I love collaborating with other wedding vendors, and I have to admit the email that I received from Renee from Renee Hollingshead Photography just about made my year!  She was getting ready to leave on a trip that would take her to Iceland, Germany, Italy and more!  And, asked if I was interested in designing paper for a styled shoot in one of the locations.  Well, I just about broke my finger clicking “RESPOND” to her email…so I could say, “YES!”

Having had a few weddings in Italy this year, I decided to take on an invitation for a new locale — Iceland!  At first I was thinking ice, fur and snow, but I kept coming back to this one image I saw when I Googled Iceland.  It was a picture of the Blue Lagoon…gorgeous light blue water with a hint of green.  So, water was on my brain and I just decided to take a leap of faith and pull out the watercolors.

I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love art in all forms and love to play with new techniques.  So, I decided to watercolor every part of the invitation I was designing.  I painted the cardstock, the envelopes and even the satin ribbon.  There was a lot of trial and error, but really, in the end, I was over the moon with the outcome and was thrilled to hand over my creation to travel with Renee to Iceland.

The amazing part of this whole story is that Renee took these photos on my 40th birthday.  That was probably one of the best gifts that I received this year!!  Thanks Renee and I can’t wait to follow my paper to Iceland very soon!