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Amanda and Tim’s retro-inspired wedding invitations

April 15, 2013

Aaaaand here we are.. the day I’ve been waiting to share with all of you dear 100 Layer Cake readers.. OUR WEDDING DAY! I feel like I’m dreaming as I write this post. I’ve thought about how all our details would all come together, what you all would think and how being a part of this blog for the last 4 years has influenced so many of the things we dreamt up for our big day. And I’m so happy to finally share it with you.

As a graphic designer, the paper details were my favorite part of the wedding creative process. I went a little nutty and designed our invites, drink coasters and cocktail napkins, matchboxes, flower take-away bags, sweets bags, menus, programs, and our dinner napkins (which you will see in the next post). Once I got started it was hard to stop. So here are our invites, photographed by Edyta Szyszlo… I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Amanda and Tim's wedding invites | Photo by Edyta Szyszlo | 100 Layer Cake Amanda and Tim's wedding invites | Photo by Edyta Szyszlo | 100 Layer Cake Amanda and Tim's wedding invitation suite | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo

One of the first things I did before starting our invite design was email Bernadette Pascua, and beg her to do the lettering for our invites. She is an amazing fashion illustrator and I’ve always been a groupie of her hand-lettering style. I love how sophisticated yet casual and fashion-forward it feels.

Amanda and Tim's wedding invitation suite | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo Amanda and Tim's wedding invitation suite | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo

No shortage of gold here. Remember how I DIY’d these gold envelope edges? It was surprisingly easy, with a nice ‘wow’ factor. My gal pals Sarah and Audrey helped cut, glue and stuff these babies one evening. (Thanks for the help, gals!)

Amanda and Tim's wedding invitation | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo

I’m a sucker for a good vintage stamp. And I don’t think the trend is going away any time soon. I visited my local stamp and coin shop and scoured through their old dusty books of stamps until I found the perfect pretties for our envelopes. The Wizard of Oz stamp harkens back to my roots. I was born in Kansas, and Tim and I met in Kansas City. He is from Michigan, and I was lucky to happen upon stamps of trees native to the area. When I was a young girl, I had a fascination with space and wanted to be an astronaut, so this Apollo stamp was a fun little addition.

p.s. We did an informative post on vintage stamps a few years back. You’ll have to check it out for some tips.

vintage stamps  | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo Amanda and Tim's wedding | 100 Layer Cake

Moving on to our wedding favors. Eeee these make me happy. Really happy. Many an hour were spent trying to come up with the most perfect favor idea. On a brainstorm with my 100 Layer Cake team one day it hit us.. diamonds! Since our wedding had a retro James Bond-ish style, the “Diamonds are Forever” idea became the perfect fit. (Thanks Tara, for helping me come up with the saying!). My online search for gems didn’t prove to be fruitful right away. I couldn’t find the right size, so ended up having them produced by Charming Creation.

Amanda and Tim's diamond wedding favors | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo Amanda and Tim's wedding invitation suite | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo

I wrote little sayings with a gold pen on each of our candy takeaway bags.

Amanda and Tim's retro wedding details | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo

Drink stirrers are one of those things that add the perfect little touch to your cocktails. Everyone loves a cute drink stirrer. I couldn’t decide which ones I liked best, so I decided to go with both. The vintage gold glitter lucite stirrers were collected on many late night eBay and Etsy scavenges. I may consider selling 50 of them. Any takers?

Amanda and Tim's wedding drink coasters | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo

Coasters are a wedding-day essential, if you ask me. It’s a nice takeaway item that guests can use at home, and it’s a fun reminder of your special day.

Mama’s Sauce is the bomb when it comes to printing. I sent in my artwork and they sent back beautifully letterpressed, foiled and utterly perfect coasters. Plus they were such cool people to work with. (Hey, Brooks!)

retro wedding drink coasters | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo wedding drink stirrer | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo

I made these stirrers using a bamboo skewer and sequin balls. You literally stick the skewer into the foam ball and you’re done. Easy peasy.

custom wedding matchbox | 100 Layer Cake | photo by Edyta Szyszlo

The cocktail napkins and matchboxes were printed by For Your Party. Those people can print anything.

You can see photos of our wedding in the latest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, in print and on the iPad).

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed perusing through all the pink. Stay tuned for the rest of our wedding details in a jiffy!

xo, Amanda

Design: by me! Photography and styling: Edyta Szyszlo / Hand-lettering: Bernadette Pascua / Invitation screen-printing: Diversified Images / Coaster printing: Mama’s Sauce / Napkin, matchbox printing: For Your Party / Striped paper bags: Shop Sweet Lulu