Destination weddings are a perfect opportunity to really go all out with the invitation. Stephanie and David’s Puerto Rican wedding at Vieques Island was perfect for something jaw dropping to excite guests about traveling to join them on their big day.
Their vision was tropical but simple and exquisite, with the focus on a bamboo scroll style invitation and pops of red with a bird of paradise floral arrangement. We sourced these beautiful mahogany woven seagrass baskets to hold the scroll, which would be boxed and shipped to each guest. (Let me just say, as a guest receiving an invitation, when it feels like the invitation is a gift especially for you, that moment is so cherished. They will never forget how special you made them feel, and that feeling is important and rare these days).
Each basket is tied with natural jute twine and a hand-sewn luggage tag. Yes a real luggage tag! We designed these to be durable enough, with a metal grommet, to withstand the rigors of travel. I love when unique invitations feature practical elements. And it’s such a perfect pairing for a destination wedding.
Inside the basket lays a beautiful scroll invitation on a bed of hay. Hay fill is interesting to me, it feels very naturey and vintagey which I love, but it’s also very sturdy for shipping – it’s like the shavings of two by fours, if you can imagine that. Hay was used instead of packing paper back in the old days for all kinds of shipments. You can still get it very easily today, it’s just a little messier than packing paper. We loved that quality for this aesthetic! When you theme tropical, it’s sort of a combination of beauty and ruggedness. I often first think of Robinson Crusoe when customers come to me with tropical theme ideas. But the ruggedness of the tropics is contrasted so beautifully with the rare shapes and colors of tropical fauna. Check out that burst of color tied around the scroll! These gorgeous paper flowers were created by Stephanie’s sister. Perfection.
The scroll invitation itself was an interesting challenge to design. First, text weight paper was a must for rolling and having the right scroll feel. We used a natural off-white colored linen textured heavier text weight paper. Attaching this to the bamboo did not go as expected. In our research we’ve seen a few of this style invitation done before (very few, they are hard to find!), where it appears a slit had been made in the bamboo to insert the paper into or to clip around the edge of the paper. Unfortunately with these beautifully natural bamboo sticks, a lot of their structure is removed by slitting it, so we decided to use a strong bond adhesive to attach the sticks to the paper, which would be seamed underneath the stick. We had to cut them in between those great nodules that give bamboo all their charm, too, so we could keep the nodules only on the ends where paper would not touch. The paper does not lay or adhere well to the grainy nature of those bumps, so only the smoothest part could be used against the paper.
We researched and researched and RESEARCHED bamboo. There are lots of different suppliers but not lots of great bamboo products that would work and look nice! We needed them to have the right thickness to roll the paper around and feel right in hand, but we also needed to source enough supply for 2 sticks on each invitation. We needed 80 total feet of bamboo for Stephanie and David. Most of our leads could not supply us with enough great looking bamboo, until we stumbled across a fencing company. (Not sword fighting, people!) We were able to source our beautiful bamboo from a company that makes bamboo fences in different size bamboo sticks! We used their smallest size (3/4″) which worked perfectly! The only downside was that they all came as a fence, so we had to cut the entire fence apart before cutting down to our 8″ long final size.
All the work and research was totally worth it, because this design certainly makes a statement!