A Cox Paradise Affair

Project

My oldest sister's engagement came one warm Taiwanese night while strolling out of dinner. Unable to wait any longer, her partner grabbed some nearby grass, tied it into a loop, and proposed on the spot. After all the excitement of sharing the news, my sister asked me to devise a logo to use for all their wedding materials incorporating this special ring and other natural elements for a bohemian vibe to match her dream wedding vision.

Process

My sister wanted the ring to be wrapped around a dream catcher of leaves, and their wedding slogan emblazened across the center. For both of these I sketched out a few drafts before bringing ink to the page for a final, shaded drawing. The text proved a little more tricky, and I practiced each letterform before forming them together into a wordmark.

The other elements we figured out right off the bat were the inclusion of a soft blue color palette and lilies, or more specifically tiger lilies, a childhood favorite of my sister's that grew natively around our neighborhood. The next set piece I created was a series of watercolor and ink painted lilies. I scanned these paintings at a high resolution and cut the backgrounds out of each for use as background flora.

Execution

The first pieces of printed collateral to make were the bridesmaid invitations. My sister would print these out herself and afix a scratch-off golden heart over the message asking to be a part of her wedding party. I hand wrote a few varieties of messages for each bridesmaid and composed them into a space accommodating the heart sticker.

While those invitations were snail-mailed the traditional way, the Save the Dates and actual wedding invitations were to be sent digitally. With this in mind, I wanted to include the real paper texture from my original paintings to feel more like an invitation you'd open and hold and pin to your fridge. This texture and careful lighting complimented the handdrawn elements while also giving a polished feel to the image.

For favors, I vectorized the logo drawing into a simpler, less detail-heavy version for screenprinting at small size onto drink koozies. We chose a bright pop of pink reminiscent of tiger lilies to contrast the dark blue material. The lily watercolors were used again to decorate various signs throughout the venue.