his guidance was super-valuable, for which I am very thankful. 🙂

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Lili & Janos had one of those weddings that everyone wishes for. The ceremony was held in one of the oldest and most beautiful churches of the town followed by an elegant dinner ending with a huuuuge party. Friends and family gathered together from abroad and from different parts of the country to share this special event with the happy couple. From early morning on the whole family was preparing together and I could just gush for hours about how lovely it was to capture these moments. The grandmother arranging flowers, the sister fixing the bride´s dress, the father welcoming guests, the neighbours bringing warm cookies and cakes for the pre-wedding gathering, the brothers teasing the groom. And of course I have to mention here the drop-dead gorgeous bride! I loved her elegant dress all covered in delicate lace, yet keeping a simple, eternal style. It was designed by Lucidité and needless to say, I am completely in love with her pretty dresses. 🙂

weddingphoto_lj4

As a wedding photographer it is supposed to be your job to document these days. But it is so much more than that. You are part of someone´s happiness for some hours, you catch honest smiles and tears, you hear jokes and you get to see crazy-good parties evolving.  It is an honor that people trust you to capture these important moments of their lives. And I am happily doing so! When I see these images, I am really grateful that I can do what I love doing.:)

So, I´m looking forward to the next season, me and my gear is ready to go! 🙂

To see the full wedding photo-album, click here.

-Petra

 

Winter wedding colors

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winter wedding portrait

Photo source: The Perfect Palette  / Bridalguide

Nowadays I get to know more and more couples who plan to get married during winter time. In Finland it seems to be a popular choice and the are some very good reasons behind it. A winter wedding is different, it is beautiful (especially if it´s snowing), you have a better chance booking your dream venue, plus you don´t really need to stress about the weather. On the other hand you might find it harder to choose the color palette that fits the season as well. As a little help, I gathered here some tips for you to create the perfect wedding hues.

  1. If you have already found the venue, take a look around and imagine what style, patterns, textures and colors would fit it the best.
  2. If the restaurant/ballroom has dominantly dark colors, bring some light in with lighter shades.
  3. No decoration looks good in the dark, so add candles and string lights to set a warm, welcoming feeling. Instead of one big lamp, use several smaller light sources.
  4. If you have an absolute favourite shade, go for it. As colors go well in pair, pick an opposite hue from the color wheel, or pick a neutral one with it. This way the composition will be in balance.
  5. Don´t use way too many colors, 2-4 is the the ideal number. Using less colors creates a cohesive flow to your decorations and stationery without being too flat or too forced.
  6. Metallic hues go with winter season hand in hand. Now it´s a good time to use silver, gold, brass or bronze.
  7. Checking the textures and patterns you´re using is just as important as choosing the right colors. Before you make decisions, try to match them together to see if they look good side by side or not.
  8. Don´t overdo it, keep it simple.
  9. Get inspired by the magazines, Pinterest or wedding bloggers. There are some pretty amazing ideas out there. 😉

I hope that these tips were helpful to you. To the end let me show you some popular color combinations for the winter season. 🙂

Navy blue and gold

Winter wedding colors navy gold ivory

Photography source: Ruffled blog / Etsy.com / Inspired by this  / Lindsey Brunk / Pinterest / Modwedding / Weddingwindow

Dusty blue and white

Winter wedding dusty blue white

Photography source: Pinterest / Burnetts Boards / Jose Villa / Caffun-e / Intimate wedding / Once Wed

Buttercream, red and green

winter wedding colors_red green

Photography source: Wedding chicks / Green wedding shoes / Elizabeth Anne / The lovely find / Pinterest / Ruffled blog / Wedding gawker

ABC-book illustration

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ABC book cp-2

ABCbook2ABC book cp-1

When I was 6-years old, my parents bought me an ABC-book to prep me for school. I remember I got really excited, because I thought it was some magic that brought illustrations and letters together. Of course at the beginning I couldn´t figure out for the life of me why I had to read aloud “B” as “bee” instead of “baɪ”, when the illustration next to the letter was a bicycle. 🙂

Anyway, as I got older, I noticed that children in my family were just as curious about matching letters with illustrations as I used to be. So when my niece was at the age to start school, I thought I would make ABC-cards to her. The idea turned into a project which turned into a collection of cards which in the end turned into a whole alphabet book. After some Pinterest-search for good ideas, I took my beloved Derwent watercolor pencils to start the drawing and coloring from A till Z (namely till “Zs”, as the Hungarian alphabet ends with “zs”). I got some animals, fruits, veggies and some easy to recognise objects, like a tie or a drum. I know, these are not the most original ideas to go with, but my aim was to keep the illustrations simple and easy to match with the corresponding letters. Besides drawing, I wrote all the letters and words with the original school-style handwriting. So on the one side of the cards there are the printed letters and on the other side the handwritten ones with illustrations.

As it was a side-project to me, it took about half a year to finish it. And it was so worth it! 🙂 My niece learnt the letters with these cards and hopefully other kids will also have some fun with them. The cards are now organized into a tiny, spiral-bind book, so it´s easy to turn the pages.


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For now here are some pictures I took when I was preparing the cards for print, the shots of the final books will come later. 🙂

-Petra

Willow visuals is…

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People often ask me where did the name “Willow visuals” come from? It´s very simple actually, but it needs a little bit of explanation.

For a very long time, I had been contemplating taking a turn in my career. I studied business and I have been working for companies for some time, but in the past years I realised that I wanted to do something more creative. Art (especially photography and illustration) has always been my passion. Besides working, I took art and photo classes that I really-really enjoyed, so little by little the idea of changing my career path towards photography and design felt like the right thing to do.

The final decision about taking the big step was during Spring 2015. I remember I was sitting in front of my almost ready business plan, staring at the blank space on the paper, where my company´s name was supposed to be. And then the inspiration came from the Spring bouquet next to me with beautiful willow branches. I liked the idea that Spring and willow symbolize. It´s taking a deep breath and have a new start, with a fresh look to the future. 🙂 So at that moment half of the name was born. “Visuals” came later, when I decided that I wanted to combine photography, illustration and graphic design in my work.

I know, that a lot of photographers and visual artists use their own name for their business. I chose another way, because I feel that “Willow visuals” is simply the perfect fit for what I am doing and why I am doing it. So here I am now and I´m very happy and excited about this new beginning. 🙂

– Petra

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