As I am trying to expand my portfolio, I find it easier if I can use a person or personality as inspiration for a design, rather than simply making something up. I thought it would be fun to consider what my grandmothers would have liked for their wedding invitation suites if I had been given the opportunity to have them as my clients.
I started with my maternal grandmother, Imogene. She is pretty amazing, having grown up in the depression without a mother, and yet she had a successful and loving 50 plus year marriage to a hardworking farmer, raised two girls, and was (and still is!) very active in her church and community, and always reminded me what it meant to be “ladylike” when I was a little girl. My grandfather, Jesse, was the youngest of twelve and grew up during the depression as well. He was a tailgunner on a B-17 in WW2, a very successful farmer, and quite possibly the kindest person I have ever known. I believe everyone who knew him respected him and he was the epitome of a truly good man. The two of them together were quite a team in the kitchen, and Gran can make undeniably the best fried chicken in the world, and her creamed sweet corn will melt in your mouth. I dream of being that good at cooking one day!
Below is a picture of the two of them, when my grandmother went to visit my grandfather after his return from the war. They met in Biloxi, Mississippi, and, of course, she had a chaperone, because that isn’t the proper thing for a lady to do by herself.
Below is a picture of Papa on his tractor.
I tried to imagine what she would like her invitations to look like. The newspaper announcement says she wore a midnight blue dress with black accessories and carried a bouquet of white carnations. Gran also loves peacocks. And she has loved them since long before everyone else loved them, too. One of her grandfathers way down the line was a Peacock, and I can’t think of the bird without thinking of her, so I sketched a little peacock to put at the top of the invitation, and I imagine it printed in a crisp deep blue ink.
Below is the invitation design:
the response card:
the thank you card (because a lady always sends a handwritten thank you!):
