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Custom venue illustrations, bespoke wedding stationery

Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, Mayfair; Dartmouth House, Mayfair

Happy New Year! I can’t quite believe we are into 2023 already. I can say without a doubt that the thing I loved about of 2022 (work wise) has been rediscovering my love of watercolour and in particular painting buildings. I started creating custom watercolour illustrations for wedding invitations a couple of years ago but it has taken me a while to gain confidence and find my style. I can happily say that I now feel more confident producing custom venue illustrations and I really like the mix of ink and watercolour. The fine lines help give the watercolour definition and looks lovely on wedding stationery.

The commission in the photos above was a pleasure to put together. My bride wanted a custom venue illustration of their church, reception venue and an illustrated map. The invitations were finished with a simple pink, velvet ribbon and printed on a cream 400gsm card stock, giving them a lovely sophisticated feel. I created a map of Mayfair for the invitations which was then re-used on their table plan with the details around the edge.

Custom venue illustrations, Starved Rock State Park, Illinois; Kin House, Wiltshire; Loggos Harbour, Paxos
Starved Rock State Park, Illinois; Kin House, Wiltshire; Loggos Harbour, Paxos

Custom venue illustrations are an increasingly popular bespoke choice and I’m thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to paint some stunning wedding venues. I’ve also had the chance to paint some lovely scenes for wedding destinations from a rocky outcrop in an American state park to a pretty Greek island harbour.

If you’re proud and excited to show off your venue choice then what better way to entice your guests. It makes your stationery more individual and personal to your wedding.

Custom venue illustrations, Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, Mayfair; Browsholme Hall, Clitheroe; Anthony Chapel, Hot Springs
Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, Mayfair; Browsholme Hall, Clitheroe; Anthony Chapel, Hot Springs

I also offer custom venue illustrations for you to have around the house or to give as a gift. They are a lovely keepsake from your wedding day and I can include details from the wedding, for example names, location of the wedding and the date. These are offered unframed as either a print or the original painting and can be either A5, A4 or A3.

I have loved having so many watercolour commissions over the last year and I hope for even more in 2023!

Keep an eye out for house paintings, coming soon!

Real Weddings: Ciara & Dean – May 2022

I had the pleasure of working on stationery for Ciara and Dean’s wedding back in May. Ciara is a trampolining friend of mine and it was lovely to be involved with her and Dean’s wedding prep. I loved her enthusiasm for stationery and she asked me to create things I hadn’t done before which was fantastic.

They chose to use my watercolour peony design and the first task was to create some vow booklets for them. I used a lovely silk ribbon tied around the fold and they had a few inner pages to add their personal vows. I also created their invitations using the peony design but finished with a pocketfold and printed vellum band, finished with a wax seal.

For their wedding day I created a welcome board and an ‘unplugged’ ceremony sign for them to use in their venue. I also created some stickers for a wine bottle guest book. A lovely idea, instead of the usual guest book, guests wrote messages on wine bottles and each wine bottle is to be opened on their 1yr, 3yr and 5yr anniversary.

Ciara and Dean had a buffet dinner rather than a sit down dinner and asked me to create some food and drinks tokens for them to hand out to their guests.

It was lovely to see all their wedding photos taken by Charlotte Burn Photography, they look to have had a fantastic day.

Photos by Charlotte Burn Photography

Bespoke watercolour wedding stationery for a Yorkshire wedding

This bespoke watercolour wedding stationery has to be one of my favourite orders to date!

My bride wanted to use my Romeo and Juliet watercolour design but give it a green watercolour wash to look almost like hills for their wedding at Falcon Manor. She also asked me to paint a collection of Yorkshire scenes, some of which were very familiar to me! These were to be used for the table names and the table plan.

Having lived in Yorkshire for 20 years before I disappeared off to university it was lovely to have the opportunity to paint some local landmarks for their bespoke watercolour wedding stationery. Especially the Skipton image with the barge on the canal, I used to walk over this section of the canal most days to get to and from the train station to school!

I was very pleased with how the paintings came out and they looked great all together on the table plan. I also created these lovely handmade place settings which also double up as a bookmark for guests to use! Each place setting was painted with a wash of watercolour to match the rest of the stationery then finished with gold calligraphy and deep emerald green tassels. The menus also had gold calligraphy added to the top to tie everything together.

I think painting venues and scenes is fast becoming my favourite part of my job. I really enjoy creating such bespoke wedding stationery that feels very personal to the bride and groom. If you would like to add a watercolour illustration to your wedding stationery and or have some completely bespoke watercolour wedding stationery then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Wedding Portraits and Wedding Anniversary Gifts

Littlebird Weddings is pleased to now be offering watercolour wedding portraits from your wedding day!

This was a recent commission for a couple I made some wedding stationery for last year. Their wedding invitations and order of service used the same florals and had a Stag and Doe bride and groom on the front. Lauren contacted me recently as she wanted to give her husband a painting from their wedding photos as a 1 year anniversary present. It was a pleasure to work on and the couple were very happy with the finished result.

I will also be looking to offer venue paintings as well in the coming months. Wedding portraits can be ordered alongside your wedding stationery or after your wedding as a nice keepsake, gift or for a special anniversary. This painting was finished with calligraphy to include the couple’s wedding details. Paintings are sold unframed and painted on 300gsm (minimum) watercolour paper.

Please contact me if you would like to know more. Pricing and further details will be added to the site in the coming months.

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