We're Getting Married
7" record-inspired wedding invitation
When two of my closest friends approached me to create their wedding invites my goal was to craft something that wasn’t the flowers-and-flourishes or letterpress quotidian. The invitation not only had to capture the couple’s personalities, but also double as a keepsake that guests would deem actually worth keeping.
The final invitation package recalled the look of a 45rpm single — with the sleeve, disc and insert containing nuptial details and directions to the venue, plus an RSVP postcard. The design itself relied on a heavy use of Futura bold type paired with 1940s-era wedding photography from the United States’ Library of Congress. To keep production costs low, the various pieces were designed to fit onto a single press sheet, and were mailed in off-the-shelf envelopes.
I've since produced invitations for a number of other weddings (including my own), but this first project remains amongst my all-time favourites.
I investigated producing a 7-inch vinyl record pressed with no audio, though this proved timing-prohibitive (though interestingly, more cost effective). In the end, the disc was printed on the same uncoated paper used for the other pieces and a circular spot varnish was used to “raise” the record label in the centre of the disc.
