why hello! it’s that time of the week again! this week on the #tbt #fbf post, i’m going to talk about PRE mr. banana leaf. as in, the wedding invitations for the mr. banana leaf wedding.
ハロー!早速、今週の #tbt #fbf は、バナナリーフくんウェディングの招待状のお話し。
as i mentioned before, the couple lived in singapore. they fell in love with the green tropical foliage there and wanted to put that into their wedding invitation. especially the feel when you gaze up at the greenery and see rays of sunlight shining through.
from time to time, i like to use my photography in my art work. sometimes collaging with the photo itself, and often times a trace work of something i’ve taken. this time, it was a combination of both, collaging the tracings. i used a couple of photos of greenery that i had taken on vacation just before this invitation.
on the front, i layered the leaves to create a heart shape in the center. on the back where all the details go, i left the center clear.
表はさりげなくハートが見えてくるように配置し、裏の詳細面は、中心部分が見やすいように端に寄せました。
my goodness, every week the days go by so fast! for this week’s #tbt #fbf, i want to take a little break and talk about my favorite work tools for handmade weddings.
a lot of the weddings i have been to have been overseas (in the states). and many times i am there to be the crafty one, so i have a small box of my favorite tools that i bring with me. others i improvise with what i can get locally or have at hand. here i show you the favorites and the ones that you wouldn’t think would be useful!
all-purpose cutter: which i use for more heavier duty materials like styrofoam boards or card stock and in this case to cut into a wine cork to make name placement stands. なんでもカッター: 厚みのある材料に使用するカッターは、フォームボードやカード紙に最適。この場合は席札立てとなるワインコルクに使用しました。
the awl: i can’t even begin to explain how often i use my awl. although this one is for sewing, i also use it when perforating hand crafted cards and paper items. in this situation, it helped to widen the score in the name placement stands. 目打ち: 大好きな目打ち!元は裁縫用ですが、ハンドメイドカードやペーパーアイテムの穴あけなどによく使用しています。この場合はコルクの切り目を広げるために便利でした。
metal ruler | cutter
直尺 | カッター
metal ruler: this is such a great ruler! it’s a shorter ruler which is great for measuring out smaller cards, such as name placements, or for designs on paper items. also they are great to use as a guide for cutting paper since they can’t get sliced like plastic rulers. 直尺: 短めな直尺は、特に小さめなカード(席札など)やペーパーアイテム上のデザイン寸法を計算するのにもかなり良いです。また、プラスチックと違って金属製のものは紙や布のカッティングガイドとして便利です。
cutter: this cutter i use for paper. it’s great because along with the metal ruler above, it’s a compact size that fits in my pencil case. カッター: こちらは、紙用に使用しているカッター。こちらは直尺と一緒に筆箱にフィットするコンパクトサイズ。
sewing tools: aside from using them for crafts, sewing tools are great for wedding emergencies. if you can sew, bring your sewing tools to a wedding! i have needed sewing tools at two friends’ weddings. you never know what can go wrong, but the bride will always appreciate an extra needle and thread! and you don’t have to bring the entire pin cushion. just wrap a needle or two in some tissue along with a bobbin of white thread. 裁縫道具: ウェディングアイテム以外に結婚式の緊急事態ように裁縫道具は必需品!裁縫ができる方は、簡単な裁縫道具を結婚式に持っていくべき!これまで2人の友人の結婚式で必要になったことがありました。何が起きるか分からないのが結婚式(笑)、ご新婦様がきっと感謝してくれます。針山ごと持っていく必要はないので、針を1〜2本ティッシュに包んで白い糸をボビンに巻くなどでコンパクトに持ち歩けます。
glue: rubber cement may be great for gluing two pieces of thin paper or card stock together…. but from personal experience i feel that it’s not the most permanent of solutions. i’ve had many a time where the papers separated easily after a short period of time. for paper+paper, i prefer double stick tape which is much cleaner and less smellier.
although it can get messy, i love using elmer’s glue for many many items. the following are some examples. 糊: アメリカでは紙と紙の接着にゴム糊(ラバーシメント)が使用されることが多いように感じます。個人的にはオススメしません。結局、ゴムの接着力が弱まり、紙が剥がれるケースをよく見ます。紙と紙でしたら、私は両面テープを使うのが好きです。綺麗に仕上がり、使いやすく、臭わないのが利点です!
糊のお気に入りはアメリカで小学校などで使われるエルマーズグルー。日本ではクラフトボンドに近いと思いますが、水溶性で小さい子供が使えるほどかなり使いやすいものです。次のようなもので使用しました。
i used loads of elmer’s glue to make this popsicle stick boat/base for this cake topper. (how cute are the octopi??? the bride ordered them on etsy!) the foundation of this boat is a styrofoam block (not sure what it’s really for, but i found it in the artificial flower section at the local craft store), which i covered with kraft paper (to cover the spaces between the sticks).
here i used elmer’s glue to attach fabric to card stock and made this tuxedo hat. elmer’s glue or craft glue is great for porous materials like fabric or styrofoam, even wood, because the liquid can soak into the material and stick very well.
エルマーズグルーを使って、生地をカード紙に貼りました。それでタキシードハットを作成。クラフトボンド同様、ドロっとしたエルマーズは、木材、生地、発泡スチロールのような穴や隙間のある材料に液体が染み込んでいき、乾いたらなかなか外れない強度で仕上がります。
nail polish cap: i made this tiara out of wire (that i had just happened to be carrying in my toolbox) and this nail polish cap was the perfect size to mold it to!! who would’ve known! マニキュアの蓋: ティアラをマニキュアの蓋に合わせてワイヤー(たまたまツール箱に入っていたのです・・)で作りました。まさかマニキュアがこういうところで使えると思いもしませんでした!
my do the days go by quickly! this week for the #tbt #fbf post, i wanted to continue with mr. banana leaf and talk a little more about western and japanese weddings.
in western weddings, a typical wedding day would proceed something like the following:
● wedding ceremony
● cocktail time
● reception
● dancing
and in most cases guests attend throughout the day.
in japan, the wedding day is very similar except “dancing” is turned into a completely separate event called the nijikai (the after party) and many times is at a different venue. another exception is that it is common for the bride and groom to invite only family and/or very close friends to the ceremony and reception. friends and work acquaintances would be invited to the nijikai. why the separate guest list?:
in japan, it is customary for a wedding guest to bring a monetary gift of 30,000 yen (if $1.00=100 yen, 30,00 yen would be $300). the reason being, even numbers (i.e. 20,000 yen) are considered bad luck since you can “split” the couple in half, not to mention the number 4 is bad luck as it can be pronounced the same way as “death”. of course one may think, “30,000 yen is an even number”, but in japanese 10,000 is 1 man (rhymes with fawn), so 1 man, 2 man, 3 man. if you are family or a work superior the next level up would be to give 5 man. for a nijikai, many times they ask for an entrance fee in the place of a monetary gift. there are many reasons as to how and why a couple separate their guest list, but one big factor could be so as not to burden friends and acquaintances with having to provide so much money.
photo provided by the bride
that said, for the mr. banana leaf wedding, they decided to incorporate mr. banana leaf’s friends into the nijikai pamphlet. the inside of the pamphlet opens up into a color coded “map”. the guests were handed different colored ribbons according to how they know the bride and/or groom (friend, work, college etc.) and each color (and a different mr. banana leaf friend in each circle) on the “map” explains its corresponding ribbon color.
it’s that time of week to introduce another wedding item i’ve made in the past in honor of #tbt #fbf! i love love love working on wedding items, be it paper, fabric, ribbon, crafts, anything. being able to communicate with a couple who is ready to take their first big step together makes me equally as happy for them and in turn, myself.
this couple got married on november 22nd (11/22), a date also known as “the good (married) couple’s day”, as 11-22 can be read as ii-fuu-fu (the good husband and wife). the two live in singapore for the husband’s job but held their wedding in japan. since i make fully one-of-a-kind custom order items, most of the couples i work with have a very clear image of their wedding. these two were one of them. (aside from the items i made, the bride also worked on many other items, and like many a bride and groom, they worked on it until the very day of the wedding.)
their paper items (programs, name cards, thank you stickers, and after party flyers) were inspired by an illustration on an outdoor bathroom wall in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. they had asked me to recreate this wall, which was a very large amount of work, but definitely well worth it with their ecstatic reactions. the tallest and their favorite of the trees/plants on the wall was Mr. Banana Leaf, which became their “official” wedding logo.
here is their wedding reception pamphlet!
this pamphlet includes the couple’s profiles, menus, and the seating chart
(sekijihyo as mentioned in a past post).
こちらがウェディング冊子!
席次表、メニューとプロフィールが入っています。
The fork and knife on this menu are original vector works. / フォークとナイフはオリジナルです〜
this week’s #tbt #fbf post is the final one of the S+H series. i will be introducing the miscellaneous pieces that i made! it was such an honor to be asked to work on this wedding and it will always remind me why i enjoy helping in the preparation of wedding events.
the couple had found guestbook inserts at a store, but wanted to change the cover to match their wedding theme and colors. so i made use of my high school book binding class, and sewed together some linen and cotton twill to make this cover.
there were three dogs in the wedding party. mr and mrs S+H had a dog named Sakura (whom has sadly passed away, but is now looking over them in heaven) and two of the bride’s dogs from home. the white one was a tuxedo collar for the boy dog, and the orange ribbon’s for the girls.
this is a mock-up of the welcome board / seating chart. i covered a board with the linen used for the guestbook, and printed the table letter labels on muslin. the photos are the groom’s own photography (i totally think he should be a professional photographer! who’s with me??) and you can see their beloved Sakura in one of the photos. see the following photo for a better look! i used green cord (also used to bind their wedding programs seen in my past post) to decorate.
here are the table letter cards handed to guests. on the backs of these cards are a simplified map of the venue. / ゲストの皆さまにお渡しされたテーブルアルファベットになります。裏面には会場のマップを印刷しました。
– t h e m e n u –
here we have the menus. likewise with the previously mentioned invitations and programs, letterpress brings warmth and depth to a simple design. / こちらはS+Hさんの念願の活版印刷メニュー。招待状と式次第と同様、活版印刷の存在感と温かみを活かした厚紙を使用しております。
– f a v o r g i f t b a g s –
yes! these are handmade gift bags! i also designed these stamps and used fabric-safe ink to stamp each one. to have a truly handmade / homemade wedding brings such happiness and feeling to the special occasion. it was a lot of work, but to see their happiness was definitely worth every seam!