A Vintage Car/Travel Party: Carson's First Birthday Invitations + Accessories

Last summer I had a ton of fun creating these first birthday invitations and party accessories that featured a vintage car/travel theme! At first, mom and party planner, Valerie, was thinking of incorporating either a retro Route 66 theme or retro garage theme. While browsing Pinterest, she fell in love with an invitation that looked like a license plate, although she didn't love the bright colors and "shiny new" appearance.

I ended up creating a vintage-looking license plate invitation, complete with dirty spots and and rust splatters. Instead of using a color scheme of bright, primary colors I chose a more subdued brick red, navy blue, and mustard yellow. 

I still incorporated a little Route 66 flavor by using the highway sign shape on the return address and cupcake topper. An envelope liner featuring the portion of Route 66 that makes its way through Texas was customized by making it look aged and coordinating the colors with the rest of the invitation suite.

Folded thank-you cards using the same license plate style made thanking party-goers fun and easy. Party accessories were made to match the theme: circle cupcake toppers and cupcake flags, a Route 66 map bunting (not pictured), and brick red, navy blue, and mustard yellow hanging pinwheels (not pictured).

Happy birthday, Carson! I was happy to help celebrate you, little man!

Typographic Style: 10 Year High School Reunion Invitations

One of my favorite things in high school was being part of the prom planning committee, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that when my good friend Jim approached me about designing the invitations for our ten year class reunion, I jumped at the chance! Most of the graduating classes before us had also celebrated with a five year reunion, but our class missed that opportunity so we knew that our ten year event needed to be something on a larger scale. Queue classic hometown banquet hall, great food, good drinks, and of course... dancing! Here are the invitations for our class of 2001 ten year reunion:

The school colors for Belleville West are Maroon and Silver/Gray, so of course those colors were used throughout. Each alumnus was sent a "pre-invite" email containing a link to register and purchase tickets prior to the event. The right-hand portion of the invite had a perforated ticket stub section for the alumni to tear off and bring to the reunion as proof of payment for the event. This eliminated any party crashers :-)

All of the envelopes were addressed the alumni names using digital calligraphy. Our school mascot is the Maroon (what is a maroon, anyway??) so I incorporated the academic torch found on the school's website and other marketing materials.

I had so much fun creating these invitations for my high school class of 2001 and our ten year reunion. I can't believe it's already been that long since graduation!

Blake + Connor's Reptile Birthday Party Invitations

Lori found me through a mutual friend and was interested in having me design invitations for her sons' birthday party.  She has twin boys and since they were going to be a whole decade old, she decided to throw them a birthday party that was a little out of the ordinary- a reptile party.  "A what?", you're asking.  Lori hired Serengeti Steve from The Reptile Experience to come to the party and share several reptiles, amphibians, and arachnids with all of the kids.  Cool, huh?  I'm in!! (Except for the arachnids.  Let's just say I'm NOT a fan of spiders and scorpions).

I wanted to create something that was appropriate for ten year olds, but wasn't too cutesy or childish.  So I designed the invitations with several animal illustrations that reflected the party to come.  Lori didn't have a particular color palette in mind, but after some brainstorming we decided to go with black and bright shades of green. 

Alligator skin patterned envelope liners definitely made these party invitations less little-boy and more sophisticated!

To make envelope addressing easier, the envelopes had wrap-around labels with the guest addresses and the return address (names and locations have been changed to protect the innocent).

Have you ever heard of a reptile party before?  Would you pet the tarantula or are you a scaredy cat like me?

Caleb's First Birthday Invitations

When my best friend started planning her son Caleb's first birthday party, there wasn't really a question when it came to the invitations- I pretty much told her I would be making them! : )  Caleb's daddy has a thing for planes, trains, and automobiles so of course Caleb does too (like father, like son).  Caleb's bedroom is decorated with an adorable rally car theme, but mom wanted to change things up a bit, so she decided on a train-themed party.  She loved the bright red and turquoise color palette that is oh-so-popular right now, so I created some bright and happy party invitations that were "little boyish" but not too "baby".  Perfect for a first birthday:

In order to keep things simple and easy for a busy mom, I designed coordinating labels for the return address and guest addresses.  Just stick them on the envelopes, slap on a postage stamp, and they're off!

I also created some personalized notecards that matched the party invitations.  Perfect for thank-you's that need to be sent to party guests and gift-givers!

Now on to the party details...

A birthday banner continued the choo-choo train illustration from the invitations and was tied up with adorable striped baker's twine.

Photos by Kristina Cipolla Photography

Favors were set out to thank guests for coming to the party.  Red and turquoise-colored candies were wrapped up in little cello bags and tied with more striped baker's twine and round tags.

Photos by Kristina Cipolla Photography

Artistry on Cakes did a great job on the cake!  They took the party invitations and made the cake look just like them.  So cute!

Photo by Kristina Cipolla Photography

The birthday boy thought the cake was pretty good too.  He looked around for a minute as if to say "Is this for me?" and then dove right into his polka-dotted "1" smash cake.

Photos by Kristina Cipolla Photography

Happy birthday Caleb!  What's your favorite first birthday party theme?