about this time last year i meet one of my september brides, holly and her mom, kathy, for an initial consultation. their first request was to use artwork that had been created for the wedding invitation of kathy and her husband, bill in 1976 by bill's great aunt, vivian smith who was the very first artist hired by hallmark greeting card company. she had intertwined the word "love" with scrolls, hearts and flowers for the cover of their inviation. this graphic became the centerpiece of holly and kevin's wedding stationery, serving as a beautiful and cherished "something borrowed".our first piece was a save the date booklet. the happy couple had begun dating as high school freshmen, which grew into a long distant relationship when they left for separate colleges in different states, finally ending in a proposal. since they really wanted to share their story of "love". a book theme quickly took shape and on the cover of the save the date their "love" made it's debut, with an engagement photo of the "authors" on the inside back.
then we moved on to the invitation. holly really liked the idea of some type of outer jacket for the invitation but wanted something different, dramatic and unique. ultimately we settled on a custom trifold jacket wrapped with wide double faced satin midori ribbon in antique gold. the ribbon wrapped around to the inside of the jacket holding the insert cards in place. again their "love" was used as the seal. everything was printed in gold thermography and the overall effect was beautiful.
once the invitations were in the mail it was time for the other pieces... since holly and kathy were into details we set about designing all sorts of things for this destination wedding at the beautiful ritz carleton in half moon bay, california.
as guests arrived they were greeted in their hotel rooms by a beautiful gift basket containing among other things...water bottles with custom labels featuring...their "love". each basket bore a coordinating welcome tag from the bride and groom's parents and a note from the bride and groom welcoming guests to the weekend festivities.
once the wedding day arrived their "love" just kept flowing. bridesmaids sipped champagne poured from custom "love" labeled bottles as they primped for the big day. the program modeled after the save the date booklet contained a bookmark telling the story of their "love" artwork. the tables were given chapter titles relating to their story of "love". escort cards gave guests their "assignments" and each table sign was a book, complete with chapter title, stories written by the bride and groom and photographs which corresponded to their courtship. kathy made english toffee as wedding favors for all 225 guests. this toffee was a family tradition of 30+ years, a brief story was included in each box, along with custom seals for each piece of candy and a beautiful rhinestoned favor tag. these were given a place of honor at each placesetting right next to the custom designed menus.
in addition to the wedding stationery the groom's parents asked me to design an invitation and placecards for the rehearsal dinner...although their "love" wasn't used, a lot of love did go into the process. i also designed one of the shower invitations, an invitation to the bridesmaid luncheon, coordinating thank you notes for each of the 3 bridal showers and the wedding thank you note. by the time everything had been completed i decided my business logo should say "a personal stationer" instead of "custom stationery" and thanks to holly and kathy a new logo was created!
thanks so much to the happy newlyweds and their families for the opportunity to create so many beautiful pieces.. it was a labor of "love".
Wow! Why am I not invited to these types of weddings? I hope LRB doesn't find your blog and get any ideas! Crap!!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Deb-for God sakes! The over 40 crowd has to be an inch away from the screen to read this teeny print. Or so I've been told by my older friends!! Hahaha. Love ya!!!!!!!!
ok...i guess i got a little carried away with the small to smallest setting and by older friends you better not mean me!
ReplyDeleteSince some have told me less writing would be better i thought the smallest font setting make it seem like i had written less:) hahaha
Hey, any chance you could send me contact info for holly's mom Kathy?
ReplyDeleteI am trying to write an article on Vivian Trillow Smith, and want to ask some questions like, did Viv have any children? (I've done some online genealogy research on her, and tracing Trillow is pretty easy, but Smith as you can imagine is next to impossible. It doesn't help that her husband's name was John H. Smith.) Also, did she ever publish any art that was not done for Hallmark?
Here are some pages on my web site with art that she drew for Hallmark in the fifties:
http://tpettit.best.vwh.net/dolls/pd_scans/hm/sally_easter/index.html
http://tpettit.best.vwh.net/dolls/pd_scans/valentines/pages/debbie.html
http://tpettit.best.vwh.net/dolls/pd_scans/dancing_debbie/index.html
http://tpettit.best.vwh.net/dolls/pd_scans/scan_index_may.html
By the way, Viv was not the first artist hired by Hallmark. She was the first artist TRAINED at Hallmark. Other artists had been hired previous to her (she was hired in 1924 as a colorist, and Hallmark was founded in 1910), but they all had prior art training. By the mid-twenties Hallmark could not find enough skilled illustrators to meet demand, so they started their own in-house training program for experienced artists to mentor new ones, and she was their first student. She was also the first artist that Hallmark allowed to sign her work.
This is from Hallmark's own recently published historical retrospective book, "A Century of Caring".
(It is an easy mistake to hear "first artist trained at Hallmark" or "first artist allowed by Hallmark to sign their work" and remember it as first artist hired by Hallmark.)
HI Teri
ReplyDeleteI read your comment and have given your information to Kathy. Thank you too for the information about Viv Smith it's very interesting.