Anatomy of an Invitation

Our home sits on a quiet cul-de-sac which we affectionately refer to as “the odds” because all of the homes on our street have odd house numbers. While we’re the youngest couple among “the odds,” our mostly retired neighbors are still a pretty lively bunch! Throughout the year, each neighbor takes turns hosting cocktails and appetizers at their respective homes. The libations and repartee flow easily among this crowd!

We’ve been remiss in hosting a party—which we chalk up to two years of ongoing renovations and decorating. But we finally decided to pull back the “velvet curtain” and host an Autumnal themed open house.

And because it was an unveiling of sorts, we wanted to ensure that every part of our event was special; setting the theme and tone with our invitation. So the question naturally became: “How do we invoke autumn without being too derivative and cliché?”

We knew that leaves would immediately communicate fall to our guests. But we naturally wanted to use leaves with a bit of panache. After an hour of brainstorming and throwing aside all the Pinterest tropes, we landed on the idea of pressed botanical leaves.

This launched our search for the *perfect* vintage botanical reference image. We were looking for the right balance of “science project” mixed with a hint of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” sexiness. We wanted an image that would subliminally communicate that we’re absurd “specimens” even among the “odds” in our neighborhood! Here’s the fabulous image we found:

Using and referencing the various original design elements, we converted this amazing image into our stunning party invitation:

Here’s the anatomy of how this was done:

1. Using Photoshop, we carefully erased the prior stamp and converted it to a name of our local university. Around the time these leaves were pressed, the University of Nebraska-Omaha went by “Omaha University”.
2. The ruler and taped leaves help symbolize our own academic pursuits.
3. The color bar conveys our love of precision and aesthetics.
4. The reference card in the lower right corner had been typed out on an old typewriter. With a nod to the typewriter font and the original intent of the image, we created a fictitious botanical club using our street name.
5. Since many botanicals are categorized by their latin names, we created our latin party theme of “Autumnus Celebratione,” or “Fall Celebration” as our party fell on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
6. The balance of info was the requisite name, date, time, location, and RSVP contact.

We’re still patting ourselves on the back over our ingenious design. We hope this helps spark a creative invitation for your next event!