The Silverman Wedding

My grandmother had a saying, "A wedding is a terrible thing to inflict upon two people who love each other". My partner and I were absolutely paralyzed by the amount of choices we had to make for one day. As a graphic designer, my brain was overstimulated, constantly churning with self-seeding inspiration. So I did what designers do: Treated our wedding as a client in need of a brand. By hiring myself to be the tastemaker and full service agency of our wedding, I could work a lot more efficiently and breathe easier. 

We brought the brand to life with a saying from a wise psychologist: “Your relationship is a magic garden you and your partner tend to together”. I took this metaphor of a garden and went further- If our relationship is a magic garden, then the wedding is the one day we open the gates to our friends and family to celebrate. Our wedding would be a literal magic garden. This was especially sentimental to us as we spent the first few years of our pandemic relationship in botanic gardens- one of the few places open at the time!

Since we got engaged in Hawaii, we decided to adjust the theme so it presented with light Rococo tendencies- this allowed us to subtly use seashell, swan, and bow motifs, pearl details, and antique mirrors in addition to the classic florals. This design choice trickled down all the way to the dress I wore.

The invitation suite: I hand drew half of the design, scanned and vectorized each pencil stroke point by point. I then duplicated the drawing to complete the composition. Once I completed the invitation suite, I sent my files to Boxcar Press where they converted my 2 dimensional creations into 3D plates for my letterpress.

Keeping in tune with the garden metaphor, the envelopes featured floral and butterfly postage on the front, and “enter the gates of the Magic Garden” inscribed on the back. The suite was nestled in velum jackets featuring a lacy gate motif that opened with a gold wax butterfly seal hand-poured by my best friend and maid of honor. Printing 90 identical and editioned invitations in my dining room took a week with my twin sister (who had gotten married a month prior).

Other surfaces: I used elements from the invitation to create personalized escort cards, tasseled menus, event programs, and even an interactive version of the invitation for the rare instances the USPS lost our mail. One of my favorite surfaces was the menu which allowed me to have a bit of fun with the type and included a wedding crest and seamless floral pattern with elements from the original invite design. Since most of these were items that were likely to be immediately discarded, we opted for regular inkjet printing. Separately, my incredible Mother in law had tote bags for our out-of-town guests that carried the same floral elements.

Something I will never take for granted: from the invites, to the website, all the way to the vinyl on the decorative mirrors, all typography remained consistent.

Special thanks to L.C. Events for planning and coordination, and to Anthony and Becky Photography for capturing all the hard work.