City Chic inspiration – The Stationery

Tropics in the city

Today we are sharing with you some of the process behind the stationery for the latest Coco and Kat styled photoshoot all in the name of wedding inspiration for our readers.

With creative direction by Emma Hla of our favourite wedding venue directory, Coco wedding venues and impeccable management by Katrina Otter of Katrina Otter weddings this shoot was sure to be another inspiration shoot that packed a punch.

Emma and Katrina really have added a fresh new stance on wedding inspiration shoots, design led, fashion forward, impeccably organised and well thought out throughout, we love creating for them and the collections we create for each shoot become a wedding collection in their own right (great news as this Autumn we launch ready to write stationery for weddings!)

The process always begins with Emma and Kat sending over very swoon-worthy moodboards (they do our job for us!) there is always a huge amount to go on so we can get started immediately. In this case it’s all about succulent botanics, palms and that cool industrial vibe of a city wedding. Moodbards and Pinterest are such a fabulous resource for couples and event planners alike, it’s a vital part of the process and you can stumble across so much inspiration, but finding that inspiration has to be done creatively. It’s all about searching for elements that aren’t necessarily what you are looking for directly, so perhaps it’s architecture or textiles, plants or art, that’s where you are more likely to find it rather than directly copying someone else’s wedding creation.

Typography is always important when creating a certain style, it can really make or break a design and has to sit well with laser cutting. For this shoot, Claire sourced a really lovely font in the style of hand lettering for the oh so cool neon signage. Often we create our own hand lettering for signs where we literally write out the words then scan them in, once digitised all the letters need to be linked for laser cutting, it’s a great way of adding personality to event decor, we could even use your own handwriting to create laser cut signage, food for thought hey…

All fonts need to be linked ready for laser cutting

Claire then illustrated these palms straight into digital format, again we sometimes hand draw and then digitise, but in some instances it’s simple to just draw directly into the computer. These palms were then the main design for the invitation and subsequent stationery.

Once the design is there it’s all about the materiality, Emma was very keen on keeping it bright so we created a pop of colour with the invitation wallet in luxury G.F.Smith Duoplan fuchsia and cool grey stock with the intricate palm pattern laser cut to front panel.

The best bit, we created a budget friendly option by sticking to digital print, it’s all about being clever with design! The invitation, information and reply cards were all digitally printed in fuchsia onto cool grey stock.

We then created custom made fuchsia envelope and reply card envelope digitally printed with address in deep fuchsia pink.

All the menus and escort cards followed the same spec and were displayed beautifully by Emma and Kat, proving how stationery really can be functional and add to the decor on the day.

Finally those signs! All made from laser cut 3mm flourescent orange edge lit Perspex in a relaxed, hand lettered style.

All imagery and a beautiful film is over on Coco Wedding venues today, pop over to take a look and scroll down for a little taster and the final stationery items.

Thanks for having us Coco and Kat! x