A Campy Wedding
CLIENT: THE OLSENS
Just a screenshot of one of the many Pinterest Boards.
THE CONCEPT
Is it tacky to put your wedding in your design portfolio? Probably. But I am so proud of all the design work and thoughtful event planning that I did.
We never wanted a big wedding. Or even a wedding at all. We wanted to elope. But when we got engaged in 2020, we felt like our wedding would be a great way to celebrate our love but also celebrate seeing everyone after being apart for so long. Our wedding was the first time in over 2 years that I saw my siblings, grandparents, aunt + uncles, and cousins.
So with that, we designed our wedding to be a day in the mountains where everyone could spend quality time together. We wanted a camping theme since its one of our favorite past times. To make the location even more special, we booked Beaver Mountain in Logan, Utah— the first place Loren and I ever went snowboarding together.
SAVE THE DATES
From the beginning we really wanted to lean into a vintage camping theme. Playing off the idea of “letters from camp,” we went out postcards for Save the Dates. They were very easy to make with our at-home printer, allowed us to write personal notes and postcards cost less to ship, too!
THE WEBSITE
In January 2020 we started a travel blog (ha!!) and with the website and domain sitting unused due to a global pandemic, we repurposed gingerlyjourneys.com/thewedding for our wedding!
Armed with a tripod and a little sister, we heading to Starved Rock in the height of the pandemic to take engagement photos for the site.
Since many of our guests would be traveling from out of state, we made our website more of a travel guide to our wedding. Including fun lodging options, things to do in the area and directions. All while including fun vintage inspired graphics.
Since we were getting married very far from where we actually lived, we opted for a HoneyFund instead of a registry. Where we curated experiences for our honeymoon in France.
Visual inspiration for our printed materials.
THE INVITES
One of the most challenging aspects of planning this event was the colliding of cultures. My whole side of the family is Mormon. Loren’s is not. Bringing two very different cultures with very different wedding traditions together was extremely stressful. But our approach was to celebrate how we wanted to, regardless of tradition, and be as transparent as possible.
This including planning everything very early so we could include an itinerary, food and beverages in the invitation.
For Mormons, RSVPing isn’t really a thing. So we needed to make it obvious that an RSVP would be required. We designed the RSVP card to be the most obvious piece in the invitation, and to be a little environmentally conscious, we only accepted RSVPs through our website.
Visually, we really leaned into the vintage vibe. Taking inspiration from mid-century manuals, national park guides and travel brochures, I created type styles, illustrations and graphic elements.
THE VINTAGE DECOR
The lodge itself played a huge rule in the decor. Choosing a wedding venue that was already inline with the theme made it easier to decorate.
Over the course of our planning, it became a hobby to collect vintage camping items to use at our wedding.
DESIGNED DECOR
My pandemic purchase was a Circuit. And used the crap out of it. I used it to make name tags, felt table pennants, mug designs, and even a star gazing map.
For our party favors, I made mugs, seed packs and tiny match boxes.
I fell in love with these large custom felt pennants that were like $180! So I thought, I could totally make those! So I made one with our names and one with a landscape of the venue. I quickly realized why they cost so much!
ACTIVITES
Since we wanted this to be a time for people to connect and have fun, so we had a two hour Social “Hour” where everyone could connect and play!
We had yard games, a kids table, a DIY photo booth, and tons of comfy blankets for everyone!
We even had a tarot card reading!!
THE DRESS
See that dress? I made that!
After struggling to find a dress, I decided to make sewing one of my pandemic hobbies.
I picked up a 1970s vintage pattern and made slight adjustments to make it more wedding-y, including a tulle top skirt and a deep-v back.
THE TEAM
OMG! I can’t even begin to tell you how incredibly lucky I am to have 6 of the best siblings in the world.
Helping address envelopes, making hundreds of name tags, moving chairs, my sister that made our arch, telling pesky hikers to not crash our wedding… the list goes on and all of them were amazing!!
Our wedding photographer, Kristi Alyse Photography was amazing at capturing all the memories as well as the images you see above.
And my dear talented and life-long friend Whitney made my hair flawless! Seriously. This lady is so talented. When I said “oh I just want a fun little braid.” She delivered.
And Loren. He did so much work, became my wedding therapist and hey, even agreed to marry me. All in all, the best team anyone could ask for!
AFTERWARDS
I designed and ordered this amazing flat-lay photo book from Mixbooks– and a little instagram reel to show it off.