social alchemy WEDDING DESIGN

 As a full-service luxury invitation + event branding design studio,
we take on a limited number of events per year so that we can truly tailor the design for you.

1 // LET’S CHAT

This conversation is the most important part of our work together – this is when we’ll get to know your story, style, and paper needs. Listening to your vision on what your event will look and feel like, picking up on key details or personal interests all help shape the design direction. It’s helpful to have event inspiration (not necessarily paper), a design board, and/or your color palette prior to this call (we love Pinterest boards, too!). We can determine if our personalities mesh, and if you get the feeling you want to let us see what path your inspiration takes us. And so it begins! We’ll guide you through a seamless design + production experience, keeping us all organized along the way.

2 // lists, information and timeline

After this initial call, Lauren will create a Google document to share that contains helpful direction on the way to format addressing for the envelopes, timeline dates to hit based upon the mailing date that we’ve targeted, and key points of information that you can fill out so we can word all of the elements of your suite properly. If we need to develop a wedding website for you, we will start collecting the information for that, too. This will be our working ‘tool box’ to keep things organized as we move along in the process.

3 // LET THE ALCHEMY BEGIN

We treat every project with passion and attention to detail as if it were our own event – with each piece customized specifically; finessed to your personal style and needs. The design phase is iterative and collaborative, where we’ll work together to arrive at the final design. We’ll take some time behind the scenes to truly immerse ourselves in your vision, figuring the best materials, paper, type of printing and embellishments that will honor your design wishes, and set the tone for your event overall. There is a strong attention and passion for typography in each element. Finally, we present you with JUST ONE full suite proof that has been crafted with those details in mind, that we will go over. This serves as a starting point that we use for discussion, and puts us on a path toward any changes or tweaks you might want to see from there. (click here for a deeper dive into Colleen’s thoughts on how her art develops)

4 // REFINE + PERFECT

As our client you do not need to hold the stress of figuring out or articulating exactly what it is that needs to be changed, but more importantly, letting us hear raw reactions to what you are seeing - good OR bad - guides us to whatever change may be necessary. Our best work relies on receiving our client’s full trust, communication and honest feedback to create pieces that truly encompass the tone and feeling of your event. We feel that if we do our part to listen well enough, we can arrive to the solution quickly. In our experience of nearly 20 years in design and branding, we’ve rarely had anyone stray very far from their original proof or logo. (knocking on wood right now!). The invitation proofing process usually lasts no longer than a week or two once you’ve seen the first proof, in order to keep our momentum and focus on you vs. spreading ourselves thin among too many differing projects. We aim to keep a comprehensive thought to ensure that not only does each element of the suite hold up on its own, but when the parts come together as a whole, the experience of opening the envelope and pulling it out as a package is also well tailored and executed.

5 // PRODUCTION

Design approval is just the first part! The journey continues as we enter production, when it all springs to life. Production time varies depending on the printing techniques and materials needed for your suite, but is factored into your timeline to meet your mailing week or event date. We have a team of printers and craftspeople that are masters of their unique talents and carry out various portions of the invitations suite, making them true works of art.

6 // assembly + mailing

Once back in our studio, we inspect each piece of your order, ensuring every detail, color, and material is just right. Then we dive into packaging the pieces with their ribbons, vintage postage or other embellishments to complete the suite. As a full-service stationer, we typically also handle any stuffing, mailing (and sweet-talking the postal workers when we need new ink for the hand cancel stamp) to streamline the experience and ensure all ‘postal’ nuance with addressing, weight, thickness and postage are handled properly.

Before mailing for you, we do a styled photoshoot of the suite + details, providing you with a ‘sneak peek’ of whats about to hit your guests’ mailboxes — yet allowing you the full experience of the invitation arrival in your own mailbox, too. :-)

7 // day of paper and branded elements

…And let’s not forget the day-of details! After your guests have been through your invitation experience, we’ll talk through how to weave your event branding into all sorts of elements for your day or weekend. From your typical programs, menus, napkins and signage – to more elaborate escort installations, swag, welcome gifts and more!

// INVESTMENT //

Our services tend to start in the $15,000 - $25,000 range (save the date, invitations and day of), but depending on event size, quantities, creative elements, ideas, materials and needs, that can launch even higher. We are fortunate that a lot of our clients are more concerned with the creative expression, organization and execution of the work we present than the cost. As a luxury design and branding studio, no request seems too out-of-reach for us. You’ll find we’re up for the challenge, approaching things thoughtfully, with passion + professionalism. We love to seamlessly weave branding elements and materials throughout your wedding day + the magic of collaborating with some of the best planners, event + floral designers in some of the most desirable destinations.

Cheers!