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I love Queen Anne’s Lace. Love it! So much so, I plan to have it at my own wedding. I am glad Haley, the bride, liked it as well. I have been wanting to use the image for a casual outdoor summer wedding, and that is just what Haley was looking for. After many chats about travel {must go back to Amsterdam, quick!} the design was finalized and printed with my gocco. The imagery is elegant and the vibrant colors of yellow and blue keep it modern and fun. I like how Haley chose to keep the rsvp open so people were free to write their own message to the bride and groom. The invitations and rsvps were printed on smooth cream stock and the envelopes were 100% recycled kraft {my house envelopes!}.
Inspired by classic concert posters, these invitations and rsvps were designed by the bride and groom and letterpressed by me. Though it looks like handset type, it is all on one magnesium plate. Hand-setting this invitation would have been crazy… fun and a learning experience, but crazy. With vintage inspired borders and corners, the suite remains modern and light-hearted. The little birds add a touch of whimsy as well! Another fun part - the invitations are only 4.25 x 5.5″ and the rsvps are 3.5 x 5″… invitations need not be big to have an impact. Less paper is always a good thing as well. Speaking of which, these were printed on pearl white lettra paper with brown ink hand-mixed to match Benjamin Moore’s Falcon Brown.
Hello everyone! I thought I would share a few recent invitations. I usually dedicate a whole post to a single invitation, but I need to do some catching up over here!
For this baby shower invitation, the client wanted a more modern and clean look for a nursey rhyme themed shower. I created a custom illustration of a cow jumping over the moon, using this classic rhyme as inspiration. I used bold colors to keep the invitation modern, plus the mom-to-be is having a boy! These came out just adorable. The invitations were gocco screenprinted on a smooth 110lb stock using deep yellow and navy inks, along with pink, green, and coral for the name.
This couple is getting married on Cape Cod this summer and wanted a very distinct, yet simple beach theme. I created a custom illustration of a picketed beach fence and grass, along with a custom pattern for the envelope liner. The couple loved boats so I incorporated a simple row boat into the rsvp design. Nothing says surf and sun quite like the bright yellow & blue palette, right? I will never grow tired of such a cheery yellow. These invitations were gocco screenprinted on bright white, smooth 110lb stock.
Perhaps you will make it to the beach this weekend. It is a working weekend for me {most of my weekends are…}. Actually… speaking of work. Some of you who have been reading for awhile may know, I work for a local non-profit during the day {event planning, marketing, & such}. Like other non-profits and businesses everywhere, we were hit hard by a lack of funding this year. Thus, I have been asked to work part-time. A blessing in disguise, I say because now I will have two full days to devote just to Parrott Design Studio {and less nights where I am up until 2am I hope!}. It is an exciting chapter as I hope to make my way from part-time to full-time boss of me!
Amanda, the author behind Peony :: Love, & her fiance, Nick finally tied the knot in June! They were married on the beach surrounded by peonies and love {of course!}. The details of Amanda’s wedding were perfect: Hair piece by Twigs & Honey, birds from The Runny Bunny, handsewn napkins by grandma, & homegrown peonies!!
So it is no wonder Amanda decided to have peonies and birds on her invitations in the always beautiful combination of pink ad brown. In addition to the invitations I also printed labels for her favors… rose-flavored marshmallows. Um… yum! Amanda also purchased a large moleskin notebook and printed a huge peony, their names, and wedding date on the cover for their guest book.
I love all of the brides and grooms I work with. I love to hear their stories - how they met, the inspiration for their wedding invitations, and so on. But this wedding stationery suite… I am in love. In love with not only the design, but the sweet story that inspired the design. Lorena, the bride, came to me with a very clear vision and a sketch of what she wanted. At the top of the invitation she wanted two birds perched on a branch of flowers with only the bottom part of their bodies showing and at the bottom, a smaller bird. The two birds at the top represented Lorena & Colter. The bottom bird represented their son. It is a deeply personal design and will truly set the tone for their wedding this summer.
…is for the birds! In more ways than one.
Oh! I had such a time goccoing on fabric this time around. I had not printed on fabric since January, and I think that is the key. It was cold. Very, very cold. When I printed these birds, it was hot. Very, very hot. The gocco fabric ink was acting like a liquid running everywhere, and the bird was printing like a blob. I certainly printed as many, if not more, duds than good ones. I still have a few more to go, but here is a photo of most of them.
{Images via J. Crew}
I saw the Marbella dress on Green Wedding Shoes and loooved it. The colors are quite close to my color palette idea. I am not quite sure if I am on board for bridesmaids wearing different colored dresses. I do like dresses in the same shades/color families. I certainly like the idea of the maid of honor wearing a different dress.
Meg and Dave are quite the hip couple. They are also two of my greatest friends. Let us start at the beginning in 2006. Dave needed a place to live in Providence. Rich {my fiance} had just bought a six-bedroom house and needed some housemates. Meg wanted to move to Providence so she found a six-bedroom house with five male housemates. Thus, love was born…approximately one year later. Then people moved out, people moved in…eventually I moved in and the story continues.
Wait. Where was I? Ah! Yes. The invitations. Meg and Dave wanted a modern, but natural look and wanted to incorporate Dave’s family symbol of a tree. Meg also wanted polka dots. I created a simple pattern of dotted circles for the invitation and carried that to the rsvp using a larger dotted circle around the rsvp and dotted lines for the names and replies. To pull it all together and add that natural touch, I used paper-backed wood veneer for the belly band and letterpress the family tree. Yes! Wood veneer!
Fun fact: although it is paper-backed, wood veneer will not fold cleanly. I had to first score it, gently fold it with a bone folder, and then, get this, sand them. Yes, I sat there watching my usual X-Files via Netflix and sanded all 125 belly bands so the two edges would be smooth to the touch. Have I ever mentioned I am perfectionist? 
{Images via Stina Plant Photography}
Last summer, Rich and I attended the wedding of two of his close friends from law school. Attorneys by day and musicians by night, the couple used record album covers as their table markers. “We must do this at our wedding!” Rich declared. Mind you we were not even engaged at this point, but I filed it away.
Once we were engaged, I started collecting milk glass vases for our centerpieces and thinking of flowers…completely forgetting about the albums. However, the musician remembered. Album covers are perfect. They display our love of music and they take up a decent amount of space on the tables, therefore I do not need giant vases full of flowers. Now I am focusing on smaller milk glass vases and bud vases to put on either side of the albums. The best part of all {in our opinions} is adding at least one song from each album to our playlist. When the song plays, that table needs to get up and get down, get down! MSWeddings had this idea in the Summer issue as well. Fun!
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Sarah Parrott, Rhode Island
Vendor: Invitation Designer
Website: Parrott Design Studio
About Me: I am the designer & printer behind Parrott Design Studio, specializing in custom letterpress and screen printed wedding and event invitations, stationery, and paper goods. With a background in non-profit marketing & art history, I began the studio in 2006 in my small apartment in Providence, RI. Since then I have moved to a studio built my fiancé, acquired a Golding Jobber letterpress, & have been happily printing ever since. I grew up in Portland, Maine, and I have always had an affinity for the ocean, mountains, birds, gardening, & the simple life. When I am not printing, I can be found somewhere outside with my fiancé & playful pup.
