You know how when you have leftovers in the fridge and you're out somewhere and you remember that they're home, just waiting for you? You practically salivate as you get in your cab and picture yourself putting on your grossest college sweatpants and settling into the loving arms of your sofa while you watch reruns of real estate shows or some documentary about a murder and blissfully mow down on whatever squishy, chewy delight was waiting for you in that styrofoam container?
Bear with me, but that's how I felt about working on this invitation suite for Rebecca and Spenser.
As soon as I hung up from our initial call, I was hoping like crazy I'd get the job because of all the little bits and pieces Rebecca wanted to incorporate. As an artist, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into them.
You know what else it was like? When I was a little kid and got a new coloring book, if it had princesses or mermaids or basically any female face in it, I'd get supremely jazzed about coloring in their lips. Someone can psychoanalyze me and hit me with a think piece on that one, but I can't explain it other than it was just satisfying.
Rebecca and Spenser did hire me to create their suite, and the parameters that had me so excited included:
• wanting to to incorporate the venue (Mission Carmel) and the setting (Monterey/California's Central Coast) by way of texture, pattern (Spanish tilework!) and color (navy blue and terra-cotta/salmon tones)
• a custom marriage monogram/crest that tied in both a poppy and a rose
• needing a way to invite guests to a separate location for the reception
• creating a map for the wedding weekend activities
There were just so many opportunities to create tasty detail morsels that were actually functional and not just pretty, which is my favorite, and so with Rebecca's blessing, I dove in.
The results:
My favorite parts were:
• getting to illustrate Mission Carmel and then also finding a home for it on the sashes so it wouldn't just get lost in the map
• painting and then creating a pattern of the Spanish tilework that we used as an envelope liner and on the back of the RSVP postcards
• making those little stickers out of their marriage crest to use for sealing the tiny vellum envelopes with the reception cards!
•Rebecca's vision for a classic, clean calligraphy look
I've read an anecdote about children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak a few times and I absolutely love it:
“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”
While I have received zero reports of any invitees consuming my work, that's kiiind of the visceral reaction I'm going for. Maybe not like actually eat it, but I want an invitee to open that envelope and see the scrumptious little thoughtful details and think, I want to keep this - this means something, and then let it hang on the fridge for a few months after the wedding has passed, smiling at it when they go in for those leftovers.