Lucy Rose LaRue Schwartz. You gotta love this girls name! It’s playful cadence inspired us to use a hand drawn flowers theme for her upcoming Bat Mitzvah. 
Category Archives: graphic design
A New Bat Mitzvah Invite
New Orleans Bachelorette Party
Fun, fresh and a dollop of fashion thrown together for this Big Easy lingerie invitation.
We Travel to Germany, San Francisco and Vegas to Play Poker
Two fall destination weddings and a chance to win $50,000!
We would love to jump aboard and fly off to San Francisco and Mittenwald, Germany. We can dream can’t we?
Kara and Ryan’s favorite place to vacation is in Mittenwald, famous for its violin making. With it’s majestic mountain scenery and quaint painted Bavarian houses, they planned the ultimate getaway for family and friends. They wanted to feature the mountains on the invitation and made sure that their beloved dog Chance was included as well.
Lauren and Geoffrey live in San Francisco and decided to marry by the Golden Gate Bridge at nearby Baker Beach. We never did personally meet the lovely couple, but the bride entrusted her delightful, creative and crafty mom Kathy to oversee the invitation planning. Since there were many events leading up to the big day we agreed that a 4 part tiered invite tied together with navy ribbon fit the bill. We began by designing a special stamp which was prominently displayed on the invites and decorated the hotel welcome baskets and reception menus. Once assembled and be-ribboned, the invitations were placed in an over sized envelope with handmade wrapped address labels carefully crafted by Kathy.
Vegas Baby!
Seneca One Finance asked us to design an exclusive event invitation promoting a “Winner take all” poker game in Las Vegas. The challenge for us was to create an invitation that would stand out amongst the mountain of flyers flowing through the mailboxes of 2,000 potential clients. We suggested an over sized playing card printed on 2 sides announcing the event in bold “Texas Hold ‘Em” style typography with rounded corners. Imagine having a whole deck of these to play poker with!
Creative Mapping
Ahoy Mates!
Lea and Matt wanted a design to reflect their love for Bald Head Island in North Carolina. A sophisticated pirate theme evoking the storied past immediately came to mind. We set our sails and began researching vintage maps and engraved sea imagery. The roiling wave background of this invitation is printed and the foreground is letterpressed using vintage map elements and a rough script. One of our favorites of the summer season!
Continental Love
Sarah and Josh wanted a map to tell the circuitous story of their relationship. Sarah living in Canada and Josh in California, their paths finally joined in Washington, DC. We used elementary school globe colors for the front and chose a fanciful compass rose to anchor the text on the back. Sarah wanted a cut circle invitation and chose bright yellow square envelopes to match the sash of her gown.
Summer Wedding Invitations
We are pleased to add three more custom designs to our collection of summer wedding invitations.
Kelly and Fabiola were inspired and taken by our “spy couple” save the date and wanted something similar using the Washington DC monuments. They also requested that 2 love birds be included for which we designed a special logo for them to use throughout their wedding stationery.
Kelly and Fabiola Invite
Kelly and Fabiola RSVP
Kelly and Fabiola reception
Kelly and Fabiola accommodations card
If you have followed our posts this spring you will remember the save the date we designed for Sara and Todd. We love to play with typography and wanted to reflect the the save the date theme in the invitation suite. A bold navy and rich gold border frame the calligraphic-like text in a fanciful french manner. The suite was packaged together with a bellyband. Tres chic!
Sara and Todd invite
Sara and Todd RSVP
Sara and Todd reception
Sara and Todd Bellyband
Nature brings the beauty, you supply the love. This bride wanted a garden of lavender theme and attach lavender sprigs to her invitation. Unfortunately, the harvesting season is later than the wedding. The next best solution… her mother, a painter, provided a beautiful rendering of the lavender to feature on the invitation.
Anna and Joseph invite
Anna and Joseph RSVP
Anna and Joseph welcome card
Anna and Joseph Accommodations
Stay in touch for our next round of posts.Weddings from Bald Head Island, NC, Washington, DC and we reveal our “spy couple” invitation!
A South Carolina wedding for a Northern girl
Robinson Gold is my daughter Emily’s best friend forever. Her mother, Amy Robinson and I met standing in line to register our daughters in pre-school. It was 1989, 5:30 in the morning and you’d think that they were handing out free Bon Jovi tickets to all the silly desperate parents. Amy and I gravitated towards each other, found humor in watching the panicked lawyers and pushy moms elbowing for a first place position in line. Needless to say, the girls got in, became best friends and have remained so ever since. BTW, Robinson’s fathers’ name is Ed Gold. You do the math. Robbie came to us for her wedding invitations and boy are we proud. Her intended Brendan is a great fellow. We look forward to visiting Charleston, re-uniting with our friends Amy and Ed, and witnessing our little Emily (maid of honor) and Robbie walk down the aisle.
Robinson and Brendan Invite
Robinson and Brendan RSVP
Celebrating the grand view of the Washington monument
Sarah and Adam are getting married this fall but wanted to showcase the beauty of spring’s cherry blossoms. The grand view from their ceremony site includes the Washington Monument. Quintessential Washington, DC captured in a vintage style postcard.
Front
Destination Dominican Republic Update, Celebrating at home!
Coming home to celebrate with an “Old Hollywood” themed reception. Black tie optional but smoking jacket and fedora’s preferred. This invitation called for classic letterpress in black and white.
New Studio Releases!
Our new and latest invitations for late spring and early summer.
Elizabeth and Luke
This energetic young couple has chosen an english garden theme and wanted to combine their love of vintage teapots and romantic Williamsburg. The blue and yellow palette on clean white and design motif reminded us of one of our favorite bone china patterns. We also designed a Spanish version for her to send to extended family in Mexico.
Elizabeth and Luke Save the Date
Elizabeth and Luke Invitation Suite
Sara and Todd
Sara and Todd’s reception site is at the La Maison Francaise at the Embassy of France. Vintage engraved notes and calligraphic flourish came to mind for this typographic design. We fell in love with the swirls and swashes of the Indenture English Penman font and couldn’t resist adding the extra flourish with ASTYPE Ornaments. Mais Oui! Invitation to follow soon.
Sara and Todd Save the Date
Heather and Gavin
A spy theme for an intriguing Washington couple whose last name is not Smith! Inspired by the iconic Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie poster we set out to create a silhouette of our mysterious couple lounging under a canopy of cherry blossoms. In place of the ubiquitous guns, we gave our spies a reason to celebrate with champagne. (Their invitation is on the drawing board but don’t tell anyone)
Heather and Gavin
XOXO. Share the Love
Just in time for valentine’s day! A complementary card designed especially for our loyal followers and lovers. Download the pdf and print at home (preferably on heavier stock than copier paper), cut around the outlines and fold in half. The finished trimmed size should be 5×7 and folded it should be 3.5 x 5. How cool is that? An instant valentine for free! Don’t forget to add your own words on the inside.xoxo milne valentine
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ByHand Invitations was started in 2004 by award-winning ABC News television broadcast designer Steve Bottorff creating wedding invitations for Washington, DC brides. Our reach has expanded to include clients from Europe and Africa!
