Inviting

I haven't blogged much about the impending nuptials. But I would like to discuss something wedding-related if I may. And, well, it's my damn blog, so of course I may, and you're going to like it.

When we first started discussing the details of this event, I had what seemed like kind of a cool idea: do the invitation as a comic book. I was excited - I figured I could do it like a digest-sized minicomic (that is, made from 8.5"x11" pages folded in half to make a 5.5"x8.5" booklet). They'd be inexpensive and unique. Em was a little dubious about the idea. She was worried that it would look like a zine - that is, trashy and cheap. I assured her that it wouldn't be like that. It would look really cool, I assured her, and be something that people would really dig when they got it in the mail.

She didn't take all that much convincing, and I think ultimately decided that if the invitations were entirely on my shoulders, it would be one less thing she'd have to do. So during my Thanksgiving break, I started working on them. Once the semester ended in December, I was able to devote a whole lot more time to them. My original intent was to have them finished and ready to be mailed before we left for our month-long California/Italy trip, so we could just drop them in the mailbox when we got home.

It turned out to be a lot more work than that, though. The original artwork was finished and scanned before we left, but I still had to letter it and color it. An opportunity to print them in full color at low cost had presented itself and so (in part to avoid the whole "looks like a cheap photocopied zine" issue) I had to color every page. The problem with this is that I've developed my drawing style with an eye towards black-and-white presentation over the years - which makes coloring the art more time-consuming than it otherwise would be. It became clear very quickly that the project wasn't going to be done before we left for our trip. The new goal became to have them ready to print before we left for Italy. Coloring went slowly - though the pace picked up considerably after I received a brand-new Wacom Bamboo tablet input for Xmas. Still, mightily as I tried, it became clear that the work just wasn't going to be done before New Year's Day, which was the day we flew to Rome.

So I picked it back up when we got back from Italy, and spent the next week coloring and lettering like mad. I got it all finished shortly after our return home, during a long weekend spent at my parents' house. We were finally able to print, fold and staple them on the afternoon of MLK Day. We spent a couple of days addressing envelopes, and then into the mail they went.

Over the last week or so, I've been quite gratified to hear people say that they're "brilliant" and "the best wedding invitations I've ever seen" and suchlike. That's really not what I set out to do. But I do think they came out pretty damn good. Some of you out there have, of course, received one of these in your mailbox. If you're not one of these people, but would like to see 'em, you can take a look here.