[dc]W[/dc]ith our wedding come and gone (nearly two months ago?!), I can share some of the fun stuff I illustrated. Today, I’m showing off our custom save the date cards.

wedding save the date daniel j. hogan

Save it like it’s the first Resident Evil, y’all. WHAT. Drawing by me.

Our save the dates were the first wedding item material I illustrated, and set the tone for the rest (the wedding invitations, the ceremony programs, and the thank you cards–each appearing in a future post).

Since our wedding’s theme was “adventure,” and maps were part of our decorations, a treasure map design made sense to me (we printed the final save the dates on a thicker ‘sandy’ colored paper, and then mounted them on colored card stock).

Using my cartoony style and sense of humor, I illustrated a map for our save the dates. Stephanie loved the look and all the jokes (the “Here be ungulates” bit is for her benefit). I drew the save the dates the same way I draw my comic strips: figure out the rough idea, sketch on paper (or Bristol), ink with pens, scan, and finish it all up in Photoshop.

Stephanie did a fair amount of art directing for our save the dates, setting a precedent for how we would work on the wedding invitations, programs, and thank you’s. She had me move bits around, shrink or enlarge others, copy and paste this or that. Working with an art director, albeit my fiancée, took me out of my comfort zone a bit—which was a good thing. Normally, there isn’t anyone else to question what I do with my drawings.

Sure, we saved money by my drawing the save the dates and printing them ourselves, but the “time cost” was considerable. I often joked, “If I charged myself my hourly rate, I couldn’t afford these.” (The same went for the wedding invitations, programs, etc.)

But, as Stephanie kept reminding me (over and over. And over), all the hard work was worth having our own custom save the dates. True. And it isn’t every day I get to draw a cave shaped like a platypus head.

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