Design: Blue aspen invitation suite for a winter mountain wedding

I've been dying to share these wedding invitations with you but decided to wait until after the wedding. Now it's finally time! (We're just home from our trip and have so much to tell. It will take a while to edit photos and jot down all the dream-like memories from the week.)

When my sister asked me to design her invitations, her instructions went something like this: "Something wintry? With trees or mountains? And maybe some blue?"

Naturally I turned to Pinterest for inspiration but wanted to create something that was uniquely Mari and Andy. Since their wedding location was a snowy, remote mountain lodge in Colorado, I sifted through photos I had taken in Colorado over the years and found a few we could use as a jumping off point. (I'll share the mountain save-the-date and programs next week.)

To make the invitation, I started with the aspen photo below.

I applied a stamp filter in Photoshop, edited like crazy to get the trees just right for the final effect and selected a thick watercolor paper to give the trees texture. (The blue is actually a bit darker and warmer than it appears in these photos, but I could not for the life of me get the photos to reflect the true color.)

One of my favorite details highlighting the unique location was to include the altitude where the ceremony would be held (8,300 feet) on the invitation.

The invitation suite included three additional inserts. Here's the reply card:

Another of my favorite touches was the "Field guide to a mountain wedding" information card.

The back of the field guide included a bit of crucial information: the ceremony would be held outdoors...in the mountains...in the middle of February. No one could say there was not fair warning! (Spoiler alert: there was so much snow that the ceremony ended up taking place indoors in front of a huge stone fireplace and roaring fire. The wedding party photos still took place outside.)

We opted to include the rehearsal dinner invitation in the suite. This die-cut card made it stand out from the other inserts.

And you can't design wedding invitations without throwing in some thank-you cards.

We completed the package with my favorite Paper Source envelopes in paper bag, along with baker's twine. Here's what the final product looked like.

Once you've been through it yourself, you realize that a wedding is not just a moment to celebrate your commitment but truly a send-off to one of life's grandest adventures. How lucky I feel to have been involved in preparations for my little sister's send-off.

To view more wedding preps, click here for engagement photos, here for bridal shower photos and here for a DIY travel journal.