New design...

As promised, a preview of my new design. I really need to have someone take professional photographs but these will have to do for now...



Day Invitation

I'm going to call it 'Emma' after the beautiful bride I designed it for...

Purple rose & antique brass heart

I have a design I'm working on to compliment it... that one's called Aisha.

The flower is made from an old copy of Pride & Prejudice.

Is the birdcage too much?

My favourite part of the design is the frame - it's embossed!

So good we'll look from a different angle!

The evening Invite is a little simpler and just A6 in size.

I kept the finer details though!

I'll put the right details in just as soon as Emma emails me with them!

So that's it! What do you think? Of course, if the happy couple aren't keen then I'll go back to the drawing board and do a redesign, but I think I'm going to try this one in my Etsy shop and see if there's any interest.

As always your comments are more than welcome!

Nikki x

A Change of Direction?

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm working on a new design. My best friend's daughter is getting married this year and asked me if I'd help her design her invites.

Well... weddings are my thing so I jumped right in there with all my questions just to be stared at blankly. Apparently not everyone understands the difference between 'Save the dates' and 'proper invitations'. Nor had she the first clue about when to send them, how many she needed or exactly what she needed to put in them.

When I asked if she had any idea of what she wanted I got another blank look. "Can't you just make something I'll like?". O M G !!!  No client brief, no colours, no lengthy descriptions, no help whatsoever! Eventually I prised the words 'girlie' and 'different' from her. It was a start, I suppose.

When I asked what she did have planned it all sounded quite traditional, the nice hotel doing a sit down meal, the white dresses, the wild flowers in pretty arrangements... then she showed me the cake...

How cool is this cake?

She isn't having a Day of The Dead theme but she loved the cake and said that is just summed them up! So I started on an invitation design that could stand next to that cake...

There was much gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair and mopping of brows. There was an occasional 'I can't do this' and the odd 'ohh that worked'.

The design I've (almost) come up with is nothing like the one I set out to make! It seemed to take on a life of it's own and, when I stopped trying to make it something it didn't want to be, it all came together in a pretty, grungy, delicate, feminine and dark way.

Tomorrow I have to send her the samples. I'm so nervous you'd think it was my first job! I don't know how commercial a design it is but I think it could stand beside the cake without being embarrassed. I just hope she likes it.

After they see it I'll post photos and welcome opinions. For now you'll just have to look at my beautiful Emma and her lovely girlfriend Aisha - don't they look so happy?

Good luck my darlings!

Nikki xx

Win £100 worth of Wedding Stationery!!!

That's right! Two Little Words is giving you the chance to win £100 to spend on our printed wedding stationery - including bespoke design, guest name printing... whatever you want !

All you have to do is look at the basic invitation design below and come up with a funny or appropriate caption for it. Well that's not actually all... we'd love for you to follow our blog too. Pretty please. It's lonely here typing away to myself!

So spread the word on your networks, wedding forums, chat groups and blogs. Then post your winning caption in the comments for this post and watch this space...  We'll let this run until 30th April when we will pick our favorite and announce it on the blog!

Good luck!

Nikki x

To Busy To Blog?

It's been a really hectic week this week. I had a couple of rush orders to get out, which meant I had to ring my suppliers and get more stock in for the wedding stationery I was expecting to make next week. They were also up to their eyeballs but never too busy for a quick chat... or a rather lengthy one I just couldn't bring to a conclusion.

Anyway, I digress! One of the rush orders was for a storybook invitation. They didn't want a fairytale style (shame, because I've done one of those before!) but a modern, down to earth 'Our Story' sort of thing. It sounded interesting so I took it on.

The couple met in uni, traveled the world together as friends and then got jobs in different countries, lost touch for years and only started talking again when they bumped into each other at another Uni friends wedding (where my bride caught the bouquet!).

So I worked day and night on this design. Emailed  variation after variation and finally came up with their perfect wedding invitation on Thursday! Proof is sent but I'm not expecting any changes as they've already seen the design by email.

I soooo wanted to share their invitation with the world but it's not my place to do that, so I spent a good part of this afternoon playing with fonts and images to come up with a 'mock' invitation in a similar style. I've put this one onto an A6 card as it fits nicely but I think more complex stories will have to go bigger - either right up to A5 or maybe something that concertinas out (I have a cunning plan).

Let me know what you think...

Original Design By Two Little Words

Nikki x

Volkswagen Wedding Stationery?

After a couple of wordy blogs I thought maybe you needed something to brighten up your day? This range of wedding stationery came about when a couple emailed to ask if I'd ever seen anything featuring a Volkswagen Camper Van or Beetle.

Yes you might well laugh, but we were asked by Kev & Nicky to design a Volkswagen themed wedding invitation. They are just how you imagine from their invitations - relaxed, free spirits, with a huge sense of fun! It was one of those occasions when I really enjoyed the project and had a good idea where I would go with it,  as soon as we had our first email from them.

They absolutely loved their stationery and I received a wonderful email from Nicky's Dad saying how all of the guests passed comment on the stationery from the invitations to the place cards.

As I'd made up 2 designs for them to choose from they had a big decision on their hands. Do they go with the Beetle theme...

Or the Camper Van theme...

In the end they couldn't decide so we made up a mixed order!

Now the wedding is over I can finally show off the designs and will be including them in our range in the next couple of weeks!

Congratulations Kev & Nicky! We hope your day was fantastic and the rest of your lives will be just as much fun!

Nikki x

Vintage Rose Design... tick!

I've been trying for ages to come up with a design that has a real vintage feel to it and now, after a little tweaking I think I'm finally happy with my vintage rose design!

I used an old piece of vintage wallpaper I bought ages ago, with the intention of putting it in a lovely shabby chic frame. Once I managed to scan it and spent lots of hours cleaning it up in Photoshop, it just needed the colours adjusting and a bit of playing around with the Hue and Saturation.

Originally I was going to make it into a brush - and I might still do this if there's nothing on tv tonight - but when the sample prints turned out to be so very pretty, I just had to print it up properly! On our card stock it looks even better than the sample prints.

Drum roll please.....

 What do you think? Are the colours muted enough? Is it pretty enough? Does it have that 'vintage' feel to it?

*Edit on 23rd Jan

Just as I'm happy with one vintage rose design I come up with another!

See Image on web site page 

Which do you prefer?

Nikki x

Fun Friday - only just in time!

I've been revamping some of my designs today and am in a very vintage frame of mind! I do love all things shabby chic or vintage so I guess it's only natural that this should come through in my designs.

I think that a vintage styled wedding would be fabulous - I imagine it outside on huge picnic tables, with mismatched crockery, bunting and pretty little cupcakes on china cake stands. If only the British weather was reliable enough to plan something like this without having to have a back-up plan in case of rain!

While I was sketching some ideas out (yes, my designs usually start with paper and pencil!) my other half asked why they were all 'so girlie'. Well, I'd never really thought about it - weddings are romantic and pretty so it follows that the wedding stationery would be the same... wouldn't it?

So, to please the 'Blokes' out there, I've put together a wedding invitation as they might design it. I'm not sure if I'd ever sell one but if there's a demand then they might just make it into the range lol!

As always, comments, questions and ideas more than welcome!

Nikki x