Design on the vine

There’s something about vineyards…
For many people, vineyards are associated with romance – after all, wine is a traditional symbol of joy, while vines traditionally symbolize life, abundance, and fertility. And isn’t that what we would wish for any couple taking the leap of faith to join together in marriage? So it’s no wonder that a vineyard, full of fruited vines inseparably intertwined, offered the perfect setting for the engagement of one California couple. Their unusual green and brown contemporary wedding invitation featured leaves and curving vines in the design.

Our mission: expand on the “vineyard” theme in creating a keepsake collage as a gift for this couple.
The single-layer invitation is mounted on swirled white vellum, textured chartreuse paper and a green shimmer paper with printed swirls and miniature flowers in brown and maroon. Bronze metal square brads anchor the invitation on the vellum layer. The background paper is a bohemian print of green and brown with a white swirled accent. A brown and gold embossed leaf-print paper tops the background layer. Under the invitation, the horizontal strip includes shiny brown textured paper, olive striped vellum and a knotted olive ribbon. Pulling the entire design together is an unusual brown felt dimensional lace with a leaf-and-vine design. The warm maroon/brown frame (not shown in this scan) finishes this unique framed invitation keepsake.

Were we successful?
When Purple Raincoat collages are ordered as gifts, we send scans or photos to our clients so they can see the results. Here’s what our client had to say about the final product: "I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!!! I'm sure (the bride and groom) will love it, too. You really brought out all the features of the invitation.”

And here is what my client reported after the wedding: "The happy couple loved your design. Here is her comment:

I LOVE your gift!! Thanks sweetie, that is such a cool gift as a memory keepsake too!"


Our best wishes to the bride and groom – may their cup overflow and may their hearts be forever entwined.

What can we design for you?
At Purple Raincoat, we are dedicated to preserving invitations by showcasing them in unique framed collages. No matter what the occasion, no matter what the invitation looks like, no matter what your design request – Purple Raincoat will do everything we can to fulfill your requests and create a one-of-a-kind keepsake that will be cherished forever. Come on, challenge us – we’re up for it. Check out our wedding and anniversary keepsakes portfolio and get inspired. Then visit our contact page and give us a call or send an email. We can’t wait to get started making something beautiful for you.

Where have all the pressed flowers gone?

Although I would like to believe that Purple Raincoat invented the concept of framed invitation keepsakes, the truth is that people have been decorating and framing invitations for many years. One popular style, which has been around since at least the 1970s, involves using pressed flowers as decorations for invitations.

Crafting with pressed flowers first became popular during Victorian times. The creation of modern pressed flowers involves – no surprise here – the use of a flower press to flatten the flowers and remove all moisture. A pressed flower has a beauty all its own; for example, the pressed version may be richer in color, and have a different “geometry”, than the live version.

A beautiful dried pansy (in my favorite color, of course). You can see other examples of pressed flowers at the Pressed Flower Store.

Pressed flowers can be incorporated into invitations themselves – see how a pansy is used in this elegant invitation, one of a series of pressed flower invitations by Pressed Petals.


I think pressed flowers are beautiful and I think that many beautiful framed invitations have been made using pressed flowers. If that style appeals to you, that’s great. But it’s not my style. From my perspective, in many cases the floral designs are beautiful but it’s not always easy to see how the design are connected to the “tone” of the invitation.

One reason I started Purple Raincoat was my belief that each invitation uniquely reflects the personality of the person (or people) behind it. Consequently, each invitation keepsake should be uniquely designed to capture and preserve the spirit of that specific invitation. To achieve this, I use a broad range of materials including paper, ribbon, mesh, metal brads and eyelets, wire, buttons, skeleton leaves, and silk and fabric flowers. So far, no pressed flowers, but I promise to keep an open mind about incorporating them into my design should the right invitation come along.

I do love using flowers when they are appropriate to the spirit of the invitation. Here’s a recent Purple Raincoat wedding invitation keepsake that incorporates small pearl-centered silk flowers as well as a beautiful stephanotis floral accent.



The invitation itself has two layers of paper, white (with hunter ink) and navy. Beneath the invitation are a hunter green vellum, a textured glossy white paper, and an embossed navy paper. A subtle blue and green printed paper is used as the background, topped by a textured white vellum anchored by white metal accents. A vertical strip of textured green paper is accented with dark blue mesh. A double knotted piece of hunter green ribbon tops a horizontal strip of embossed white paper. White silk flowers with pearl centers decorate two corners of the invitation. The design of the framed invitation features a beautiful stephanotis bouquet as an accent. The washed blue frame softens and completes the design.

And take a look at the statement made by the large pink flower on the birth announcement featured on our homepage. Read more about this birth announcement and see many more examples of our work to get a better idea of what the Purple Raincoat style is all about.

The bottom line: Diffferent strokes for different folks
Just as some people like to listen to National Public Radio while others prefer oldies or current popular music, different styles of preserved invitations will appeal to different people. If you’re looking to preserve an invitation in a way that is unique, contemporary and timeless, and you’re not insistent on dried flowers, you’ve come to the right place – visit our ordering page to get started.

Calligrapher to the stars – now available to you

The question of how to address invitation envelopes came up often when I was an invitation dealer. I told my clients they had several options:

• Address the invitations yourself by hand or using a computer. This generally is the least expensive option.
• Order invitations from a company that will deliver them with the guest addresses already printed on the envelopes – not the least expensive but probably the most very convenient.
• Hire a calligrapher, which is generally the most expensive option.

For my daughter’s bat mitzvah I considered yet another option (otherwise known as "a crazy idea"): learning calligraphy so I could address them myself. A friend who is an accomplished calligrapher assured me that it was a matter of tools and techniques that I could learn despite the fact that I have terrible handwriting. So I took a class and learned that there are some skills best left to the professionals. I gained a new respect for calligraphers, and began to evaluate the options for our own event.

This collage features my daughter's bat mitzvah invitation. I drew my inspiration from the orchid ink and the beautiful marble envelope lining, rich with shades of purple and gold. The linings from two envelopes were pieced together to create the first layer under the invitation.

Fortunately, we had ordered a Checkerboard invitation, and Checkerboard was just introducing its “EasyAddressing “envelope addressing service. I didn’t want to recommend this to my clients without proof that it worked, so I used myself as the guinea pig. Following instructions, I submitted the list online and waited for the invitations. I speak from experience when I tell you that it was fabulous to have the invitations arrive all addressed and ready to go.

Checkerboard offers more than 600 fonts, and you can use any of them for your guest addresses. So it offers one of the advantages of calligraphy – having your envelopes addressed in a beautiful font (whether or not it matches the font used on your invitation).

Now Checkerboard is making the advantages of calligraphy more widely available – and not just for addressing the invitations. They have a gorgeous new line of invitations created by world-famous calligrapher Maria Thomas. To create these spectacular invitations, “your names or monogram are personally penned by Maria Thomas to create a unique calligraphic piece of art. This hand-lettered art is combined with a custom font chosen by Maria to complete your design.” And of course, “matching motifs by Maria are available to embellish your envelopes.”

Wow. These are just jaw-droppingly beautiful. If you're in the market for a truly personalized wedding invitation, this is the place to go. And if you're on the receiving end of one of these invitations, you can be sure that turning it into a framed keepsake will be a unique gift that will be very much appreciated. Visit www.purpleraincoat.com and let us create something spectacular that will honor the invitation and be the perfect touchstone for memories of that special wedding day.

Maria’s bio notes that she has designed custom wedding invitations for the Trump family as well as for Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. So the same pen that creates invitations for celebrities is now available to create an invitation for you. How cool is that?