Everyone knows that the first impression is the best impression, and often times it’s the only chance you have to be memorable! Just as important as wearing your most in-charge outfit for your first job interview, the same best-foot-forward goes when throwing a party. We’re not talking the impression your guests have as they walk up to the door {although, we’d argue that’s part of the fun too!}. We’re talking about even before all that. Before they’ve picked out their outfit and even have a clue that anything is coming, you can set the tone for your entire event. It all starts with the invitations!

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In a world where everything is electronic and a text message is considered a perfectly normal way to invite your grandma to your bat mitsvah, we argue the only way to throw a party is with a proper paper invite. It’s certainly no secret we’re paper-obsessed. And for our #AndiamoSF Dinner we took our invitation suite very seriously. We could have done evites, we could have ordered cookie cutter options, but we wanted something unique, something gorgeous, something extra special and we most certainly got it.

We did so by bringing in some amazing talents. We reached out to a local graphic designer, Selina Lee of SKYCreatives, who we met via Instagram {follow her here!}! We were looking for a customized invite suite that reflected our {subtle!} travel theme.

Going into our first meeting we had the idea to use a linear map to help illustrate our travel story, without TELLING the travel story. Keeping the theme understated was our prime challenge. Another key aspect was coming up with something guests could keep forever because after all of this work, there was NO WAY we wanted these invites to be tossed out on garbage day. With that direction in hand, Selina drafted a couple of graphic options:

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You know how people put a pin on map to mark the places they’ve visited? Drawing inspiration from that idea, Selina came up with a killer abstract art piece. At first we were going to put it on the back of the invitations, but then decided to save it as an individual art piece that were the highlight in the place settings. They were all hand-drawn and accented with gold leaf after all!

For the invitations themselves, we looked at a lot of different options: letter press, embossing and debossing, various colors, envelope options, fonts and sizing. Many emails and coffee meet-ups later we came up with the final concept. A doubled sided invite printed at home {other printing options were honestly just out of the budget!} a {hand-painted!!} watercolor lined envelope and the hand-cut gold abstract map graphic, which Selina literally cut one by one – a true labor of love!

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Once we had the invitations finalized, we couldn’t just slip them in the mail. To take things one step further, we teamed up again – this time with a local {and awesome!} flower delivery company, Farm Girl Flowers, who pedals farm fresh florals right to recipients doors. We worked with their founder to come up with a not-your-everyday bouquet by dip-dyeing a single white peony in gold paint! The individual bloom was simple, timeless and the perfect finishing touch.

We couldn’t be more thrilled with how our invites turned out. We’re only a tad jealous we didn’t get one delivered to our homes. We are proud to say that everyone who received an invite RSVP’d. I mean, wouldn’t you? 😉

And just because we wanted to cross our t’s and dot our i’s, we went one step further. Inspired by an art installation at one of the coffee shops we met in, we decided to blow up the abstract art that Selina designed to make our own 3-D wall installation in the event venue’s stairwell. With a more obvious nod to the ol’ pushpin map idea, we bought wooden pushpins and nice black cord to create a focal point as guests entered into the room!

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It truly was an amazing experience to work with so many talented people to turn a vision into a reality. Thanks again to all of our collaborators for the Andiamo SF dinner, and especially to Selina who put new meaning into “handmade” and to Farmgirl Flowers who make the Bay Area prettier, one delivery at a time {you can visit them in the SF Flower Mart!}. —Bianca

image 1 + original photography for apartment 34 by Katie Newburn // other images c/o Selina Lee 

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