Remember this video I made? Well that was a sneak peek at this project, which was one of the most fun orders I've ever done. For her husband's 40th birthday, Ashley gathered 20+ friends at a Venetian palazzo for a magnificent surprise bash. Guests were transported to the party in gondolas where they enjoyed a beautiful Italian-style soirée of delicious food and spectacular views. Am I supremely jealous? Sì!

My only directive in the design of these invitations was that they should evoke, with color and texture, the over-the-top character of Venice. I think of the city as rich and luxurious, so I chose a color scheme of navy and pale gold, and combined the textures of vellum, cardstock, and glossy papers, as well as hand-painted ink washes. Each invite was crafted by hand, so they were all ever-so-slightly different.

The invitations themselves were black calligraphy on heavy-weight, translucent vellum, and each was accented with dots of sparkly gold ink. The vellum invites were enclosed in navy cardstock pocketfolds, with "you're invited" splashed across the fronts in more gold. (You can see the process for that step here.) As a finishing touch, I sealed the enclosures with hand-painted gold and navy labels. Matching navy calligraphy adorned the pale gold envelopes, which also had custom seals – navy with a gold flourish. And once the RSVPs poured in, I made place cards to match the envelopes.

{ Black & white photos at the top of this post courtesy of Ashley Maddox. Invitation design + photography by Plurabelle }