I guess the best place to start with this post is to tell you how fortunate I am to have so many amazingly talented friends. One of them being Bryn from Paperfinger who sat down with me numerous times to hammer out my crazy idea of an invitation. She took my ideas and turned them into the most amazing details I could have ever imagined. In the end this was anything but an invitation. It was far more like a piece of artwork than invitation thanks to Bryn. 

Each guest received a black box with their name and addressees inscribed in gold calligraphy. When they opened up their box of goodies, the first thing they saw was our “field guide” to our wedding letter pressed in metallic ink on a heavy card stock.

Upon opening the booklet, guests found an array of items to get them excited for their trip to Costa Rica. From the gold embossed “invitation” alerting guests to the location and time of the wedding to a watercolored guide on how to get from NYC to the Costa Rica destination. Bryn created a family crest for Michael and I which we made into a stamp to use throughout the paper goods. The watercolored map of Costa Rica is stamped here with it. I added dried ferns, bougainvillea and a gold compass. That is just the top portion! The bottom portion had a letter pressed English to Spanish guide with funny phrases for guests to use. Bryn designed this custom print and we had it printed onto mini notebooks for guests to transcribe their field notes into. When we set out our goal was to create an overall experience when our guests opened their field guides. Color, texture, scent and having an interactive component was apart of the plan. We added in a packet of Michael’s spice rub and a pencil for everyone to use. Each element was pinned to the linen book for guests to preserve as is or take apart to use.

The beauty of having a small wedding is that it’s easier to focus on the details. We included  a travel kit for our guests which included shampoo, conditioner, bud spray, sunscreen, soap and travel toothbrushes. You may be able to tell that we stamped our crest on the muslin bags here again. Lastly we added a little something extra in for the dudes; they received a flask, a travel bottle of Michael’s favorite Maker’s Mark, Advil for their hangover and a bottle of Fresh Balls. Our humor is not much above that of an 8th graders clearly. Thank you, thank you to Paperfinger for creating such a memorable, creative and unique experience for ourselves and our guests!