I was so excited when I was contacted about working on this wedding invitation. I really enjoy working with clients in order to bring their ideas to life, especially for such an important day!

The Brief:

This wedding would be taking place at the Tropical Forest Conservatory at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, here in Pittsburgh, PA. As such, the bride-to-be was looking for an illustration that featured the Phipps building and the vibrant, colorful plants that would be surrounding them during their wedding ceremony.

Taking a Trip to Phipps:

I’ve visited Phipps many times and have always found it quite calming and inspiring. I normally spend a lot of time walking around every room, sketching, and taking countless reference photos. However, I knew I had to make a special trip to Phipps with some specific goals in mind. As the wedding would be taking place in the Tropical Forest, that was my first stop during my visit. It was really wonderful to be able to go to the actual wedding venue to take reference photos. I also stopped by the Orchid Room to take photos of the some of the bright pink and purple orchids to include in the illustration.

Watercolor Paintings:

Instead of painting one large watercolor illustration with all of the overlapping plants and flowers, I decided to create multiple, separate paintings. I did this in order to provide more flexibility in the final layout of the design and scale of each plant.

Final Composition:

I created a digitally drawn outline of the Phipps building including the path and lamps at the entrance. I then scanned in all of my watercolor paintings, and arranged the behind the building outline. The final touches involved some watercolor backgrounds to suggest the building color, sky, and grass, as well as adding some yellow light coming from the lamps.

I also worked with the bride-to-be (with some input from her fiancé) on the font and layout of the wording for the invite.